Research a boon to academics, too, Tech says Virginia Tech administrators and faculty talk excitedly about the potential human health benefits and economic development possibilities of biotechnology research. But they insist the university's biotechnology initiatives have academic benefits as well. Tech officials consider the center a prototype because undergraduate education occurs under the same roof as cutting edge research. Undergraduates majoring in certain fields take courses that provide basic knowledge of biochemistry, hands-on experience with gene structure and expression and understanding of scientific applications. Professor Tracy Wilkins, the center's director, also introduces students to the business aspects of biotechnology.
Biotechnology is the application of all the basic stuff that's been put into their heads.
I tell them I'm cleaning their hard disks. Some of Wilkins' former students have gone on to work for TechLab, a company he co-founded to make diagnostic test kits for intestinal diseases. Others, like junior Alan Puddy, have worked with him on university research projects. Free said the achievements of the Fralin Center's faculty also attract students to biotechnology. Her course work in biotechnology and her exposure to Tech's scientists helped her gain admission to graduate school at Duke University, she said.