Comstock's magazine 0620 - June June 2020 | Page 82

VACAVILLE & SOLANO REGION
800-pound gorilla,” the region has
been able to develop a vibrant cluster
of life-science companies — including
research and development labs, manufacturing
facilities, startups, and service
providers — that employ around 1,500
people in the sector, according to Padden’s
estimate. Other high-profile firms in
the area include Novici Biotech, DesigneRx
Pharmaceuticals and Fisher Clinical
Services.
“Every county in the United States
wishes that they could attract biotech
(for its) high wages and no smokestacks,”
says DeKloe. Solano County has
proven appealing to these companies
because it possesses a combination of
elements that make it ideal for biotech
businesses: geography, infrastructure
and access to an educated workforce.
Location, location, location
Interstate 80 runs through Solano
County from its northeast border to
its southwest corner, and Vacaville, in
the middle of that corridor, is in a bit
of a sweet spot. It’s between two top
public universities — UC Davis and UC
Berkeley are approximately a 20-minute
and 50-minute drive away, respectively.
Sacramento is about 40 minutes away,
providing easy access to policymakers
at the Capitol, and it’s close to the Bay
Area for commuters.
Vacaville also has a vast amount of
available industrial land — more than
1,000 acres, according to Padden, much
of which already has infrastructure like
utilities, water and sewer lines — as well
as 5.7 million square feet of industrial,
research and development, and manufacturing
space spread over three large
business parks.
“Over the last two to three years,
Vacaville has focused on getting infrastructure
in place for industrial properties
to meet the needs of companies that
might be coming in,” Padden says. “By
having the foresight to put the proper
infrastructure in place ahead of time, we
have the ability to fast-track projects and
provide predictability in all of our top industries,
including biotech, health care,
manufacturing and food processing.”
It was Vacaville’s capacity to “effectively
meet the growing demand for our
medicines” that attracted Genentech 22
years ago, according to Heather Gloe,
the company’s senior manager of corporate
relations. Genentech’s Vacaville
facility comprises more than 950,000
square feet devoted to manufacturing,
maintenance, laboratories, office space
and warehousing. Many of the facility’s
more than 900 employees were educated
within 100 miles of the site.
Educating the workforce
Giant facilities are nothing without a
workforce that can put them to good
use. Vacaville is known not only for its
proximity to biotech brainiacs in the
Bay Area and Davis, but also for its own
development of biotech whiz kids.
When Genentech arrived, DeKloe
was eager to make a connection
on behalf of SCC. He approached the
company about working with him to
develop an educational program to train
graduates to become technicians at
Genentech and other companies in the
industry. While other biotech programs
existed in the U.S., DeKloe says that
those only taught “lab bench-level skills
required to go into biotech research.”
By contrast, DeKloe says SCC became
the first college to emphasize the skills
and knowledge required to work in the
manufacturing sector of the biotech
industry.
The products of DeKloe’s mission
are SCC’s certificate of achievement
and associate degree in industrial
biotechnology, started in 1997, and
Bachelor of Science in biomanufacturing,
started in 2017 — the same year
the school’s Vacaville campus opened
its state-of-the-art $34.5-million
Biotechnology and Science building that
houses its biotechnology training facility.
SCC is the community college lynchpin
of the region’s biotech educational
offerings as well as of BioTech SYSTEM,
a consortium that supports science,
technology, engineering and math
education in grades K-12 and community
college, with an emphasis on biotechnology.
The consortium has allowed educators
and policymakers to chart a course
for local students who wish to enter the
biotechnology workforce.
Another crucial component of the
consortium is the UC Davis Biotechnology
Program, founded in 1986, to
provide an organizing hub for biotechnology
efforts on campus. (UC Davis is
the only UC campus with a stand-alone
biotechnology program. It graduates the
second-highest number of biological and
biomedical sciences undergrads in the
country and ranked No. 1 on the 2016
Forbes list of the 13 most important
STEM colleges for women.)
The program offers doctoral studies
through its Designated Emphasis in
Biotechnology Ph.D., an interdisciplinary
degree that brings together 29
disciplines to train graduate students,
60 percent of whom, says director of
the Biotechnology Program, Denneal
Jamison-McClung, will go on to work
at biotech firms like Genentech, Novici,
Bayer Crop Science, HM.Clause and others
in Davis, Sacramento, Solano County
and the Bay Area.
“Biotechnology is where all of what
we learn in life science and engineering
come together to build complex
solutions for problems in the world,”
says Jamison-McClung, who is also the
director of BioTech SYSTEM. “When
you’re working on big problems, you
need traditional science skills as well as
an understanding of business, regulatory
affairs, intellectual property and the
process of bringing new tech to market.
You need teamwork.”
82 comstocksmag.com | June 2020