By EPIIC Web Team

When Leonard Pysh, a biology professor at Roanoke College, saw an Instagram post about a new associate’s degree in biotechnology at Virginia Western Community College, he was intrigued. He reached out to the faculty there and learned not only about the new two-year degree but also about Roanoke region’s efforts to transform itself into a biotechnology hub, efforts evidenced by the establishment of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at Virginia Tech and, more recently, significant funding from the state.

All of this aligned with the overarching goal of Roanoke College to increase connections with its local community. What’s more, it also aligned with the focus of the EPIIC program to develop and enhance connections with the local innovation ecosystem.

This was two years ago. Today, Roanoke—in partnership with Virginia Western Community College—is preparing to launch a bachelor’s program in biotechnology—becoming only the third academic institution in the state to offer a dedicated undergraduate degree in biotechnology. (The other two are James Madison University and Liberty University.)

“It’s really exciting,” says Pysh, who is also the PI for the EPIIC grant, Connect Four - Building Regional Innovation Partnerships to Enhance Workforce Development. The two degrees combined with the ongoing focus in biotechnology provide a clear path for students looking to pursue both an education and a career in biotechnology without having to leave the state.

The Uncommon Bachelor’s

With this new degree, students have two options: start at Virginia Western, earn their associate’s, and transfer to Roanoke for the bachelor’s—or begin at Roanoke and follow the same curriculum. Either way, the programs are designed to align seamlessly.

“This is not a competition, this is a collaboration,” says Pysh. “The very first three courses, the foundational courses that the students take to earn the associate’s degree, are the same courses that our students will take. In the spring of their first year, they will literally be on Virginia Western’s campus.”

Roanoke’s contribution builds on the hands-on training students receive at Virginia Western. “The faculty at Virginia Western are impressively focused on getting their students into the lab and developing techniques,” says Pysh. His goal is to focus on the theory behind those techniques.

One junior-level course emphasizes why those lab techniques work, grounding students in the physics and chemistry behind them. A senior-level course guides students through primary scientific literature—a crucial skill in a rapidly advancing field. The capstone is an internship or research experience, ideally with a local company.

“While we want them to understand the foundations, we also want to make sure that they get even more experience, hopefully working at a local company, which might lead to employment,” says Pysh.

He and his colleagues are thinking bigger than the four-year degree. Together with Virginia Western, they’re developing a summer camp for middle school students. “We understand that for this to really work and for this to be as productive and impactful as possible, we need to start recruiting students and making them aware of these opportunities younger than we are,” he says.

The long-term goal is a true pipeline—from middle school to community college, to Roanoke College, to jobs in the regional biotech ecosystem.

Defining Partnership

For Pysh, the EPIIC program has been central to making this vision possible. “It has also given me in particular the freedom because I have used some of the funds to buy out my teaching, to be able to start making those connections and start really envisioning how this could become even bigger,” he says.

The work has also led to deeper reflections on what partnership really means. Pysh describes it as a tree with two trunks intertwined, producing leaves of different colors. “Those leaves—the outputs—could not exist without the interactions of the two trunks together,” he says. And for EPIIC, he adds, success isn’t just about wins for the college or its partners. “There also needs to be a win for the region.”