One of the most important things we do at the ACC Bioscience Incubator is to recruit ACC students, every year, who are crucial to keep this facility running smoothly. We give them hands-on lab experience, with actual startups and real scientific equipment that’s used in industry.
This translates into workforce-ready students that companies are eager to recruit!
Here’s Amanda Brown, a previous ACC student and incubator alum:
![“[Lab experience] teaches critical thinking and the ability to troubleshoot, whereas, in a classroom, you can’t really get that… A lot of the people [at the companies] I’ve interviewed with were very impressed, not only with the knowledge I had, but how I addressed each experiment.” - Amanda Brown, ABI Alum and Fujifilm Diosynth](https://sites.austincc.edu/incubator/wp-content/uploads/sites/154/2023/09/109-1024x512.png)
This is an awesome insight from Amanda: biotech companies love smart, ambitious young people who have hands-on lab experience doing experiments, not just academic knowledge from the classroom.
We’re thrilled that Amanda took her time at our incubator and turned it into a job at FUJIFILM Diosynth, a bio-pharmaceuticals development and manufacturing company that works in cell culture, microbial fermentation, and cell and gene therapy. She currently works as a Quality Analyst.
Here’s another student alum from the incubator, Mike Delisi:
![“The most important thing that I took away from my time at ABI was the confidence to throw myself at something I wasn’t necessarily prepared for…The skills I learned messing around with the AKTA [protein purification system], and teaching other people how to use it, at ABI, was one of the most important things for getting my job.” - Mike Delisi, XBiotech and ABI Alum](https://sites.austincc.edu/incubator/wp-content/uploads/sites/154/2023/09/110-1024x512.png)
Go, Mike! We love to see this.
Employment in life sciences requires experimentation, tenacity, troubleshooting, and curiosity! You have to think through real-world problems.
Mike and Amanda on episode 7 of Science in the Mall, Y’all podcast
The fact that Mike was able to, not only learn to use an FPLC (Fast Protein Liquid Chromatography) at the incubator, but also teach it to people at some of our startups is a sign of pro!
Mike took his experience here and turned it into a job in downstream manufacturing at XBiotech, a company that develops drug candidates for viral or bacterial infectious diseases using antibody therapies.
Amanda and Mike are awesome, and they are just two alums (of many) who we are extremely proud of.
Startups need support outside the lab as well. Because the ACC community is filled with tens of thousands of talented students in all areas, we also get help from students in business, marketing, graphic design, photography, IT, and beyond—for example, to help us with our website and this newsletter!
![“It's been amazing how much I've been exposed to here [at ABI] and how much I've been able to use." - Jolie Murin, ACC Graduate and ABI Staff Alum](https://sites.austincc.edu/incubator/wp-content/uploads/sites/154/2023/09/113-1024x512.png)
Students are pivotal in helping us stay true to our mission of growing the biotech startup scene and changing the world, from right here in Central Texas. You can hear interviews with several ABI student alums on our podcast, Science In The Mall, Y’all.
Nancy Lyon
ACC Bioscience Incubator Director