By Jonathan Edwards | Daily Republic | December 11, 2008
World renowned embryologist Sir Ian Wilmut talks with students at Solano Community College's Fairfield campus after a lecture on Thursday. Wilmut, is best known for leadeing the team that first cloned a mammal, a lamb named Dolly, was at the school speaking to Biotech students. Photo by Chris Jordan
FAIRFIELD - The British scientist best known for leading the team that cloned the sheep 'Dolly' in 1996 offered Solano Community College biotechnology students a peek at the frontier of stem-cell research on Thursday.
Twelve years after first cloning a mammal, Sir Ian Wilmut now works at the University of Edinburgh as the director of the Centre for Regenerative Medicine, researching stem cells and how they can be used to treat a host of diseases, including diabetes, cancer, Parkinson's disease and Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease.
'It's that power and that potential that has attracted researchers,' Wilmut said.
Martina Newell-McGloughlin, the director of the University of California biotechnology research, has known Wilmut for years and helped bring him to SCC. She said his visit is a testament to the caliber of both Wilmut and the college's biotech program.
'Ian is someone who can inspire students at the community college-level about science and what biotechnology can do for society,' Newell-McGloughlin said. 'He can relate to the humanity of what's going on. He's not stuck in the test tube.'
'It was great for our students to see science of this caliber,' echoed Jim DeKloe, the director of SCC's biotechnology program. DeKloe said Wilmut's talk has been anticipated on campus for months and speaks to the quality of SCC's biotechnology program.
'This is the way education is supposed to work,' he said. 'We have a close relationship with biotechnology companies in our county and across the country. They advise us on what knowledge and skills our students should have and then we put that into the curriculum. That way, these companies get a workforce that's trained in the right way.'
Matt Ribeiro is already part of that workforce. He lives in Suisun City and has been taking biotech classes at SCC since fall 2004. He parlayed that experience into an internship at ALZA Corp. in Vacaville, a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary that specializes in drug-delivery technologies.
Ribeiro was 'blown away' with the quality equipment he was able to use at SCC, he said, adding it helped prepare him for the job market.
The practical, hands-on training that SCC offers students such as Ribeiro fills a crucial role in the biotech industry, Wilmut said.
'You need to be able to group cells in the laboratory, you need to be able to do molecular biology,' Wilmut said. 'You need all of these different skills at a company or in academic research -- people who can do the technical things routinely and accurately.'
Reach Jonathan Edwards at 427-6934, or jedwards@dailyrepublic.net.
