“I take enzymes every time I eat. I’m missing part of my digestive tract, and the enzymes that I take help me break down starch, fat and protein.” says biotechnology teacher Leigh-Anne Ecklund. “I wouldn’t be here talking to you if I didn’t take those enzymes.”
Many people’s lives rely upon products, such as these, made available by the up-and-coming field of biotechnology.
As the Biotechnology Innovation Organization states, “Biotechnology harnesses cellular and biomolecular processes to develop technologies and products that help improve our lives and the health of our planet.” This is a booming industry, especially in the Bay Area, which is known to some as “Biotech Bay” due to the large number of biotechnology companies in the region. Advancements are continuously being made in medicine, agriculture, produce and countless other institutions.
Genentech, which was founded in South San Francisco, being the first publicly traded biotechnology company, paved the way for many more companies to come to the Bay Area such as Gilead, Bayer Healthcare LLC, BioMarin and Novartis. In under 30 years, from its humble roots, biotechnology in the bay has grown to over 800 companies, employing 85,000 people, and generating $4.7 billion in revenue and over $2 billion in exports annually, according to the Bay Area Bioscience Center.
Products manufactured through biotechnology have from real-world impacts. Junior Angelique Gomez talks of its personal effect: “The most significant contributions I would definitely say is cancer related medicines or [chemotherapy] … my mom has cancer, and with a lot of research I found out some of the companies that made her injections.”
Director of Public Affairs at Gilead, Michele Rest, adds, “A couple of years ago our company actually came out with a cure for Hepatitis C, whereas historically there were a lot of products out there that people would take, but it was a long treatment process. Three years ago we had a drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that had over 90 percent cure rate. I spoke to a lot of people who were literally in the hospital and dying. The doctors gave them two or three weeks to live and they ended up taking our medicine, and they were cured and now are living normal lives.”
The Bay Area embodies an atmosphere of investigation and innovation, particularly with biotechnology. Gomez says, “Also a lot of [technology] industries or science industries are booming here in the Bay Area, so it would be natural, from that technological standpoint, to deviate into the outside world and affect us.”
The advancements made here in the Bay Area really do have a global impact. Rest explains, “We came up with a separate business unit at our company that actually gives our technology, like how we create the HIV drugs, to companies in India and they create a generic version of our drug that they then sell to the countries in the developing world, like the countries in Africa that really can’t afford what people pay in the United States for it.”
Biotechnology has the power to teach meaningful lessons. Junior Haley Ogasawara says, “You learn responsibility. You learn how to the tools accurately and making sure you keep yourself and others safe.”
Rest also informs that biotechnology can offer a wide array of opportunities. “We have a lot of supporting functions outside of the basic research, like myself I work in communications and do public relations. We have government affairs, public policy, we have a whole business that is for commercial marketing of the drugs, finance and legal all those different functions that people who might not be science-minded, but they are still in the field of biotechnology.”
For people interested in a future in biotechnology, Ecklund suggests, “Take a course and see if it’s up your alley. You need to be detail oriented. You have to love what you do.” Aragon offers two biotechnology courses: the introductory Biotechnology 1-2, and the advanced Biotechnology 3-4.
As high schoolers look towards their futures, biotechnology provides an opportunity for discovery and an immense potential for the greater good. To be a part of this emerging field, one could play a role in its real, influential change.
