BioMarin Field Trip Reflection:
- What do they do at BioMarin?
At BioMarin they work with proteins to make drugs for people with rare diseases. They analyse, produce, and purify their products, as well as manufacture and sell them. - What are their main goals?
Their main goal is to make a drug that helps the people with very few side effects and maximize their shareholder value. - What did you learn when you were there? (use terms- spectrophotometer-detect, measure protein, HPLC-high pressure liquid chromatography, protein purification, chromatography columns, protein charge, analytical chemistry-protein characterization, lysosomal storage diseases, CHOC-Chinese Hamster Ovary Cells, autoclaving for sterilization, bio reactor, laminor flow hood, and cell culture incubator.
At BioMarin we learned about three processes: the analytical chemistry-protein characterization process, the protein purification process, and the production process. They use a lot of complex machinery including: HPLCs (High Pressure Liquid Chromatography), autoclaving machines (for sterilization), bioreactors, spectrophotometers,chromatography columns, laminor flow hoods, and cell culture incubators. They used Chinese Hamster Ovary Cells (CHO cells) to measure protein, look at protein charge, and study lysosomal storage diseases. - What did you like about the visit?
I liked that I was able to see a potential STEM job that I was interested in in action, though I would have liked to have had more prior knowledge of cell functions and complexity before. - What would you like to learn more about?
I'd like to learn more about what there daily work day is like and how all of the different labs work and communicate with each other.