The talent shortage in the life sciences industry is a pressing challenge that continues to capture attention, driven by the need for highly specialized skills, a shrinking talent pool, and persistent retention issues. Houston, Texas—home to the world’s largest medical center, the Texas Medical Center (TMC)—is emerging as a dynamic hub for investors, research institutions, and startups. Yet, despite this rapid growth and the immense potential for groundbreaking innovations, the region faces a critical gap in the talent required to propel these advancements and transform healthcare.
In 2024, TMC enlisted the help of nonprofit Learning Undefeated to reach Houston-area high school students and get them excited about career opportunities in biomanufacturing. As part of the BioPath at TMC program – a new initiative aimed at filling the talent pipeline – Learning Undefeated’s STEM education team designed a two-month engagement that included school visits from the country’s largest mobile STEM lab for education, afterschool workshops, and a daylong biomanufacturing-focused field trip to TMC’s world-famous Innovation Factory.
For this collaboration, Learning Undefeated transformed the Mobile eXploration Lab into a bioprocessing clean room so that students would learn aseptic technique and the importance of sterility in the biomanufacturing process. Two new laboratory activities were custom developed for this partnership to explore how biomanufacturing transforms industries like medicine, advanced manufacturing, and biotechnology.
In the Contamination Challenge, students replicated the same procedures that scientists use while working in biomanufacturing facilities, including a challenge to see if they can complete the activity without contaminating the lab surfaces or themselves. Students practiced gowning, bacterial transfer, and the proper documentation procedures that are critical skills in biomanufacturing. In a second custom-designed activity, Making Medicine: Biomanufacturing for Health students dove into downstream processing at biomanufacturing plants by performing a column protein purification. Using ion-exchange chromatography, student scientists separated a biomanufactured product from a contaminant, also using spectroscopy to determine the product’s purity.
Through this hands-on learning opportunity, students learned the importance of quality control in the biomanufacturing process and the different ways that companies ensure their medicines are safe and effective. Nearly 1,200 Houston high school students completed the biomanufacturing training onboard the mobile lab. Thirty percent of mobile lab participants signed up for an additional learning opportunity at the TMC Innovation Factory including an insider peek at the research & discovery that takes place there.
