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Missing from medical labs

Biosciences scour landscape to add Latinos to work force.

Hardly a week passes without some news about the state’s growing bioscience industry, whether it’s a new program at one of the universities or a private donor pledging more funding.

Bioscience has become the buzzword in Arizona business, with millions of both public and private dollars committed to grow the nascent biotechnology industry. Since 2002, when Phoenix landed the worldwide headquarters of the non-profit International Genomics Consortium and Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), a long and growing list of projects has followed around the state.

Along with medical innovations, this cutting-edge industry promises another benefit to Arizona: high-paying jobs. The downtown home of TGen and IGC – the Phoenix Biomedical Campus – alone is projected to create between 14,000 to 24,000 new jobs by 2025, according to Tripp Umbach Healthcare Consulting, a leading provider of economic impact analysis for academic health centers.

FEW IN WORK FORCE

While projections like those have fueled investment in the industry, the outlook for Latinos in these high-tech careers is less rosy. Scientists already in the field, such as Minerva Romero Arenas and María Portela, found few fellow Latinos in their university science classes and even fewer in the work force.

Romero, who is now in medical school, was one of the only Latinos working in research during an internship at TGen.

"There were a few other Latinos there, mostly in administrative positions or finance, but even those I could probably count on one hand," she says.

The statistics back up her experience. A study released in 2005 showed that although Hispanics are 13 percent of the total U.S. workforce, they only account for about 5.3 percent of the workers in scientific, technological, engineering and mathematical occupations, according to the Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology.

Portela, who last August took over Romero’s position as a full-time epidemiological study coordinator for TGen, also laments the lack of Latinos in these important jobs.

"It’s imperative to have more Latino students in the science fields and health fields to reflect the changing demographics in this state," says Portela.

Those involved in the state’s bioscience industry agree that now that the facilities are being built, attention must turn to building the work force.

"What we’ve done is laid the ground work," says H. Janette Torres, who helped jumpstart the bioscience boom as Phoenix’ bioindustry program manager. "We need educated scientists and technicians to support this industry."

José Cárdenas, a prominent Latino attorney and community leader, now serves as chairman of the TGen board of directors. Cárdenas believes improving the education system is essential to get Latinos into the field.

"Latinos comprise more than 50 percent of the school-age population. If we don’t reach the Latino population, we don’t reach more than half the students."

And the issue isn’t limited to TGen; researchers and scientists in the field throughout the state are concerned about Latino representation.

"We have to play a role in the biosciences," insists Maria Elena Martínez, a UA professor who has been nationally recognized as co-director of the Arizona Cancer Center’s Cancer Prevention and Control Program. "I do not think that Bio5 or those types of institutions are not opening their doors to us, but that not enough of us are going into the sciences. There’s a tremendous opportunity, but not enough qualified applicants or graduates."

MEETING THE CHALLENGE

Schools are taking this challenge to heart, with efforts to promote the biosciences at all levels in areas where Latinos can most benefit.

This fall, Phoenix Union High School District will launch Bioscience High School with a freshman class of 120 at the downtown Phoenix biomedical campus.

"The location is ideal for getting students involved in the sciences," says DeeDee Falls, science specialist for the district, adding that it also opens up paths for early mentoring and internships in the bioscience community.

Other opportunities at the high-school level include bioscience charter schools at four community college campuses. Here, high-school students earn college credit and work in biotech labs while completing their high-school education.

Community colleges are aggressively working to meet the growing demand for trained bioscience employees. Rufus Glasper, chancellor of Maricopa County Community College District, has said in promoting the college bioscience programs that eight to 12 technicians are needed for every bioscientist. The community colleges have honed in on providing that technician training and two of the colleges now offer an associate of applied science degree in biotechnology.

At the university level, the biggest advancement has been the expansion of the UA College of Medicine’s Phoenix campus to a four-year program. The first class of 24 students will be seated in July 2007 and Jonathan Robles is trying to ensure some of those seats are filled by Latinos. Robles directs the Arizona Hispanic Center of Excellence (AHCOE), a program under the UA College of Medicine that has worked since 1999 to increase Hispanic enrollment. Compared with the national average of about 8 percent Latino enrollment, UA is doing moderately better at about 12 percent, which Robles admits is a start but "not near where we’d like to be."

He believes mentoring is essential to building a pipeline for high school and college students – especially first-generation college students – to reach those bioindustry jobs. "It’s not just the students that need to be mentored, it’s also about educating Mom or Dad or Tia or Abuela about what the students need to do. We need to get them to take that math and science challenge in middle school and high school," Robles says.

Portela, who participated in an AHCOE program while studying microbiology at ASU, says that mentors have been important throughout her education. In fact, she credits Robles with clueing her into the position at TGen last year.

"I’ve had the opportunity to meet more people, more students like me," she says of the AHCOE programs. "I’ve had exposure to some great mentors."

As Portela continues her career in biosciences, she plans to follow the lead of other professionals like Arizona Cancer Center scientist Martínez, who takes every opportunity to mentor hopeful students.

Like connecting links in a chain, it’s this kind of one-to-one support that will get Latinos from graduation gowns into lab coats to take their place behind the microscopes at Arizona’s newest labs.

CAREERS/EDUCATION INFO

You don’t have to attend medical school to pursue a career in the biosciences. From lab technicians to engineers, Arizona’s biotechnology industry needs a wide range of workers and the number of paths to those jobs is increasing all the time.

Community colleges offer training for clinical research coordinators, medical lab assistants, bioinformatics (computer data analysis) and medical device manufacturing. Related courses include applied biosciences, biotechnology, human genetics, biosafety and bioethics. Four Maricopa campuses offer biotechnology programs, including an opportunity to earn an Associate of Applied Science degree in Biotechnology at Mesa and Glendale community colleges.

University level degrees that can be used in biotechnology fields include: biotechnology, clinical lab sciences, computational biology, molecular biosciences, epidemiology, bioengineering, computational biology, applied Bioscience and biosystems engineering.

For more information about programs offered at specific campuses, visit the Arizona Bioscience Education Web site and click on the link to Community College & University Programs: www.azbioeducation.blogspot.com