Author: Casey Lewis

Verge Hires Innovation Studio Director

Verge is pleased to announce the hiring of Jess Edwards as Director of Innovation Studio for the new biotechnology incubator in Roanoke. 

With robust experience in entrepreneurial ecosystem building, Edwards was previously the Principal of the Dan River Region Entrepreneur Ecosystem in Southern Virginia, where her work focused on implementing rural entrepreneurship and innovation primarily focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion with a hyper local lens. 

“We are excited to announce the launch of a new innovation studio and programming for early-stage biotech companies. With support from the Commonwealth of Virginia and the City of Roanoke, we are positioning the region to be a hub for life science companies to grow and thrive here,” said Erin Burcham, President of Verge and Executive Director of RBTC.

In her role, Edwards will be responsible for helping to create and expand acceleration programming that incorporates wrap-around services for companies to help them grow in the region. She will serve as an “ecosystem navigator” to connect local entrepreneurs to highly customized resources and help facilitate introductions to national and global networks. She’s also the regional coordinator and point of contact for the Johnson & Johnson Quick Fire Challenge, the first virtual accelerator collaboration with JLABS. 

Prior to working in Virginia, Edwards held the position of director of outreach and engagement for the Alaska Ocean Cluster Initiative, where her work focused on cultivating strategic partnerships, developing innovative programming and creating a statewide leadership summit to accelerate Alaska’s ocean (blue) economy development. Additionally, Edwards held positions to build and launch innovative coworking spaces for TRYP by Wyndham Dubai and Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, Inc. 

A graduate of the State University of New York at Buffalo, Edwards holds a bachelor’s degree in political science. She is a WNY BETA finalist for “Best Buffalo Community Tech Contribution of the Year,” a recipient of “Buffalo 30 Under 30” award, and a “10 Extraordinary Minds Award in Sales, Marketing & Revenue Optimization” HSMAI Middle East awardee. She has served as a panelist or guest speaker at events all over the world, including the Nigeria Social Media Summit, the Dubai Lynx – International Festival of Creativity and MaRS Toronto. 

Her work focuses on strategically implementing innovative concepts to advance entrepreneurial ecosystems. 

Learn more about the Roanoke biotechnology incubator project.

Join the STAT 23 Summer Program

Are you a teacher looking to expand your knowledge of biotechnology, not only for yourself but for your students? Then you won’t want to miss this new professional development opportunity from the Virginia Western STEM department.

STAT 23 SUMMER PROGRAM

Teachers are a powerful part of our region’s biotechnology ecosystem. To continue to strengthen the bridge between Virginia Western Community College and our K-12 partners, the Virginia Western STEM department is continuing our professional development STEM Academy for Teachers (STAT) series this summer. 

The on-campus program is designed to advance your knowledge of biotechnology, help you incorporate biotechnology into your STEM curriculum, and introduce your students (at any grade level) to vast biotechnology career opportunities.

During STAT 23, we will offer several biotechnology courses, mathematics courses, and an information technology course over a range of dates from June 12th to July 31st.

Thanks to tuition assistance provided by Virginia Career Works, these professional development courses are available at no cost for teachers.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE IN STAT 23

Contact Heather Lindberg at hlindberg@virginiawestern.edu for more information.

From VWCC to the UK: Local researcher to present COVID Findings at the World Congress for Undergraduate Research

Two Virginia Western biotechnology courses and a 10-week internship turned into a life changing journey for one Fincastle native. 

A biology major at the University of Virginia, Skylar Gay’s journey into biotechnology started at Virginia Western Community College as a dually enrolled high school student. Under the guidance of Dr. Heather Lindberg, Skylar took part in VWCC’s SEA-PHAGES program that captured her imagination and sparked an interest in biology and biotechnology. In Dr. Lindberg’s lab, Skylar gained hands-on experience in lab research and gene sequencing.  

“Dean Amy White and Dr. Heather Lindberg are important mentors for me,” Skylar said, “Before studying at VWCC, I planned a career in musical theater. That will always be a passion for me, but my experiences have affirmed my desire to focus on epidemiology. VWCC uncovered a passion that I didn’t even know I had!”

In 2020, while searching for available opportunities during the COVID lockdowns, Skylar discovered the National Science Foundation’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates program. Through NSF-REU she applied for a 10-week remote internship at the University of Georgia in the lab of Dr. Jonathan Arnold. Using the skills she learned at VWCC, Skylar researched COVID transmission rates using genetic data and statistical analysis. 

To assist with her statistical and genomic analysis, Skylar developed software in the R programing language which is used primarily for statistical computing and graphics. Her software, which she named transRate© is the first computational method to estimate transmission rates using a cladistic approach for genomic data.

Her 10-week internship turned into a 2.5-year research project when she was invited to continue her research under Dr. Arnold’s guidance. While there, Skylar traced COVID variants to a common ancestor, gleaning insights about transmission and mutation.  In reconstructing the phylogenetic tree and applying timepoints to her data, she learned which populations had high transmission rates and discovered that transmission was much higher within populations than between populations. 

Skylar is preparing to present her new technology and her research findings at the World Congress on Undergraduate Research at the University of Warwick in Birmingham, UK in April. In addition, she is the first author on a scholarly article set to be published later this year in a scientific journal in collaboration with Dr. Jonathan Arnold, Dr. Liang Liu, and Dr. Jialin Yang.

“I would not be where I am today without my experiences at Virginia Western Community College,” Skylar said. “I experiences I had there shaped my understanding of research and prepared me for later studies.” 

Skylar plans to add a second major in public health to her biology degree and hopes to continue her research at a Ph.D. program where she is interested in combining bioinformatics with wet lab techniques.  Her goal is to influence policy makers in creating legislation that protects public health in the event of another epidemic or pandemic by modeling the transmission of viruses within and between populations.