ISCT partners to provide ‘urgent’ training programs for CGT workforce

The International Society for Cell and Gene Therapy (ISCT) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) have partnered to provide training to upskill personnel.

Led by the Georgia Institute of Technology, the global collaboration between ISCT and NSF’s Engineering Research Center for Cell Manufacturing Technologies (CMaT) aims to bridge the critical skills gap in the cell and gene therapy (CGT) industry by delivering educational programs.

The joint-training program entitled ‘‘Workforce Development in Biomanufacturing – A Global Partnership with ISCT and CMaT”, has been developed by academic, regulatory, clinical, and commercial domain experts.

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According to Queenie Jang, CEO at ISCT the rapid growth of the CGT industry has meant that the “growing need globally is fast outpacing the available supply of experienced professionals – this is the time to take action, so that we can address the bottleneck in expertise and help this field strive towards its full potential.”

ISCT and CMaT have identified CGT manufacturing as the most important topic and believe manufacturing in the sector requires a specific skillset and showcases challenges for the current biomanufacturing workforce.

“This will be a multifaceted, tiered program to initially focus on workforce development in biomanufacturing, providing a foundation of knowledge in both theory and practical (industry) applications,” Jang told us.

“The launch program will be broken into 4 modules of on-demand recordings that include live discussions led by subject matter expert instructors to address topical issues and questions. Future plans for the program include dedicated hands on GMP facility training, as well as expansion into other key areas for CGT translation (ie regulatory, business focused courses).”

The first course is expected to run in the first quarter of 2022 and “the plan is to run this course several times annually,” said Jang.

ISCT will use its CGT translation knowledge and CMaT will contribute its experience in developing and providing training content. According to ISCT it has an expanded global audience and CMaT has access to various centers across the US.