Samuel Arndt
Class of 2019
Employer: DuPont Probiotics and Nutrition
Title: Culture Plant Production Process Operator

Samuel Arndt

Samuel L. Arndt (B.S., Agricultural Business Management, UW-Platteville) is currently at DuPont Nutritional and Health where he is a Production Process Operator that produces a variety of bacterial cultures used in cheese, yogurt, and probiotics. Most recently, Samuel has expanded his role by working the quality control lab within the DuPont plant.

Samuel looks to use his academic plan in the M.S. of Biotechnology Program to achieve his short term goals to grow and advance within the culture development area at Dupont, as well as his long terms goal of becoming a head research scientist and technology leader at a global agricultural company. While at UW-Platteville, Samuel spent a semester abroad in Dronten, Netherlands where he studied European Union Structural Funds Management.

Pooja Bandawane
Class of 2019
Title: Graduate Student

Pooja Bandawane

Pooja Dnyaneshwar Bandawane (M.Sc., Applied Microbiology, Vellor Institute of Technology (VIT), Tamil Nadu, India) has been working as a research trainee at the Indian Institute of Science in the areas of Molecular Genetics and Developmental Biology as part of her coursework. Pooja has also been an intern at Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, India where she was able to broaden her knowledge and experience in the drug development process on an industrial scale.

Upon graduating from the M.S. in Biotechnology Program, Pooja expects to use her knowledge and experiences in both India and the U.S. to shape her dream of becoming an entrepreneur within the Biotechnology industry.

Robert Boyle
Class of 2019
Employer: BBI Solutions (Madison)
Title: Product Development Lead

Robert Boyle

Robert F. Boyle, Jr. (B.S., Biology, UW-Whitewater) is a Product Development Lead at BBI Detection where he oversees all product development projects, ensures deadlines, and maintains quality and design controls within the department. Robert has moved up within BBI over the last eight years where he started as a production scientist. Robert's experience provides him with knowledge in Lateral Flow Immunoassays, and thorough understanding of ISO 13485, 9001, and 13485.

At BBI, Roberts introduced a synthetic process that led to the elimination of outsourcing colloidal gold, allowing for a significant reduction in the per unit costs of manufactured tests. Robert has also been responsible for commercializing five products at BBI that lead to millions of dollars in profits for BBI; conducting proof-of-principle work that compared novel nanocrystal technology to colloidal gold as a visual indicator in lateral flow immunoassay detection; collaborated with a prototyping company to develop a battery powered, modular cell lysis and DNA extraction cartridge.

Robert looks to blend his manufacturing knowledge at BBI with the business, regulatory, and laboratory experiences from the M.S. in Biotechnology Program to become a strong leader in the biotechnology industry. His goals are to focus on innovation, customer diversity, expanding the product portfolio, and acquiring FDA certification.

Adam Bucane
Class of 2019
Employer: Covance Laboratories
Title: Production Supervisor - Bioanalytical Operations

Adam Bucane

Roy Du
Class of 2019
Employer: Catalent
Title: Quality Control Associate

Roy Du

Roy Du (B.S. Bioengineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) is a Quality Control Associate at Catalent Pharma Solutions where he works on quality specifications for test development methods and equipment qualifications to maintain Good Manufacturing Practice standards. Prior to working at Catalent, he worked with a variety of laboratories in both Urbana, Illinois and Shanghai, China as a research assistant, intern, and team member.

Roy expects his current experience to grow with each course within the M.S. in Biotechnology Program so that he can become an industry leader. He believes his leadership skills will develop through working with diverse people who bring with them specific areas of expertise and passion in developing and producing quality products.

Katie Field (Burkholder)
Class of 2019
Employer: Covance, Inc.
Title: Study Technician II

Katie Field (Burkholder)

Kathrine (Katie) Burkholder (B.S., Biology, Calvin College) is a Study Technician II at Covance. As part of the Ocular Specialty group, Katie runs toxicology studies for pre-clinical stage drug testing. She is responsible for collecting and managing data from primary observations, test material administration, and clinical sample collection. Additionally, she is responsible for providing client communication, quality checks, and managing data collection and QA audit responses.

Katie is looking forward to being a part of the M.S. in Biotechnology Program to expand her knowledge and advance her career at Covance. She said it best in her admissions statement: "this program will make me better at my job, and my job will make me a better student."

Anaga Gopalakrishnan
Class of 2019
Title: Graduate Student

Anaga Gopalakrishnan

Anaga Devi Gopalakrishnan (B.Tech., Biotechnology, PSG College of Technology, India) is looking to apply her skills and knowledge from her academic program in India and merge them into the new knowledge and skills learned in the M.S. in Biotechnology Program.

Amanda Hrabovsky
Class of 2019
Employer: Covance, Inc.
Title: Study Technician

Amanda Hrabovsky

Amanda L. Hrabovsky (B.S., Zoology & Environmental Studies, UW-Madison) is a Senior Study Technician at Covance Laboratories. She works within the InLife Operations department at Covance where she is the lead technician in four studies of immunocompromised animals. The pilot studies were the first of their kind at Covance and involved performing optical coherence tomography on stem cells living on scaffolds in the subretinal space of a rat eye.

Upon graduating from the M.S. in Biotechnology Program, Amanda knows that she will be using her expanded knowledge and skills to confidently become a scientific colleague and oversee studies at Covance.

Kenyon Koeper
Class of 2019
Employer: Sarepta Therapeutics
Title: Associate Director, Project Management

Kenyon Koeper

Kenyon H. Koeper (B.S., Chemistry, University of Alabama) is a Senior Project Manager in Biopharmaceuticals at Pharmaceutical Product Development (PPD) where he mentors the Biopharmaceutical group to complete large molecule projects. In addition, he acts as the primary contact for international clients; reviews proposals and provides pricing; and maintains the Biopharmaceutical department's revenue and forecasting metrics. In 2013, Kenyon received the CEO Performance Excellence Award at PPD. The award recognizes employees that delivers world class quality and customer service; makes substantial contributions to PPD; or develops innovative ideas to improve business processes.

Kenyon has a passion for how large molecules are developed and used within pharma and biotechnology. Upon graduating from the M.S. in Biotechnology Program, Kenyon plans on providing even greater impact on the developmental pipelines because of his knowledge of the business, legal, and regulatory aspects to both large pharma and small biotech companies.

Tiffany Lee
Class of 2019
Employer: Accuray
Title: Product Surveillance Specialist

Tiffany Lee

Tiffany H. Lee (B.S., Bioengineering, University of the Pacific) is currently working as a Product Surveillance Specialist at Accuray in Madison, Wisconsin. Here, Tiffany does post-market quality surveillance and investigations. Tiffany's educational background in bioengineering is paired with two minors in applied mathematics and engineering management. As part of her undergraduate work, Tiffany was able to take part in of a number of projects. Her senior project, Sound Lounge, developed an inexpensive method to evaluate the level of hearing loss for individuals in developing countries. This project won first place in the Bioengineering Senior Project Day and she also submitted the project under the name EON to VentureWell's BME idea national competition in 2016.

Ben Martin
Class of 2019
Employer: Covance, Inc.
Title: Pathology Lead Technician

Ben Martin

Benjamin L. Martin (B.S. Biochemistry, Winona State University) is currently a Pathology Study Technician II and a member of the advanced solution preparation team at Covance Laboratories. Benjamin also brings graduate work in Chemical Biology from Purdue, where he was worked on confirmation of substrate binding site of Ste14p through site directed mutagenesis in effort to better develop drugs to target pancreatic cancer. Benjamin not only has experiences in membrane proteins, mammalian cell culture, and molecular cloning, but also has been a teaching assistant in chemistry.

Benjamin sees his prior academic work as a strong background to blend with biotechnology. Most recently, Benjamin has been chosen to a be a Lead Technician Apprentice. These accomplishments along with graduating from the M.S. in Biotechnology Program will allow Benjamin to achieve another milestone, that of Study Director at Covance.

Mollie McArthur
Class of 2019
Employer: Covance, Inc.
Title: Study Technician

Mollie McArthur

Mollie McArthur (B.S., Biomedical Science, UW-River Falls) is currently working as a Study Technician at Covance Laboratories. Prior to Covance, Mollie worked at Eurofins Biodiagnostics laboratory in River Falls, Wisconsin as a lab assistant testing seeds for plant health. As part of her undergraduate education, Mollie did a semester abroad in Taiwan to study Chinese medicine and heart failure as well as worked with Plantables where she worked on finding different soil substrates for wild flowers and in hopes to active native pollinators.

Mollie hopes to advance her knowledge of drug design processes as she grows in her career pathway in Study Direction at Covance.

Madison Porter
Class of 2019
Employer: Covance, Inc.
Title: Analyst III

Madison Porter

Madison T. Porter (B.S., Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana) is currently working at Covance Laboratories as an Analyst III and represents the Dose Analysis department in Quality Assurance cross-department meetings. Madison sees himself applying his knowledge of cultural awareness in the laboratory, often acting as liaison and negotiating compromises that adhere to policy and maintaining data integrity.

Madison seeks to use his education in the M.S. in Biotechnology to build and reinforce his analytic abilities in effort to provide excellent services to all of his clients.

Marcelo Rodrigues
Class of 2019
Employer: UCB - Uzinas Chimicas Brasileiras S/A
Title: CEO

Marcelo Rodrigues

Marcelo Brunini Rodrigues (MD, MBA, State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) and Fundacao Dom Cabral (FDC), Brazil) runs a century-old company, UCBVET, one of the ten Brazilian veterinary pharmaceutical companies that was started by his great grandfather. Today the UCBVET team consists of qualified professionals (veterinarians, pharmacists, chemists, biologists, and animal scientists) to provide veterinary therapeutics, anti-parasite, and antimicrobials.

Marcelo's plan upon graduating from the M.S. in Biotechnology Program is to add new molecular technologies into UCBVET in effort to develop and expand new product lines.

Ernesto Rodriguez
Class of 2019
Employer: Covance, Inc.
Title: Study Technician

Ernesto Rodriguez

Ernesto Rodriguez (B.S., Biologic Sciences, DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois) is a Study Technician I in the Safety Assessment department at Covance Laboratories where he monitors and documents test administration and sample collection ensuring that they meet good laboratory practice and adherence with animal laboratory compliance.

Ernesto plans to use his education in the M.S. in Biotechnology to grow his career in clinical research within Covance, acquiring greater responsibilities and refining his leadership skills to ultimately expand into drug and therapy development.

Bryan Rutsch
Class of 2019
Employer: Kirkland & Ellis, LLP
Title: Attorney

Bryan Rutsch

Bryan Rutsch (J.D., University of Wisconsin, Law School; B.S., Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison) currently works as an Intellectual Property Attorney at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, Chicago, Illinois providing counsel to clients in all aspects of their intellectual property portfolios, with particular emphasis on complex litigation work. Prior to that Bryan was with Abbott Laboratories where he worked as an Advanced HIV Product Specialist.

Bryan's goals include utilizing new found knowledge and experiences from the M.S. in Biotechnology program, along with his prior work in law and biochemistry and shift his career to become a biotechnology consultant for a consulting/private equity/venture capital firm.

Ashley Sanner
Class of 2019
Employer: Catalent
Title: Analytical Chemist

Ashley Sanner

Ashley Sanner (B.S., Biology, UW-Whitewater) currently works as an Assistant Scientist, a promotion from Laboratory Associate in the area of Analytical Development at Catalent Pharma Solutions. Ashley's department is responsible in executing the analytical testing for all research and process development activities. Ashley started her biotechnology career as an Assistant Scientist at PPD, LLC.

Ashley expects that the M.S. in Biotechnology program will allow her to continue learning about the industry and ultimately become an expert in analytical services for biologics, working on molecules that save lives.

Lavanya Saxena
Class of 2019
Title: Graduate Student

Lavanya Saxena

Lavanya Saxena (B. Tech, Biotechnology, Thapar University, India) is currently a Research Assistant at MEMS, Bigtec Labs, in Bangalore, India where worked in the area of molecular biology and nano-chemistry. One of Lavanya's projects at Bigtec includes working on magnetic nano-particles for use in nucleic acid extraction devices, with the goal of developing a rapid and simultaneous detection assay for a variety of bacterial agents.

Upon graduation from the M.S. in Biotechnology Program, Lavanya hopes to establish herself as a leader who will play a role in shaping the growth of the biotech industry.

Christina Scofield
Class of 2019
Employer: PPD
Title: Scientist

Christina Scofield

Christina K. Scofield (B.S., Health Science, Aurora University, Aurora, Illinois) is working as a Scientist at Luminex Corporation where she performs validations and specifications for a variety of different products. Prior to working at Luminex, Christina served as HPLC Chemist and R&D Technical Writer at Wockhardt Pharmaceuticals in Morton Grove, Illinois.

Christina will use her M.S. in Biotechnology degree throughout her career pathway in biotechnology and quest to remain a life-long learner.

Chengang Shen
Class of 2019
Title: Graduate Student

Chengang Shen

Chengang Shen (B.S. Pharmacy, Wuhan University, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, China) is working on his final project: Liposomal Formulation of NIR Absorbing Chromophores at Wuhan University.

Chengang is planning on using his M.S. in Biotechnology degree to advance his career in drug production and research.

Candace Tang
Class of 2019
Title: Graduate Student

Candace Tang

Chin-Ju 'Candace' Tang (B.S., Biotechnology from Kaohsiung Medical University, Taiwan) currently works as a Research Assistant at the Institute of Biological Chemistry, Academia Sinica in Taiwan. She is part of the team developing a method to identify ligands of Siglec proteins, and have established a platform to label Siglec ligands.

Candace hopes to work in a clinical medical laboratory upon completing the M.S. in Biotechnology program.

Kavita Tirumale
Class of 2019
Title: Graduate Student

Kavita Tirumale

Kavita Tirumale (B. Tech, Biotechnology, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, India) was an intern at several places while an undergraduate at VIT including Strides Shasun, a pharmaceutical company, and Biocon, a large biopharmaceutical company in India where she performed biocompatibility studies for insulins using a variety of platforms.

Kavita plans on using her knowledge and experience in the M.S. in Biotechnology program and apply them in the area of genetic engineering so that she may contribute to the field of biopharmaceutical research.

Sree Tumuluru
Class of 2019
Title: Graduate Student

Sree Tumuluru

Sree S. Tumuluru (B. Tech, Biotechnology, Sreenidhi Institute of Science and Technology, India) interned in the Department of Pharmacy at Birla Institute of Technology and Science in Pilani, India.

Upon graduating from the M.S. in Biotechnology, Sree aspires to initiate a start-up biotechnology company that develops effective treatment for cancer and other diseases.

Sabrina Valencia
Class of 2019
Employer: Roche NimbleGen, Inc.
Title: Manufacturing Technician

Sabrina Valencia

Sabrina Valencia (B.S., Biochemistry, Lawrence University) is currently a manufacturing technician at Roche Sequencing Solutions.

Sabrina expects that completing her M.S. in Biotechnology will lead her career path of project management, and the application of biotechnology within the fields of disease prevention and management.