WET LAB AND STARTUP BUSINESS INCUBATOR

LEARNING TO FAIL WITH SAMANTHA CROFT & NANCY LYON

Detecting disease biomarkers:Anyone who has been following along on the journey of Austin Community College purchasing the entire Highland Mall and converting it to a community college campus will understand why I am so excited about it and why I keep inviting colleagues and friends to come see what ACC has created at our Highland Campus. When I say "college campus," I believe most people have expectations of classroom space and perhaps those expectations lean towards the technology that might be incorporated to modernize these classrooms. What you find, however, is the future of workforce training laid out in front of your eyes.I always make sure to walk people down the hallway in the Music Department with individual soundproof rehearsal rooms where you can peek inside and see a piano or a drum kit ready to be played. Across the ‘mall’ from there, it is fun to wander into the Radio, Television, and Film (RTF) program’s new facility and see the theater/studio spaces and instrument control rooms where each student or student pair gets their own television control board to run. As we keep walking, we end up at the new Culinary Arts’ commercial kitchen classrooms. They were kind enough to situate one with glass walls, allowing passersby to watch them roll out chocolate or stuff sausage or whatever the skill-of-the-day entails. Adjacent to the classrooms is a 75-seat restaurant that will soon be predominantly student run.I often take people outside from here and show the lovely outside space that has been created and as a means to make my way over to the manufacturing department’s amazing shop. Here, students can design something with their new computer-aided design (CAD) skills and then walk over to the CNC mill that they share with one other student, plug in their flash drive loaded with the design along with a chunk of metal, and make it come to life. Right next to that, is our new prototyping incubator known as the Impact Lab. This maker space type facility has the capability of machining metal or wood and is also equipped with multiple types of 3D printers, laser cutters/engravers, robotic arms, and robust software to support these capabilities. Every tour ends with the Health Sciences department where they are using smart patient simulators to give students a real life experience. What always comes from these tours is the realization that with the acceleration of technology, the way we teach has changed. The historical method of having a teacher that has an extensive knowledge base is no longer the best approach for students who carry a computer in their pocket. So, even in the standard classroom, we need to think differently and approach teaching differently. In our latest episode of Science in the Mall, Y’all, we sat down with Dr. Samantha Croft, Professor of Biology here at ACC, to discuss exactly that. Samantha is involved in our Teaching and Learning Academy, which works to expand teaching practices and focuses on teaching innovation. These are the things that they think about daily. Maybe the value that teachers now provide is teaching the discernment of what information to believe and how to determine that. Between the hands-on learning that happens at places like the Bioscience Incubator and this approach in the classroom, I know that we are teaching for the real world….like we should be. It was fun to sit down with an old friend and talk about how we can make a difference for ACC students.Nancy LyonInterim DirectorListen on your favorite platform:YouTube // Acast // SoundCloud // Spotify // iTunes // Google Play // Stitcher

Congratulations to ABI member company BioBQ ranked as one of 45 MassChallenge finalists. BioBQ is a cultivated meat company, which means we grow meat using cells cultured in a clean facility, rather than from slaughtered animals. Based in Austin, Texas, known for BBQ, they aim to be the first in the world to offer cultured 100% beef brisket.Each year, MassChallenge’s accelerator includes a competition in which startups from each cohort may compete for non-equity cash prizes. 

March 11th - 14th 2022

The Global Health Security Innovation Week 2021 is the world's first conference focused on bringing together the health security and technology innovation communities to define and communicate today's most pressing challenges in preventing, predicting, detecting, and responding to global health security threats.

Organized by TEXGHS and the Global Health Security Network, GHS Innovation 2021 will emphasize the importance of locally driven innovation in emerging ecosystems (LMICs) and will promote  equitable access to technologies and resources for ensuring health security in all communities.  Together participants will create a roadmap and a call to action for innovators to solve the most pressing current and future challenges in global health security.

After opening in 1971, Austin’s first suburban mall closed to the public in 2016 for the conversion to Austin Community College's Highland Campus. Here’s a look at the Highland Mall taken during its 44 years of operation.

Welcome new member company, TEZCAT Laboratories!

Founded to identify and develop the next generation of precision medicine in oncology, TEZCAT is developing a new class of therapeutic biologics to treat patients burdened by the most aggressive and recalcitrant cancers.

The TEZCAT core technology is a protein-based therapeutic delivery platform that penetrates, accumulates in, and is internalized specifically by RAS tumors using a novel escape-resistant targeting mechanism. TEZCAT's lead asset, TZT-102, is currently being developed through support by two NIH/NCI STTR Phase I awards.

Welcome new member company, Pulmonescence Diagnostics!

Tuberculosis (TB) is the world’s top infectious killer infecting 10 million people every year and is caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Spread through the air when a person with lung TB coughs, sneezes, or spits, propelling the TB bacteria into the air, TB leads to 1.5 million deaths worldwide every year. Globally, TB is one of the top causes of death and the leading cause from a single infectious agent (above HIV/AIDS).

Pulmonescence Diagnostics is developing a low-cost and point-of-care triage diagnostic test for Tuberculosis that would help health-care staff identify patients with TB that may need further tests and treatment. Their technology called Reporter Enzyme Fluorescence (REF) uses substrate-enzyme reactions generating a fluorescent signal in the presence of the enzyme produced by the bacterium of TB. This technology is a rapid, low-cost test that will help diagnosed in less time than current technologies.

Join ABI

ACC Bioscience Incubator companies are centered in the life sciences. Even though ABI is part of Austin Community College, any company can apply.

ABI & partners launch a consortium to support innovators fighting COVID-19 and future pandemics

The Texas Global Health Security Innovation Consortium (TEXGHS) is a consortium between academia, public sector, and private sector partners to coordinate efforts to support companies working towards pandemic preparedness and response in Texas.

Visit texghs.org for more information.

ABI Member Companies