Students have the opportunity to work and train on the same leading-edge equipment used in the biotechnology industry following the opening of the CSL Behring Fermentation Facility on the campus of Pennsylvania State University.
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CEO and Managing Director Paul Perreault and Executive Vice President for Quality and Business Services Karen Etchberger were on Penn State’s main campus in University Park, Pennsylvania, to cut the ribbon on the facility Friday, which is part of Penn State’s new Center of Excellence in Industrial Biotechnology under the university’s Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences. Both the facility and the Center of Excellence were made possible in-part through a $5 million grant from CSL Behring. The biotech leader also collaborated with the school on the functional design of the facility and curriculum.
The CSL Behring Fermentation facility inside the newly-renovated Agricultural Engineering Building on the campus of Penn State University.
“This facility will help educate students to enter the dynamic and rapidly-growing field of biotechnology and prepare them to develop the next generation of innovations that will help save people’s lives,” Perreault said during remarks delivered at the opening.
Fermentation is an important step in creating biotherapies. The CSL Behring Fermentation Facility is actually the second incarnation of such a facility at Penn State. Etchberger was involved in the early development of the original facility nearly 30 years ago. Now, she will lead another collaboration with Penn State on a two-year rotational program for Penn State MBA graduates. The objective of the program is to develop, hire and retain future CSL leaders and establish a leadership pipeline to the company.
“Our goal is to retain 100 percent of the MBA associates who come to work for us through the rotational program eventually into permanent positions within CSL,” Etchberger said.
The CSL Behring Fermentation Facility is housed at Penn State’s completely renovated Agricultural Engineering Building, which opened on June 8, 2018.
The facility is part of a $44 million complete renovation of the university’s Agricultural Engineering Building that was formally opened on Friday.
