Monday, Nov. 29, 2004 | 10:59 a.m.
For more information or to register for the DNA workshop, visit shadowlane.unlv.edu online or e-mail Goldstein at walter.goldstein@ ccmail.nev
As the building block and key identifier of life, DNA has been used to prove paternity, crack criminal cases and diagnose diseases.
And now UNLV researchers are looking to the double helix molecule to put the university, and Las Vegas, on the map as a center for biotechnology and biomedical research.
With the help of $400,000 in federal appropriations, UNLV officials have established a fully equipped DNA laboratory at the university's Shadow Lane Campus Biotechnology Center to serve as a training facility for future crime scene investigators and others interested in forensic DNA profiling.
The first full-fledged workshop in December will provide introductory or refresher-course training on DNA fingerprinting for current and prospective forensic laboratory employees, Walter Goldstein, coordinator for UNLV's Biotechnology Center, said.
Participants in the five-day seminar will learn the scientific background needed to understand DNA fingerprinting and gain hands-on experience in how to process and analyze DNA on the same state-of-the art equipment used by law enforcement agencies such as Metro Police.
The workshop on DNA profiling is only one of many to come for the Biotechnology Center, Goldstein said. UNLV has already approved and secured initial funding for a microbiology lab, a tissue culture lab and a Level 3 biological safety lab that will together allow the university to offer professional workshops in everything from food safety to controlling infectious diseases in hospitals to stopping mold growth in construction, Goldstein said.
Goldstein said he has about 35 professional workshops already planned and is working with local hotels, public health agencies and government protective agencies to design courses specific to the needs of each group.
In the near future, he also hopes to offer DNA and microbial analysis services to Metro, the Clark County coroner's office and other biomedical companies.
"As we get to be known and get to be respected, our business will grow," said Goldstein, who has a doctorate in chemical engineering and a master's in business administration. "We will become a premiere training location."
UNLV is already "ahead of the curve" in opening up the DNA analysis laboratory because there is a "big demand" for training programs like those being offered at the Biotechnology Center, Berch Henry, manager of Metro's DNA laboratory, said.
"There's really a shortage of DNA analysts throughout the country right now," Henry said. "Federal agencies actually made the estimate that we need upward of 10,000 DNA analysts for government laboratories."
The UNLV laboratory is designed to mimic Metro's laboratory as closely as possible, Henry said, with the same layout to handle evidence flow and almost all of the same equipment. The hands-on training that participants will receive will be a huge plus on their future job applications, Hendry said.
"You want somebody who has good lab hands, someone who is experienced in laboratory procedures," Henry said. "There's really stiff competition (in the recruiting) for experienced people."
There's also a need for judges and lawyers to be able to better understand DNA analysis and how DNA evidence works for criminal cases, said Henry, who has taught classes for judges on the subject for 15 years at the National Judicial College in Reno.
Goldstein said he is already planning to offer a shortened DNA fingerprinting class for judges and lawyers early next year to help meet that need, possibly on a weekend.
Goldstein said he hopes several private businesses and laboratories will send their employees for training at the five-day DNA training course scheduled for Dec. 6-10, which costs $2,000. Only two people are signed up for the class now, but Goldstein expects that to grow after word gets out about the center.
A course the center is offering for health care professionals on how to diagnose and treat patients injured by weapons of mass destruction has already taken off, Goldstein said. About four people attended the first class in October; 50 were signed up for class that took place on Saturday.
That class is mandatory under a Nevada law enacted in 2003, said instructor Scott Lamprecht, a registered nurse and clinical educator at Kindred Hospital with more than 20 years of experience working in emergency rooms.
Participants in the four-hour seminar learn how to identify biological and chemical agents and how to treat patients injured by those weapons or by explosive, nuclear or radioactive weapons.
Lamprecht's workshop focuses primarily on the treatments, but he said DNA analysis is really the only way to quickly and efficiently identify what kind of chemical or biological agent was used in a weapon.
"The faster we identify what kind of agent was used the better outcomes we'll have and the sooner we can identify appropriate treatments," Lamprecht said.
Most hospitals don't have the kind of equipment needed to do that kind of DNA profiling analysis, Lamprecht said, but now Clark County has two -- one run by the Clark County Health District and the lab at UNLV.
"If something does happen in our community, it will be very helpful to have UNLV here working in conjunction with the Health District," Lamprecht said.
The goal of the Biotechnology Center is to propel UNLV forward in its own studies in biotechnology and biomedical research while promoting the university as a world-class training institute, said Penny Amy, director of the Shadow Lane Campus and associate provost for campus development at UNLV.
The equipment in the center can be utilized for research by UNLV professors and also serves as a training facility for UNLV graduate and undergraduate students who work in the laboratory, Amy said.
Goldstein's business plan has the center self-sufficient before the end of 2005 and profitable by 2006 or sooner. The money raised will help pay for further research initiatives at the university, Amy said.
Partnerships between the Biotechnology Center and UNLV's other health-related schools, such as the School of Dental Medicine, is also helping position the university to gain more grants from the National Institute of Health, Amy said.
The center is also being used to spur economic development by luring, training and even incubating biomedical businesses and organizations to Las Vegas, said Amy and Goldstein, who both serve on local development boards.
The Nevada Cancer Institute is one current tenant using laboratories at the center while the institute's building is under construction.
It was the aspect of generating biomedical businesses that lured Goldstein to UNLV in July 2003.
"My dream has alway been to help make an economic impact through biotechnology," said Goldstein, who in his long career has developed food and pharmaceutical products for Bayer, helped develop the anti-cancer drug Taxol and filed a patent on using stem cells to make red blood cells.
"I really think I can make a difference here," Goldstein said.
"This is a way to grab our place in the sun and become a great school."
archive
