Bioscience Core Skills Institute

10/13/2026

Become a BCSI Certified Evaluator in Portland, Maine!

Schools and training programs nationwide need independent, certified evaluators to test students on real lab skills. BCSI is training the people who will do it.

Join us November 6 and 7, 2026, to get trained, certified, and paid to assess the next generation of lab talent.

Your investment includes a complete BCSI lab kit to take home, official Certified Evaluator status, full training on the credentialing process and scoring standards, and everything you need to begin testing candidates.

Testing slots are limited, and limited scholarships for attendance and travel are available.

Reserve your spot today: biosciencecoreskillsinstitute.regfox.com/roux-institute-bcsi-certified-evaluator-training

Presented by BCSI in partnership with
The Roux Institute, Southern Maine Community College, FOCUS Maine, BioConnects New England, Maine INBRE, NH LIFT, Bigelow Laboratory, the National Center for Marine Algae and Microbiota, and the Maine Technology Institute.

09/30/2026

Schools and training programs across the country need independent, BCSI Certified Evaluators to test students on real lab skills. BCSI is building that network, and we are proud to announce a Certified Evaluator Workshop in Portland, ME on November 6-7, 2026.

Day 1 | Friday, November 6: Skills Testing
A 1.5-hour appointment-based session at the BioCoLab at the University of Southern Maine. Candidates test on at least five BCSI essential skills credentials. Study guides and prep materials are provided in advance.

Day 2 | Saturday, November 7: Evaluator Training
A full day at Southern Maine Community College covering the credentialing process, scoring standards, and evaluator materials.

Once certified, you join the network that schools and programs call on, and you are paid for every assessment you administer. Employer trust in a credential depends on independent, performance-based assessment, and certified evaluators are what make that possible. Register now as testing slots are limited!

Register here: https://biosciencecoreskillsinstitute.regfox.com/roux-institute-bcsi-certified-evaluator-training

Thank you to our hosting partners: The Roux Institute NUPM Organization, Southern Maine Community College, FocusMaine, BioConnects New England, Maine INBRE, NH LIFT, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, The National Center for Marine Algae and Microbiota (NCMA), and the Maine Technology Institute.

09/10/2026

"B4 Technical Expert" - what does that actually mean? Jake Heitman with Pfizer breaks it down in 30 seconds.

Watch the full video - and five more like it - at bcsi.bio/a-day-in-the-life.

Biomanufacturing does not have one entry point. This series proves it. A science degree that led straight to the lab. An opportunity nobody planned for. A mentor who opened a door. A career someone walked away from to start over. Six different people, six different roads, one field that had room for all of them.

Bioscience Core Skills Institute (BCSI)'s A Day in the Life series was produced in partnership with NIIMBL | The National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals, in collaboration with CreatorUp, and with participation from Pfizer, the National Center for Therapeutics Manufacturing (NCTM), and BioSTL. It is free for anyone who wants to use it: educators building a lesson, employers recruiting talent, workforce partners guiding someone toward a new career.

Pair it with our Educator Toolkit and the series becomes more than something to watch. Each episode includes discussion guides and career connection resources, so teachers and counselors can turn these stories into a real conversation about what this career path looks like.

If you're an educator, school counselor, or workforce partner, request the Educator Toolkit at [email protected] and bring A Day in the Life into your classroom or program.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9Lwqr-Pv1s

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

09/08/2026

Emily Vanasek is the Manager of Lab Operations at Pfizer in Chesterfield, MO. She didn't start in a lab - she started in education. Here's how she made the switch.
Watch the full video - and five more like it - at bcsi.bio/a-day-in-the-life.

Ask ten people how they landed in biomanufacturing and you'll get ten different answers. A science degree that led straight to the bench. A chance opportunity nobody saw coming. A mentor who spotted potential before the person spotted it themselves. A career left behind for something new. That's the point of this series: there is no template for who belongs in this field.

Bioscience Core Skills Institute (BCSI)'s A Day in the Life series was produced in partnership with NIIMBL | The National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals, in collaboration with CreatorUp, and with participation from Pfizer, the National Center for Therapeutics Manufacturing (NCTM), and BioSTL. The series is free to use anywhere it helps someone picture this path, in a classroom, at a career fair, or beyond.

We've paired it with an Educator Toolkit built for exactly that purpose. Each episode comes with discussion guides and career connection resources, so teachers and counselors have a way to turn these stories into real conversation, not just fifteen minutes of screen time.

Educators, school counselors, and workforce partners: request the toolkit at [email protected] and bring A Day in the Life into your classroom or program.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgkoPRkGdA4

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

09/04/2026

"Senior Scientist" can often sound like a lab coat and a whiteboard. Sharee Adams-Hall shows you what it actually looks like.

Watch the full video - and five more like it - at https://bcsi.bio/a-day-in-the-life/

Every person in this series found their way to biomanufacturing differently. Some came straight out of a science program and never looked back. Others got here through an unexpected opening, a mentor who saw something in them, or a career change they weren't planning on. The common thread is simple: there is no one path into this field, and no one type of person who fits.

Bioscience Core Skills Institute (BCSI)'s A Day in the Life series was produced in partnership with NIIMBL | The National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals, in collaboration with CreatorUp, and with participation from Pfizer, the National Center for Therapeutics Manufacturing (NCTM), and BioSTL. The series is free for educators, employers, and workforce partners to use however it helps, whether in a classroom, at a career fair, or wherever someone needs to see what this path can look like.

To go with the series, we've also built an Educator Toolkit. It pairs discussion guides and career connection resources with each episode, giving teachers and career counselors what they need to turn these stories into classroom conversation and real career exploration, not just something students watch and move on from.

If you're an educator, school counselor, or workforce partner and want to bring A Day in the Life into your classroom or program, request the Educator Toolkit at [email protected].

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mM_YRz5RpAg

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

09/03/2026

Bioscience Core Skills Institute (BCSI) is proud to announce we have been named as a funded subawardee on a new $1.34M NSF grant to build the nation's first AI literacy microcredentials for biotechnology technicians.

The award, a supplement to InnovATEBIO (The National Biotechnology Education Center), supports AI Essentials for Biotechnology: A Microcredential Series Building Workforce Readiness, led by PI Dr. Linnea Fletcher at Austin Community College. BCSI will design and validate the microcredential assessments and build the digital credentialing infrastructure students need to prove, not just claim, that they can work with AI in a lab setting. We're grateful to InnovATEBIO for recognizing the expertise BCSI brings to performance-based assessment and putting it to work at national scale.

This work is built on a simple premise: AI literacy for biotechnicians isn't the same as general AI literacy. Interpreting an AI-flagged result on a sequencing run or knowing when an automated decision needs human review in a regulated environment, requires judgment that generic training doesn't build. That's the gap this project closes.

BCSI will team up with BABEC: Bay Area Bioscience Education Community, the project's curriculum partner, to deliver this across InnovATEBIO's national network of 117 two-year colleges and 107 high school affiliates over the next two years.

Exciting things are happening!

09/02/2026

Most people never see inside a biomanufacturing training facility. Logan Ardrey, Assistant Director at NCTM2, gives you 21 seconds inside one.

Watch the full video - and five more like it - at https://bcsi.bio/a-day-in-the-life/

Each person in this series took a different road into biomanufacturing. Some walked a straight line from a science degree into the lab. Others arrived through a chance opportunity, a mentor who saw potential, or a career they had to step away from. Their stories make one thing clear: there is no single way in, and no single kind of person who belongs in this field.

Bioscience Core Skills Institute (BCSI)'s A Day in the Life series was produced in partnership with NIIMBL | The National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals, in collaboration with CreatorUp, and with participation from Pfizer, the National Center for Therapeutics Manufacturing (NCTM) , and BioSTL. It is free for educators, employers, and workforce partners to use and share, whether in a classroom, at a career fair, or anywhere someone needs to see what this path can look like.

We are also offering a companion Educator Toolkit. This toolkit includes discussion guides and career connection resources built to pair with each episode, giving teachers and career counselors a way to turn these stories into real classroom conversation and career exploration, not just a video to watch.

If you're an educator, school counselor, or workforce partner and want to bring A Day in the Life into your classroom or program, request the Educator Toolkit at [email protected].

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k00Z0MYCTwQ

08/31/2026

Christie Belles Dion is a Principal Scientist at Pfizer's Chesterfield, MO facility. In her video, she explains what a Principal Scientist actually does - and how it differs from what most people assume.

Watch the full video - and five more like it - at https://bcsi.bio/a-day-in-the-life/

No two people in this series got here the same way. Some moved directly from a science degree into the lab. Others found this field through an unexpected opportunity, a mentor who opened a door, or a previous career they left behind. What their stories share is a simple truth: there is no single entry point into biomanufacturing, and no single background that qualifies someone to belong here.

Bioscience Core Skills Institute (BCSI)'s A Day in the Life series was produced in partnership with NIIMBL | The National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals, by collaboration with CreatorUp, and with participation from Pfizer, the National Center for Therapeutics Manufacturing (NCTM), and BioSTL. This series is free for educators, employers, and workforce partners to use however it helps, in a classroom, at a career fair, or wherever someone needs to see what this path can look like.

We are also offering a companion Educator Toolkit. This toolkit includes discussion guides and career connection resources built to pair with each episode, giving teachers and career counselors a way to turn these stories into real classroom conversation and career exploration, not just a video to watch.

If you're an educator, school counselor, or workforce partner and want to bring A Day in the Life into your classroom or program, request the Educator Toolkit at [email protected].

08/28/2026

Oscar Ramirez is a QC Microbiology Technician.

In his new video, he explains what quality control actually means for patient safety - and what his day looks like as the last check before a batch reaches production.

Watch his full video - and five more like it - at https://bcsi.bio/a-day-in-the-life/

BCSI is proud to launch A Day in the Life, a free six-part video series that shows students, educators, and career changers what a real day in biomanufacturing actually looks like. Each person in this series took a different road into biomanufacturing. Some followed a straight line from a science degree. Others arrived through a chance opportunity, a mentor who saw potential, or a career they had to step away from. Their stories make one thing clear: there is no single way in, and no single kind of person who belongs in this field.

This series was produced in partnership with NIIMBL | The National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals, with participation from Pfizer, the National Center for Therapeutics Manufacturing (NCTM), and BioSTL and with the collaboration of CreatorUp. It is free for educators, employers, and workforce partners to use and share, whether in a classroom, at a career fair, or anywhere someone needs to see where this career path can lead.

Stay tuned!

08/27/2026

Very cool opportunity! D2D is driven by its faculty consortia and we're actively recruiting! We'd love for you to pass this along to colleagues who may be interested in integrating this hands-on, cutting-edge protein science program into their curricula. We are hosting training workshops for new members in-person and online this November. Details for colleagues follow below:

About D2D
A nationally networked Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience. Students generate high-quality enzyme-function data through a shared design-build-test-learn workflow, contributing to the experimental datasets that AI-driven protein science depends on. It's now running at 40+ institutions in biochemistry, molecular biology, genetics, biophysics, and organic chemistry courses.

What Members Gain
• Pressure-tested protocols and research infrastructure for your students
• A collaborative network of 40+ active faculty
• Mini-grant support for sequencing, DNA synthesis, and equipment
• Professional development this fall, in person or remote

Fall Professional Development
• In-person camp at UC Davis, 3 days: Friday to Sunday, November 6-8
• Online crash course, 4 days: Monday to Thursday, November 16-19

Apply Here https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSelpfSzvYD55w-pNBK3fIBMlni5mqS1fM7dQT3ux5fxrLKQ_g/viewform
Applications close September 12, 2026 (09/12/26).

Learn more about D2D https://d2d.ucdavis.edu/
• Explore our living lab manual and database to see day-to-day implementation and student contributions
• Check out our website to learn more about our faculty network
• Review D2D publications for additional context

Happy to answer any questions, reach out to Maya Zingaro at [email protected]. If D2D isn't the right fit for your own courses, a forward to colleagues would mean a lot!

The underlying scientific goal of D2D is to facilitate academic crowd-sourcing to rapidly address protein design questions that would normally take isolated labs decades to answer.