Students at Flathead Valley Community College make bacteria glow in the dark not only to learn about recombinant DNA but also to develop skills that will one day land them a job in the growing field of biotechnology.

FVCC biology instructor Ruth Wrightsman said students accomplish this particular glow-in-the-dark phenomenon by inserting a jellyfish protein into bacteria, then viewing the results under an ultraviolet light.

“It’s kind of proof of the concept. It’s very visual, “ she said. “They can see that the bacteria change, and so that’s an easy method to get them to understand about how recombinant DNA would work.”

Wrightsman, who has a doctorate in biology, discussed the college’s biotechnology program and job opportunities at a recent Board of Trustees meeting. With help from a National Science Federation grant, Wrightsman and other staff incorporated biotechnology techniques into the science curriculum and developed a path for students to transfer to four-year bachelor programs.

Biotechnology concepts reach back thousands of years when people first began using bio-organisms (bacteria) to make food such as bread, wine and beer, Wrightsman said.

“People in the early pharmaceutical days were using fungi and bacteria to get antibiotics,” she said. “But the true modern biotechnology industry started less than four years ago with a little company in San Francisco named Genentech.”

The company formed with a business plan to clone the genes from human insulin to produce a recombinant insulin to replace traditional purified cattle and pig insulin. After four years of work and some luck, Genentech succeeded and launched the first recombinant product on the market.

Recombinant DNA is genetically engineered DNA that incorporates more than one species of organism.

“In a little more than four years, we have over 1,300 biotechnology companies in the country,” Wrightsman said.

Wrightsman said a majority of the companies operate in western states and represent a huge employment opportunity for people with bachelor’s degrees. Some companies hire people from two-year programs.

“If students have some of these basic skills, we feel like we can give them this opportunity to work.”

Wrightsman said applications of biotechnology abound in medicine and agriculture as well as traditional chemical industries now producing enzymes to replace certain chemical products.

Huge pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer and Merck have biotechnology divisions. Many others work with separate biotechnology companies creating recombinant products used for treating cancer and a variety of autoimmune diseases.

“Last year was one of the best years ever in terms of getting new drugs into the pipeline,” Wrightsman said.

She said biotechnology has transformed the practice of biology. Its reach goes beyond just medicine.

“Wildlife biologists use DNA testing to look at genetic diversity in fish and wildlife populations,” she said.

Wrightsman pointed to research that uses small samples of grizzly bear hair to document the various species in Glacier National Park and other areas. She said applications of biotechnology tools have become so pervasive that they represent a necessary tool set for a biologist.

“We thought it was important to provide this somehow to our students,” she said.

Students now learn introductory biotechnology techniques like the glowing bacteria in the first-year biology classes. They also gather soil samples from around the Flathead Valley to culture for microbes.

“Just to give students an idea of what’s in a gram of soil, we send it off to be sampled with some really, really high technology, last generation, DNA sequencing,“ Wrightsman said.

She said science has only cultured 1 percent of all the microbes on the planet. This experiment reveals the amazing potential to discover future beneficial products through biotechnology.

Students in higher-level molecular classes do more advanced experiments.

“We use the polymerase chain reaction, a really high-powered technique that you’ve seen on CSI,” Wrightsman said. “In genetics, we’re testing commercial products like corn chips. You can test soy product protein powders for genetically modified organisms.”

Students in molecular biology actually test some of their own DNA to look for a single nucleotide polymorphism that affects a person’s ability to taste bitter compounds.

For the first time this semester, the college offered Introduction to Biotechnology. Wrightsman said those students get a whole semester of these techniques plus basic techniques such as how to keep a proper log notebook, how to make solutions and operate safely in the laboratory.

The introductory class also offers a challenge project.

“The students are going to clone a muscle protein gene from west slope cutthroat trout,” she said. “If we do, that gene has never been cloned from this organism, so it will be a novel finding, publishable, so we’ll see.”

She invited people to attend Scholars Day in May to learn about the results of their efforts.

When students finish the community college program, the goal is to have them transfer to Montana State University in Bozeman, the only four-year biotechnology bachelor’s degree offered in Montana, or a program in a nearby state like Washington.

Results speak for the quality of the Bozeman degree.

“Bozeman’s program has a 100 percent success rate of placing students directly in industry or sometimes students choose to go to grad school,” Wrightsman said.

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.