Biomanufacturing & Engineering for the Appalachian Highlands: Updates on the Development of a Scalable Bioengineering Program in Rural Settings

Recently, there has been a push on the national level to improve US competitiveness in the sectors of bioengineering, biomanufacturing, and biotechnology writ large, as demonstrated in the Executive Order on Advancing Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Innovation for a Sustainable, Safe, and Secure American Bioeconomy. To date, much of the country's biotech infrastructure has been concentrated near coastal areas even though agricultural production in rural areas could provide suitable feedstocks for bioproduction. In this work, we present updates on our current project titled "Completing the Bioindustrial Pipeline: A Multidisciplinary Workforce Development Institute for Biological and Bioprocess Engineering for the Appalachian Highlands." This work seeks to establish a regional center for innovation and education in several biotechnology sectors. We will present the current status of the project and pitfalls that we have encountered and discuss ways that this program can be adapted and scaled to other areas. In particular, we will highlight our organism-agnostic approach and those aspects that we consider essential to the success of the project.