Name: Tanha Patel
Major: 3rd-year Biomedical Engineering Student
Co-op Company: WuXi Biologics
Interests/hobbies : Cooking (and eating good food), thrifting, exploring new places
What sparked your interest in choosing Drexel BIOMED and the co-op experience?
Biomedical Engineering is an intriguing field to me due to its versatility, entailing different opportunities such as medical technology innovation, research and development, premed, commercialization of products/market analysis, etc. Drexel's co-op program really sealed the deal for me in terms of choosing the best program that would aid in my future. I believe I learn best by doing, and having three different career opportunities in my field of study as an undergraduate student would help me experience what I learned in my classes firsthand in workplace and make me prepared to enter a profession in biomedical engineering after graduation.
What did your co-op role entail?
My company produces drug products for various clients. My role specifically is in the downstream process development sector, where I focus on clarification of cell culture harvest to purify a targeted protein such as monoclonal antibodies. My specific role entails everything from preparation for purification runs (such as preparing and filtering large scale buffers, resin selection and column packing, AKTA method writing, etc.), then purifying the targeted protein through the downstream process to create drug products.
How do you believe your co-op experience will contribute to your professional growth and career development?
WuXi Biologics is a global biopharmaceutical company, so I have had the pleasure to meet and work with various function leads and sponsors from around the world such as Shanghai, Singapore, Germany, and Ireland. Being at a global company has allowed me to be able to listen in and collaborate worldwide, gaining an even deeper understanding of the various biopharma needs outside of the US which is something I can take with me further down the line in my career. This co-op opportunity has also showed me the importance of collaboration in a professional and global setting, I have had various opportunities to work closely with my mentors and coworkers to learn about the everyday needs of downstream process development.
What impressed you the most about your co-op experience?
What impressed me the most about my co-op experience was the ability for me to learn and grow with a company, given the fact that I am only here for 6 months. With this being my first co-op, I had fears that my lack of knowledge of industry experience would hinder with my abilities in a workplace full of professionals but I was put in an environment where I was able to ask my coworkers questions and guided on how certain processes take place and their importance in the downstream development process. I was given the opportunity to learn different processes from my coworkers and perform them independently which also gave me the chance to teach other coworkers who weren't experienced in that area.
What one piece of advice would you give to encourage other students to pursue a biomedical engineering degree?
I would tell other students that if you have a passion for changing the world of medicine by aiding in the development of novel medical technologies then pursuing a degree in biomedical engineering is the right path to follow. The combination of classes and design labs put in place for this degree will allow for students to experience all the different sectors of biomedical engineering and it really allows for one to pull out their strengths and weaknesses from each course and concentration they take to aid in the decision of what specific biomedical engineering path they would want to follow.