The Center for Healthcare Innovation at Stevens Institute of Technology has opened the Biotechnology and Drug Discovery Laboratory, a new enterprise that will partner with Stevens faculty, students, and external academic and industry collaborators.
 
The initiative was established in part with a donation of equipment and supplies from Hoffmann-La Roche and support from the NJ Department of Labor, along with seven former Roche personnel who recently joined Stevens as faculty and researchers. Lab staff also includes three new professors with extensive R&D experience in pharma and biopharma labs.
 
According to Dr. Peter Tolias, professor and director of the Center for Healthcare Innovation, “The Stevens Institute of Technology is grateful to Roche for their generous support in helping to establish this new enterprise that gives our students an opportunity to gain practical experience in biotechnology and drug development.”
 
Dr. Tolias added, “Serving as a center for research in the areas of preclinical gene cloning and purification of therapeutic proteins, assay development and robotic drug screening, the lab also provides industry collaborators with a local academic partner for research and workforce training. The new Stevens laboratory also furthers efforts to nurture entrepreneurship, contributes to maintaining NJ as a pharmaceutical and biotechnology hub, and positions Stevens as a premier research university and industry partner for biotechnology and drug discovery.”