Research in biotechnology and forensics isn’t slowing down anytime soon at Syracuse University as central New York looks to become a hub for the scientific fields.

Last spring, SU Vice Chancellor and Provost Michele Wheatly announced a “university-wide STEM branding strategy.” Since then, forensics and biotechnology professors said that while interest in their programs have been steady or increasing slowly, it’s not necessarily due to the provost’s particular announcement.

“The collaborative atmosphere at Syracuse has changed for the better in the last five years,” said Mike Marciano, a research assistant professor at SU’s Forensic and National Security Sciences Institute. “Even within the university, we are seeing more inter- and intra-college interactions that are leading to more substantial research projects.”

Biotechnology — using a component of an organism or organic system to create a product — is projected to be worth more than $700 billion by 2025. And efforts to build out the Central New York Biotech Accelerator aim to transform the region into a center for research.

SU’s biotechnology program and the FNSSI are separate, but some forensics students take some biotechnology courses, said Ramesh Raina, chair of the biology department at SU.

The interdisciplinary biotechnology program is expanding to include a master’s degree program, Raina said. The proposal for the new program will be presented this fall and graduate students may begin to enroll as early as fall 2019.

Robert Silver, a professor of biology and professor in the FNSSI, said what makes the institute stand apart from other forensics programs is its focus on combining forensics and national security from the science perspective.

The integrated learning program for undergraduates allow students from various sciences to find their “niche” in forensics, Marciano said. The forensic science program at SU is about a decade old as a major, Marciano said, but about six years old as a standalone institute.

“Especially in forensics, one thing we pride ourselves on in the forensic institute is we are scientists, but we are applied scientists,” Marciano said. “So whereas many universities, including this one, focus on basic research … we try to address problems that are very, very current and we try to make an impact right away.”

Last December, the FNSSI held a workshop on biosecurity in partnership with the Federal Bureau of Investigations and Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate for “stakeholders” in the field, said Silver, who helped organize it and has years of experience working with the FBI. It was an initial offering on biosecurity and is part of a nation-wide effort on the bureau to assess the level of research and laboratory practices in the field, Silver said in a follow-up email.

While the FNSSI has had relations with the FBI, it does not know when the FBI will reach out, Silver said. Rather, the federal agency will communicate when it needs expertise or information, he said.

Marciano said in a follow-up email that he and his team are working on a collaboration with the FBI and other state and local laboratories, including Onondaga County, to develop an “artificial intelligence-based system to determine the number of contributors in a DNA mixture sample.”

Outside of the university, Robert Corona, the director of the CNY Biotechnology Accelerator, a facility involved in the acceleration of biotechnology innovation, said in an email some of the accelerator’s successes include nurturing several biotechnology programs, hosting a medical device competition and conducting workshops for entrepreneurs.

The accelerator also does some collaboration with the FNSSI, namely with doing virtual autopsies, Corona said. Biotechnology students also go on field trips to the accelerator, Raina said.

With the emphasis on internships for biotechnology students, Raina said the growth of the field in central New York is particularly positive.

“I think there is a lot of potential,” Raina said. “Students get a lot of opportunity to train themselves in the areas where they will be competitive in, in the job market and biotech industry.”

Published on February 14, 2018 at 9:42 pm

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