THRIVE Spring 2023

IN THIS ISSUE

A Visit to the ElevateBio BaseCamp and a Focus on Workforce Development

ON THE COVER

Michael Paglia ’02G, chief operating officer at ElevateBio (left), and Rick Cote, professor, director of the UNH Center of Integrated Biomedical and Bioengineering Research and COLSA faculty fellow for research and graduate education, discuss the innovative technologies that ElevateBio uses to develop novel processes for cell and gene therapies.

WHAT IS POSSIBLE?

That is the question that drives the founder and CEO of ElevateBio, David Hallal ’88. As you will read in our story on ElevateBio (p. 11), a technologydriven company at the leading edge of the cell and gene therapy industry, UNH is a key provider of graduates for its workforce pipeline. David and I recently connected and talked about growing a culture of innovation and creativity, an approach he embraces in developing start-ups and that I believe is crucial in delivering on our teaching, research and service missions. When I asked David what advice he would offer faculty, staff, students and alumni who are pushing their own creative sides, he responded this way:

“Some of it comes down to whether you want to be evolutionary or revolutionary. Evolution means figuring out what the next step is and going there; revolution means pushing yourself to figure out what can be done and making a giant leap to get there.”

Both approaches are important in developing workforces that lead to thriving economies. In COLSA, we were pleased last year to launch the Shiva and Elizabeth Nanda Award to foster innovation in our student population. Winners receive seed money for an early-stage idea with commercialization potential.

David and I also discussed the value of university campuses as partners in bringing groundbreaking ideas from conception to scalable approaches and products, and the future of university communities as research partners. He observed that UNH is well positioned for partnerships with the private sector, noting that “through the pandemic, people changed the way they lived and worked, and communities like Durham are very appealing to those in the biotech sector because of the high quality of life, intellectual stimulation and access to natural amenities.”

In this issue, I hope you enjoy seeing the many ways we connect our academic programs to the region’s economies and ecosystems, and we look forward to partnering with you to keep growing this positive impact.

Warm Regards,

ANTHONY S. DAVIS Dean, College of Life Sciences and Agriculture

April 2–April 6, 2023

The (603) Challenge is a fantastic time to support COLSA because matching and bonus funds allow your gift to make an even bigger impact.

In 2022, 430+ donors helped raise $115,000 for the college, supporting the scholarships, research and hands-on learning that are vital to the COLSA experience.

This year, we encourage you to rise to the challenge in support of COLSA — and help us make it the best (603) Challenge yet! Scan the code using the camera app on your phone to access The (603) Challenge website

Allie Bennett ’23 (left) and Alex Smyrak ’23 perform a routine preventive care exam.

PRACTICE MAKES PURRFECT

On-campus veterinary clinic offers hands-on skill building for students and access to affordable pet care for low-income pet owners

Opened in 2017, the PAWS Veterinary Clinic in Barton Hall provides people receiving government assistance with affordable pet wellness exams, vaccines and testing, medications, dental care and basic surgeries like spays and neuters.

Along with providing lower-income pet owners access to important veterinary services, the clinic is an incredible teaching facility for students in the veterinary technology program and, according to Sarah Proctor, DVM, the program’s director and clinic manager, provides essential training for students, particularly when it comes to interacting with clients.

“I hear from employers constantly that the number one thing they want is a tech who can graduate with the ability to talk to clients,” she says. “If we want our students to be able to earn a pet owner’s trust, we must give them opportunities to practice. Learning something in a classroom is very different from working in a clinical setting with an animal whose owner is watching you.”

The students agree.

“Working in the clinic has given my classmates and me the ability to interact directly with patients and work on our interpersonal communication skills with clients — all while benefiting local families and their animals,” says Megann Sullivan ’23, ’24, a veterinary technology major who is also currently pursuing a four-year bachelor’s degree in animal science. “It truly helps pull all of our classroom learning together into the real world of veterinary medicine.”

In the five years since it opened, the clinic has provided services for more than 300 pet patients. In the 2021-2022 academic year alone, the clinic staff saw 260 patients during 450 appointments and provided services valued at $128,000 at a cost of $11,000 to their clients. Most of the clinic’s clients come from Dover, Rochester and Somersworth, but a few come from as far away as Manchester.

PLANNING WITH A PURPOSE

Alumna works to address the housing crisis in New Hampshire communities

Since September 2021, Cassie Mullen ’16 has worked for New Hampshire Housing, an organization that provides financing and other support for affordable housing in the state. She is a program manager of the Multifamily Supportive Housing Program, which is part of their Multifamily Housing Division.

“In New Hampshire we’re in a significant housing crisis. Everything is expensive, and people are getting priced out,” says Mullen, who has a degree in community and environmental planning (CEP) from COLSA. “People must move away, or they’re living in unstable conditions, or they’re homeless. Our mission at NH Housing is to create affordable, safe housing for everybody.”

“We have students and alumni involved in every facet of planning throughout New Hampshire, as well as in other states — from housing and transportation planning to energy and environmental conservation,” says Mary Friedman, principal lecturer and CEP program coordinator. “It is very exciting to have all these Wildcats doing important work to create more sustainable communities.”

24.2% increase in rent and utilities for a two-bedroom apartment in New Hampshire between 2016 and 2021*

0.9% rental vacancy rate in New Hampshire**

6.8% rental vacancy rate in the first quarter of 2021 for the U.S. overall*

To read more and watch a short video, scan the QR code or use the link below.

*Source: NH Fiscal Policy Institute

**Source: New Hampshire Housing Survey

https://bit.ly/cassie-mullen

Swapping Classrooms for Cow Barns

When it comes to unique courses at the University of New Hampshire, Cooperative for Real Education in Agricultural Management (CREAM) might top the list.

In the student-led, two-semester course, students gain hands-on experience managing every aspect of the dairy business, from feeding, cleaning and changing the bedding of 25 black-and-white Holsteins to managing herd health and milk production to tracking all associated business expenses. But it doesn’t end there.

“CREAM teaches so many life skills about communication, about conflict resolution, about responsibility — like realizing

that nobody is going to be there to milk the cows unless you get up at 4 in the morning,” says Liz Brock ’01, DVM, clinical assistant professor in the department of agriculture, nutrition and food systems and CREAM alumna. “You also gain a real respect for animals and the role that they play in our lives.”

Drew Conroy, coordinator of the applied animal science program and a professor in the department of agriculture, nutrition and food systems, has a word he likes to use, especially when describing CREAM students: initiative. The word is printed on a hat he wears and is carved into a wood cutout that he keeps in his office. He says it’s the number one character trait that he wants CREAM students to develop.

UNH CREAM program offers dairy management training — and so much more

“I want them to take risks and responsibility and step up when things need to be done or fixed — and they do,” he says. “That is why, over the years, CREAM has earned this reputation as a program that really sets graduates apart.”

HERD MENTALITY

Jason Johnson ’96 was among the first students to become part of the dairy management major, an option within the animal science program, when it was launched by UNH in 1992.

In 2018, amid a professional journey that has included working for a feed company, a bovine breeder and genetics company and the Billings Farm and Museum in Woodstock, Vermont, Johnson joined Stonyfield Organic as their farmer relationship manager. He now works with Stonyfield’s 36 directsupply farms across Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and eastern New York, which range in herd size from 20 to more than 350 cows.

To read more and watch a short video, scan the QR code or use the link below.

https://bit.ly/UNHCREAM

“For 20-plus years I managed dairy farms as if they were my own,” says Johnson, who himself has a small family farm in Northwood (and is married to alumna Heather Norton Johnson ’97). “I got to see the challenges that every farm, every family grapples with, and now I’m in a position to help a lot of those farmers prepare for the future.”

Supporting New Hampshire’s SHELLFISH FARMERS

COLSA student and researcher sets sights on raising awareness of the Granite State’s burgeoning shellfish industry

When she’s not studying the impact of invasive green crabs — and the now emerging blue crabs — on native shellfish in New Hampshire’s Great Bay Estuary, marine biology doctoral student Kelsey Meyer spends time talking with the state’s legislators and legislative staff about the critical role that oyster farming can play in driving aquaculture sector growth, and how oysters offer many ecological benefits, such as filtering water and supporting the health of native marine life.

As the coordinator for the NH Shellfish Farmers Initiative (NHSFI), Meyer has become a key advocate for the Granite State’s oyster farmers by spreading the word about the benefits of raising the shellfish, which she’s done at events and organizational meetings up and down the New Hampshire and Southern Maine seacoasts. She also helps organize the annual New Hampshire Oyster Week, which celebrated its second year in September 2022.

One of the region’s foremost outreach events for oyster aquaculture, New Hampshire Oyster Week lets oyster farmers directly connect with consumers while also providing a venue to highlight NHSFI-supported oyster aquaculture and restoration projects, which serve the needs of shellfish farmers, environmentalists and conservationists, local landowners, policy leaders and seafood consumers.

“The general public doesn’t typically know the value of New Hampshire’s oyster farms,” says Meyer. “We’re really raising awareness about the state’s oyster aquaculture, how important it is and that we have a lot of great local oyster farming businesses right here.”

Meyer began her Ph.D. at the University of New Hampshire in 2020, under the guidance of Bonnie Brown, professor and chair of the department of biological sciences, and with funding from the NH Agricultural Experiment Station. As she started working on different shellfish research and outreach initiatives in the community, she connected with the grassroots NHSFI and plans to run it full time after graduating.

“Oysters are a keystone species — they help with shoreline protection and, as filter feeders, they help improve water quality and clarity,” Meyer says.

“They’re integral to keeping Great Bay a healthy ecosystem — and that’s something that I think we can all agree is important.”

To read more, scan the QR code or use link below.

https://bit.ly/NHSFI

ADVANCING AN INDUSTRY

UNH alum-led ElevateBio ushers in an innovative business model for cell and gene therapy manufacturing

When Michael Paglia ’02G joined the ElevateBio team in 2017 as its fourth employee, he knew that co-founders David Hallal ’88, Vikas Sinha and Mitchell Finer were approaching cell and gene therapy production in a groundbreaking way. Their goal, and his, was to merge science and technology, creating infrastructure and acquiring state-of-the-art development and manufacturing technologies to support their company’s therapeutic needs and those of other biotechnology firms, both large and small.

“All the technology we have — our processes for manufacturing novel therapies, gene editing via our company Life Edit Therapeutics, Inc. and creating regenerative medicine programs with our stem cell lines — was put into place at the very beginning,” says Paglia, chief operating officer, during a tour of the company’s 140,000-square-foot facility, known as ElevateBio BaseCamp, in Waltham, Massachusetts. “Now we’re in a position to support partners who are creating and manufacturing their own therapies — and advance the industry as a whole.”

That initial infrastructure investment has allowed ElevateBio to deliver a broad array of process development and current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) manufacturing services to more than a dozen partners, among them Boston Children’s Hospital, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine and Abata Therapeutics. Paglia, who was hired to help build BaseCamp, says that the facility will nearly double in size over the next several years, providing more space for protein engineering, virology and immunology labs and cGMP manufacturing, analytics and quality control facilities.

“It’s the vision that Hallal, Sinha and Finer had — owning all aspects of the creation process, from manufacturing to development — that drew me to ElevateBio. And now we’ve built this beautiful

technology-forward facility and put together an amazing team, allowing us to rapidly advance lifesaving therapy treatments.”

Path to Discovery

Paglia’s career in biological sciences began when he was an undergraduate at Providence College. He learned the basic skills, like cell culturing and tissue sectioning, while volunteering at a Rhode Island Hospital lab. When the lab’s funding ended, he looked for graduate programs to further advance his training.

“What struck me when I visited and toured the University of New Hampshire was meeting the professors I would work with at COLSA and the college’s emphasis on allowing students, especially graduate and Ph.D. students, to rotate through different labs and discover what research they were really drawn to,” he says. “On top of that, the emerging science in these labs and the advanced instrumentation the students were using set UNH’s program apart from most other programs out there.”

It was while working toward a master of science degree in biochemistry that Paglia began researching in the Cote Lab and developed a lifelong friendship with his graduate advisor, Rick Cote, a professor of molecular, cellular and biomedical sciences at UNH and director of the Center of Integrated Biomedical and Bioengineering Research.

“It’s gratifying to see that the knowledge and skills Mike acquired in my lab provided the analytical foundation in protein biochemistry that contributed to his passion for developing novel therapies for human diseases,” says Cote.

After graduating from UNH, Paglia began a two-decade-long career, joining startup biopharmaceutical and drug therapy companies

and helping lead them from just a few employees to several hundred staff members. Along the way, he’s helped take three therapies from discovery to FDA approval. He’s witnessed the explosive growth and revolutionary advancement of New England’s biological and biopharmaceutical industries. And he’s established a knack for identifying and hiring top talent and building and leading multifunctional drug development teams.

Next-Gen Advancement

ElevateBio has hired more than 20 UNH graduates since its inception. Paglia says the training that these graduates gain in their degree programs, the investment UNH makes in its biological sciences infrastructure (for example, the new Spaulding biosciences building) and the eagerness of these alums to continue learning after they arrive are key reasons why they make up 5 percent of ElevateBio’s 400-person workforce.

“They understand that UNH is just the beginning of their careers,” Paglia explains, “and they come in with strong foundations in some of the advanced scientific processes we use here on a day-to-day basis.”

Kristen Bland ’14 serves as a quality assurance senior manager of sterility assurance at ElevateBio. She began her career in cell therapy manufacturing after earning a bachelor’s degree in genetics from COLSA and still uses the foundational skills, especially in aseptic practices and controls, that she learned as an undergraduate.

“When I began working in this industry, I started out in the Quality Assurance Training Department,” she says. “I had a lot of academic experience from UNH in basic cell culture development and sterility management, and those skills, as well as my background as an undergraduate teaching assistant, transferred well to that initial role before I moved on to operations.”

Alianna Provencal ’21 (above) is an associate with ElevateBio’s analytical testing core; she joined the company after graduating from UNH with a bachelor’s degree in biomedical science. She started in microbiological quality control but discovered she preferred working in the labs and moved to the testing core.

“I’m exposed to so many new training opportunities in my new role, and I’ve been able to really advance the initial lab processes that I learned at UNH,” says Provencal.

Back on the tour of BaseCamp, Paglia says he’s been fortunate to have worked with some amazing teams over the years. He can now support and advance a new generation of biotech workers, whether by hiring them at ElevateBio or by connecting them to other leaders in the industry.

“Seeing young professionals come in at an early level and advance to lead teams of their own or become senior executives,” he says, “is just an incredibly rewarding part of my job.”

ElevateBio has hired more than 20 UNH graduates since its inception.

Animal Management

PEEP, or the Poultry Experiential Education Program, gives students the chance to raise a flock of chickens throughout a semester. Through hands-on experience, students gain management skills that are transferable to a wide variety of animals — without leaving campus. PEEP founder and Clinical Associate Professor Vanessa Grunkemeyer, DVM, MPH, DABVP (Avian), DACVPM, intends for this program to not only sharpen students’ foundational animal science knowledge but also provide them with the confidence they need to apply what they learn after they graduate.

Remote Sensing

In Professor Russ Congalton’s Remote Sensing of the Environment class, students learn to interpret and analyze aerial photographs and satellite imagery. The imagery can be used to glean vital information about our natural resources, such as forest health, wildlife habitat and water quality. Remotely sensed image analysis skills are increasingly in demand because they allow for very efficient and effective collection of data about our world. Because they acquire hands-on experience with these tools, COLSA students are better prepared than many to use them in their chosen careers.

New Graduate Degrees

COLSA’s new master’s degrees in molecular and cellular biotechnology (MCBT) and in bioinformatics are equipping students with the advanced training and valuable industry connections needed to break into an industry or accelerate their careers.

Professor Don Wojchowski says students in the highly customizable MCBT program can choose to work with more than 20 active research faculty and benefit from partnerships with more than 20 regional biotech and biopharma firms. Bioinformatics is critical to a broad range of scientific fields, says Professor W. Kelley Thomas, and students who can analyze large data sets and have knowledge of the underlying biology are highly sought after and poised to advance rapidly.

Survey Data Collection and Analysis

Senior Lecturer Patty Jarema’s Statistical Methods and Applications course is anchored by a survey assessing the campus community’s recycling behavior and use of plastics. Students design and execute the survey as a class and, once it is completed, directly apply the statistical concepts they’ve learned to the real-world data collected. The conclusions students draw can make a real impact by informing sustainability policies for the university. Teaching statistics by asking students to apply concepts to a topic they care about makes learning more fun and gives a sense of the true value of statistical analysis in solving real-world problems.

Flow Cytometry

Thanks to the University of New Hampshire’s robust research portfolio, COLSA undergraduates can gain experience with many advanced techniques and technologies not common at other universities. One example is flow cytometry, an advanced biological analysis tool that many COLSA students gain hands-on experience with in Associate Professor Sherine Elsawa’s immunology courses. This technology helps scientists figure out the cellular bases of many human diseases. Mastery of flow cytometry gives students an edge when pursuing careers in medical research and biotechnology, where this technology is widely used.

CAREERS in HIGH GEAR

COLSA’s

COLSA’s St. Martin Career Exploration Office launched in 2016, catalyzed by a significant donation from Christine Carberry ’82, who wanted both to honor her parents with her gift and to provide students with a resource that would allow them to explore, from day one, the many careers they can pursue with their degrees.

Carberry’s gift came at the perfect time: That same year, the University of New Hampshire transformed the way it delivered career resources to students, moving from a centralized model in Hood House to a network of college-based offices linked by UNH Career and Professional Success (CaPS).

From the time the St. Martin Career Exploration Office opened, its impact on students preparing for post-college success has been profound.

“It was the perfect storm, in a good way,” says Lori Dameron, director of the office, of the new model and Carberry’s endowment. “Before we opened the office, fewer than 20 percent of COLSA students were actively engaged with the central career office. There were no industry-specific events and no specialized career advisors associated with colleges.”

career office gives students a valuable edge on their paths to success

Christine Carberry ’82 (center) talks with Kelsey MacCallum ’24 and Rachel Achong ’23 (right) in College Woods.

With the opening of the St. Martin Career Exploration Office, students now have a range of opportunities to do exactly what the name of the office indicates: explore. Dameron and her team have worked closely with faculty to understand majors, developed career resources tailored to COLSA programs of study and industries, and continue to forge employer partnerships and create collaborative relationships focused on student success. But the career office would not be able to offer the same scope and depth of services were it not for Carberry, who realized as a young graduate that she would have been better served by more comprehensive career guidance while she was a student.

“When I was at UNH, I thought if you were a scientist, there were two basic options: You could be a professor or you could be a laboratory research scientist,” she recalls. “So I tried a few things before I found what I really wanted. It was by chance that I ended up as a product development chemist, which then led to me joining Biogen in the early days of biotechnology.”

Carberry spent several years mentoring students through UNH’s Pathways Mentoring Program and Career Mentor Network; as she listened to students and participated on the COLSA Development Board, she was surprised to learn that even a couple of decades after she had graduated, many students still had the same misperceptions. “Some people were leaving their majors because they couldn’t see themselves in traditional scientist roles and they thought, ‘Well, maybe science isn’t for me,’” says Carberry. “And I thought, ‘Oh, there’s so much more that you can do with a science degree.’”

She knew that one of the best ways to attract, retain and support students in the life sciences is to help them better understand what opportunities are available in their fields, and this idea became the central mission of COLSA’s career office.

Thanks to Carberry’s gift, the St. Martin Career Exploration Office has hired an additional career advisor, which has allowed the office to offer more student appointments and classroom presentations that include follow-up career assignments. The funds also supported the launch of the

Percentage of the class of 2022 that had taken advantage of the career office’s services by the time of graduation:

90%

of undergraduates of graduate students in master’s degree programs of graduate students in doctoral programs

SOAR Fund (see below), which provides stipends for unpaid internships and career expenses to undergraduate students who would otherwise not be able to participate in these opportunities for financial reasons.

Lastly, says Dameron, Carberry’s gift provided funding to sponsor specialized career programming that connects students to industry professionals. These events — the natural resources career fair and industry panel, the biotech career fair and industry panel, the plant, animal and agriculture career symposium, and the nutrition career panels — are consistently well attended and met with enthusiasm by students, employers and faculty.

In the 2021-2022 academic year, 88 percent of COLSA students used career resources, including the St. Martin Career Exploration Office’s career counseling, classroom presentations and employer events, as well as the career technology platforms that connect them to job and internship listings, provide online resume reviews, facilitate networking opportunities with alumni and make video interviews with employers a snap.

In the fall 2022 semester alone, the career office staff facilitated more than 40 classroom career presentations focused on a range of topics, including writing stellar resumes and cover letters, job search strategies, and mastering the art of the interview. All COLSA freshmen attend the presentation “Introduction to St. Martin Careers: Resources, Storytelling and Freshman Resumes” during their freshman seminar.

“We’ve made amazing progress in the six years since the office was launched,” says Carberry. “One of the most impactful things Lori does is reach out to every COLSA freshman within a short time after they arrive so they start to think about career success. It plants important seeds and helps them see that their education has a purpose, and that they should be doing everything they can to set themselves up to be successful in whatever comes after UNH.”

Carberry says she is proud of the ways UNH and the St. Martin Career Exploration Office are preparing students, not just for career success but for careers that align with their commitment to make a difference.

“I hear consistently from students that they want to make an impact,” she says. “And I think that’s really encouraging. I love the idea of helping them figure out the impact they want to make and then thinking about what they need to do, learn and experience to be able to make that impact.”

A FUND THAT HELPS STUDENTS SPREAD THEIR WINGS

Christine Carberry’s gift also provided initial funding for COLSA’s SOAR fund, an acronym for Supporting Our students’ Abilities to Reach new heights.

The SOAR fund supports COLSA student success by providing stipends of up to $5,000 for unpaid internships and up to $500 for career-related travel to job interviews and conferences. In the four years since the fund was created, 24 students have received stipends that have supported internships at places like the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail in Omaha, Nebraska, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and travel to the International Animal Production & Processing Expo in

Atlanta, Georgia. For safety reasons, SOAR funds were not available for 2020 and most of 2021 due to the pandemic.

“The SOAR fund has been hugely popular and successful, particularly in certain majors that historically have unfunded internships,” says Lori Dameron, director of the St. Martin Career Exploration Office. “A lot of students can’t accept an unpaid internship because they need to earn money. Thanks to the fund, they can say yes to important opportunities.”

“Before we opened the office, fewer than 20 percent of COLSA students were actively engaged with the central career office. There were no industry-specific events and no specialized career advisors associated with colleges.” –Lori Dameron

MEETING WORKFORCE DEMANDS

93% 70% 37%

OF RECENT GRADUATES ARE EMPLOYED OR FURTHERING THEIR EDUCATION

OF RECENT GRADUATES COMPLETED AT LEAST ONE INTERNSHIP OR RESEARCH EXPERIENCE PRIOR TO GRADUATION

MAJOR EMPLOYERS OF COLSA STUDENTS INCLUDE:

Boston Analytical Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center

Lonza

Massachusetts General Hospital

N.H. & U.S. Fish and Game

N.H. Department of Environmental Services

Pfizer

58% CAREER PATHS COLSA GRADS PURSUE ARE EXPERIENCING GROWTH:

Life scientists: 11%

Microbiologists: 9%

Agricultural and food scientists: 8%

Foresters: 7%

Environmental scientists and specialists: 5%

Conservation scientists and foresters: 5%

Source: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook

OF UNDERGRADUATES HAVE PARTICIPATED IN UNH FACULTY RESEARCH

Source: 2022 First Destination Survey

Triumvirate Environmental U.S. Forest Service

USDA Wentworth-Douglass Hospital

BIOTECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT:

INCREASE IN NUMBER OF U.S. WORKERS EMPLOYED IN RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT BIOTECHNOLOGY CAREERS IN THE PAST FIVE YEARS

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

13.9 % THE PREDICTED COMPOUND ANNUAL GROWTH RATE OF THE GLOBAL BIOTECHNOLOGY MARKET FROM 2022 TO 2030

Source: Grand View Research

40

THE ESTIMATED NUMBER OF BIOTECH/BIOMED COMPANIES IN NEW HAMPSHIRE

STANDOUT SUCCESS

UNH is a leader in preparing students for careers in human healthcare

Exceeding national averages is nothing new when it comes to UNH students’ rates of acceptance into professional human health programs. Between 2015 and 2022, 68 percent of UNH students who applied to medical school were accepted, almost 30 percentage points higher than the national average. For dental school applicants during that same period, 91 percent were accepted — 40 percentage points higher than the national average.

Melissa Mellor (right), UNH’s pre-professional health programs advisor, says that rates of acceptance to other professional

health programs like physician assistant, physical therapy, pharmacy and optometry programs also exceed the national average by anywhere from 10 to 23 percentage points.

For students planning to apply to a professional health graduate program, preparation begins at UNH’s PreProfessional Health Programs Advising Office. The one-stop shop guides students as they explore different health professions, reviews required prerequisite courses and creates academic plans, helps select experiential opportunities that strengthen applications and aids the application process.

Mellor recently launched a mentoring program that pairs medical school applicants with UNH alumni who recently started medical school.

Students also benefit from the Pre-Professional Health Advisory Committee, which is made up of UNH faculty members and local area practitioners. The committee evaluates and interviews medical school and dental school applicants and provides a composite committee letter of recommendation for all the students who participate. Although composite letters are not required by medical and dental schools, Mellor says they are often preferred — and not commonly offered by other institutions.

The core of UNH students’ success begins with the curriculum that provides a solid foundation for pursuing medical school or dental school or any of the allied health professions. Undergraduate students can also apply for funding to conduct their own research though the Hamel Center for Undergraduate Research and can work directly with individual faculty on their funded research, including major projects funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Added research opportunities are offered by campus research centers and institutes and through inquiry-based laboratory courses.

“These experiences produce resumes that set students apart from other applicants,” says Sherine Elsawa, associate professor of immunology and chair of the Pre-Professional Health Advisory Committee. “Students may also present their research findings at UNH’s Undergraduate Research Conference and at national meetings, which provides a networking opportunity to meet with peers and with scientists outside the UNH community.”

Beyond research, students also have access to a wide range of campus resources, including the opportunity to work for McGregor Memorial EMS, the ambulance squad located on campus; extracurricular activities including the Pre-Medical Society, the Pre-Dental Society and the UNH Chapter of Global Medical Brigades, an international health organization that works in Honduras, Panama, Nicaragua and Ghana; and access to clinical settings where they can get involved in patient care through shadowing programs, volunteering and internships.

“Through connections I’ve made at UNH, I have been able to shadow an orthopedic surgeon and clinicians in a hospital’s emergency department. These experiences have been beyond valuable for me as a pre-med student and have helped me to further build my network . ”

Sabah Sabir ’22, ’23G, biomedical sciences: medical and veterinary sciences major; currently in COLSA’s molecular, cellular and biotechnology accelerated master's program

“UNH has been nothing short of amazing in preparing me to take my next steps and keeping me on track to get me where I need to be. What excites me about going into healthcare are the opportunities there are to change someone's life for the better . ”

Makram Elkhach ’25, neuroscience and behavior major

“The amount of support and opportunities that UNH gives its students will help in any field, but I experienced how much it helped on my journey to medical school . Melissa Mellor was a huge resource for me, and the support from my professors has been critical to my success . ”

Maison D’Amelio ’22, biomedical sciences: medical and veterinary sciences major

“It is a point of pride that the acceptance rates for our students applying for professional health programs are so high,” says Kim Babbitt ’84, associate dean of academic affairs. “Our students work hard to excel inside and outside the classroom and our faculty and staff work equally hard at providing stellar academic courses, relevant experiential opportunities and constructive academic and career advising. It all comes together to make our students extremely competitive and ultimately successful.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, medical laboratory professionals perform an estimated 14 billion laboratory tests in the U.S. each year — tests that healthcare providers rely on to accurately diagnose their patients. With a shortfall of qualified lab personnel and faster-than-average industry growth through 2030 predicted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the country needs expert medical laboratory scientists now more than ever.

Svetlana (Lana) Gerace ’22, who first worked in healthcare as a hospital administrative assistant in Russia before she emigrated to the United States in 2012, graduated from UNH in December 2022 with a medical laboratory science degree. She spent her final semester at an internship at Concord Hospital in Concord, New Hampshire.

“It is said that 70 percent of medical decisions are based on lab values, without which physicians would be playing a guessing game,” says Gerace. “We do not simply perform the testing, we also review results, which requires knowledge

LOVE for the LAB

of pathophysiology and disease processes. Our work contributes significantly to patient care, from diagnosis to treatment choices.”

Based on solid foundational and advanced courses in chemistry and the biological sciences, the MLS program, which is the only four-year MLS program in New Hampshire accredited by the National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory Sciences, has a strong record of successfully preparing students for fulfilling careers in the biomedical sciences, including as a certified medical laboratory scientist.

“Throughout the state of New Hampshire, whether it’s a hospital medical laboratory, the state public health laboratory or the state crime laboratory, it would be hard to find a lab that doesn’t employ a UNH MLS graduate,” says Michelle Labbe, clinical assistant professor in the department of molecular, cellular and biomedical sciences. “Employers know that our graduates are well prepared to enter the workforce immediately after graduation.”

Concord Hospital certainly does: They offered Gerace a full-time position before she graduated.

of MLS students have a job offer before they graduate or choose to continue their education within one year of graduation

100%

COLSA’s medical laboratory science degree program is answering an urgent call

46 College Road Durham, NH 03824

INSTRUMENTAL SKILLS

Gabriella Palermo, a graduate student in the molecular, cellular and biotechnology master’s program, uses a NIKON A1R-HD confocal microscope in the University Instrumentation Center.

The microscope gives researchers the ability to image deep into tissues and create high resolution 3D reconstructions. Since it was purchased in 2018, groups in 33 research labs have been trained to use it in research ranging from coastal wetland ecology and entomology to neuroscience, cancer and immunology. Laboratory and instrument training supplies highly attractive skill sets for students seeking employment in the biotechnology sector.

Funds for the microscope were provided by UNH’s Center of Integrated Biomedical and Bioengineering Research (CIBBR), which was launched in 2017 to accelerate the translation of the university’s basic biomedical and bioengineering research into innovative tools and treatments that improve human health. To date, CIBBR has invested $1.9 million to support the acquisition of 20 advanced research instruments.

CIBBR is funded by a five-year, $9.6 million Center of Biomedical Research Excellence grant from the National Institutes of Health.