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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 26, 2000)
Thursday, October 26.; ',c seem hursday, October 26, 2000 scienc TECHN Page 5 A THE BATTALION the tmosphere. me is there to drink,re- ecruiters present opportunities in iotechnology for science students ived around quite a bit had was a radio as. e said 1 said his favorite singt eTom Waits, Jim Croc ;r and Elvis Costello, ts the most requests fo ; in Chains and Waits. tppy [about being asked WNoni Sriohara Waits],' he said. "I ve The Battalion tool this town. •ji Biotechnology is the means or said his favorite partoi| va y 0 f manipulating life forms to he ( rooked Path is tk l r0 vide desirable products for the enefit of humankind. The word biotechnology" was first used in e a good time, ■^■1919 by scientist Karl Ereky to refer ‘ :! tl ,! 10 ^ P n >re - r lo the interaction of biology with hu- Bill Phillips, a hMntedim ,| ogy uence major, enjoys_B j ac kj Jaskula, quality assurance uch he tries to attend all c o, \ • a , , manager lor Stratagene in Austin. country fanatic, bull,’. MK » vaa m^onty of life science 2 of the best singers fve f tudents think the y have tw0 choic - Phillips said & ff s akter die y gmduate. They are to ei- ps said he thinks Good- ther attend graduate school or med- jld make more monevin [Ca * - sc hool lofhertown. but Goodin "Almost all students think they id he likes Brvan-Col- wil1 S° t0 graduate school or med- 2 Station. I like playing a town ays the rent," he said, ither LaMotte, a senior ng major, said she en- show because of Good- g abilities, a great voice, and 1 love itar,” LaMotte said. “1 it and listen to him and everything.” aid he originally set out but decided to take upi back himself up. icak school,” she said. “The problem with this assumption is that 30 per- :ent of those who apply do not get In, and of those 70 percent that do, Inot everyone stays in, whether it be por university reasons or personal Reasons.” Jaskula said the science world is noving away from the “easy sci ences” and encompassing the fast- paced world of biotechnology. Jaskula and Bill Lemons, Gulf Coast district manager for Kelly Scientific Resources in Houston, were Wednesday at Texas A&M Wednesday to encourage life sci ences students to enter the field of biotechnology. Lemons said that as the baby boomer generation enters the re tirement age, there will be a high demand for skilled workers in biotechnology to enter the pharma ceutical industry to develop pre scription drugs at lower costs for senior citizens. Jaskula said that the pharmaceu tical industry, like almost all other ar eas of the biotechnology industry, is moving toward gene technologies. “One of the main focuses of the biotechnology companies nowadays is gene therapy,” she said. Jaskula added that gene therapy is a concern not only from a human perspective, but also from an agri cultural viewpoint. “We also want to find ways to grow drought-resistant and strain-re sistant crops (crops that are resistant to harsh weather such as freezes and snow),” she said. Jaskula said there are three main This is a very good opportunity for science majors who do not want to spend time in a lab all day” — Nivin Aziz senior, biomedical science buzzwords that have started explod ing within the biotechnology indus try. The first is bioinformatics. “Bioinformatics opens up the field to people with expertise in computer applications who may or may not have background in biotechnology for the purposes of analyzing data,” she said. Another topic is a technique called DNA microarrays. “This is where you take a glass slide which enables you to print 4,000 genes at one time,” she said. “You can probe with two different color probes and then you end up with 8,000 data points with one experiment. “This is where the bioinformatics people will come in and analyze all the datapoints.” Jaskula said the third and final word was genomics, which is taking information from the genes of hu mans or other organisms and under standing how the genes function within the bodies of the organisms. Jaskula said another key area of biotechnology is quality control. “This is a very fast-paced indus try, which takes a lot of technical skills,” she said. “We sometimes call this the ‘short-attention-span theatre' of biotechnology.” Tips Jaskula offered to students were taking as many life sciences lab courses as possible, do undergradu ate research to help translate class room applications, taking a statistics class and learning how statistics ap plies to biological experimentation. Nivin Aziz, a senior biomedical science major who is planning to go to medical school, said she would consider entering biotechnology as a backup plan. “I feel this is a very good oppor tunity for science majors who do not want to spend time in a lab all day,” Aziz said. “This will also be a good opportunity as a step toward owning my own lab or my own company.” Leirlons said it is critical that stu dents network and keep up with trends in the industry. “I know a lot of professors want their students to go receive their Ph.D’s, but even fields such as chemistry are becoming more and more biologically tuned,” he said. “Everything is now moving toward genomics, so there are a lot of op portunities in biotechnology.” Lemons added that technical and bench experience will also be an added plus when companies are looking to hire. h; r k Biotechnology ■Marketing ■Customer Service " (sales or technical) ■Research ■Production ^-Quality control •Agriculture •Pharmaceuticals ^•■supply : 4’Research and development ■Medical Diagnostics DFW airport installs devices to aid heart patients (AP)—Putting defibrillators in airplanes, ;asinos and other crowded places — and (teaching people like flight attendants and se curity guards how to use the devices — can save dramatic numbers of people in cardiac 'arrest, two studies show. The new, automated heart-shocking de- [vices saved nearly half of all victims in the Stwo studies. That is 10 times the usual sur- Ivival rate of 5 percent for people who suffer cardiac arrest outside a hospital. “These articles prove minimal training is enough to step in and save someone’s life,” said Dr. Michael A. Jaker, director of emer gency medicine at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark. On Wednesday, 30 Automated External Defibrillators were installed in clearly marked cabinets at the Dallas-Fort Worth In ternational Airport. Most of the defibrillators Equip smart; are in baggage claim areas, where cardiac ar rests occur most often. The cabinets are equipped with an audible alarm, easy-to-read instructions and pictures to guide users through the steps. “Each second counts in medical emergen cies,” said Jeffrey Fegan, the airport's chief executive officer. “The placement of AEDs throughout the airport will provide immedi ate care for airport passengers and employees as quickly as possible.” About 250,000 Americans die each year of cardiac arrest, which is usually caused by a heart rhythm disturbance called ventricular fibrillation. For each minute that passes with out a defibrillator shocking the heart back into a normal rhythm, the chance of surviving drops 10 percent. The two new studies appear in Thursday’s issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. In ftjra a’ca Texas A&M’s Distinguished Lecture Series will kick off on Oct. 30 with A&M chemistry Professor John Fackler at the George Bush Presidential Conference center. Fackler’s lecture is “Gold: An Ex traordinary element with Amazing Properties. The lecture starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are free and available at the MSC Box Office. A laser printer for the price of an inkjet? Cool. Just $199. Now you can have your very own laser printer. At a breakthrough price. Fast. Sharp. Clean. Compact. With a toner cartridge that should last you all year. And at a per page cost that's 70% less than inkjet. Plus a Toner Save button that extends the life another 30%. Papers that stand out in a teacher's grading stack. Professional resumes. Articles fit to submit for publication. All for the price of a half-dozen inkjet cartridges. Better think twice. Everyone in the dorm's gonna want to use it. Grab one at your campus bookstore. Order online. Or by phone at 800-459-3272. Go to www.samsungusa.com/Xtreme for more information. # . TAMU Career Center employer workshop series Attend The Company Visit and learn how to set yourself apart during an on-site visit and interview. 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