University of Maryland, Baltimore, AAPS Student Chapter

The University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB), AAPS student chapter strives to promote AAPS’ five core values of learning, innovation, service, inclusiveness, and integrity. We strive to foster these values not only within our chapter members, but also our entire graduate and professional school community, as these traits are integral to developing effective leaders. Our mission is to continuously provide events and opportunities that prepare us to excel in our professional careers. This includes seminars given by scientists from various scopes of research, technical and soft skills training, events with industry, academia, and government, as well as community engagement. Our focus is on the needs of our members to ensure a successful, rewarding, and enjoyable experience.

Recently, our chapter hosted Marco Chacón, Ph.D., the Founder and Chairman of Paragon Bioservices, Inc. (Paragon), one of Baltimore’s largest and fastest growing biotechnology companies. He presented a seminar titled Entrepreneurship in the Health Sciences and Biotechnology as an Economic Engine for our Communities, followed by an informal roundtable focused on career development/skills. After his visit, we were invited to visit Paragon’s facilities for a tour and to meet with scientists at the company. Our members were given the opportunity to network and explore career opportunities.

To maintain awareness of the latest technology in the pharmaceutical sciences field, our chapter, in collaboration with Rutgers University’s and Johns Hopkins University’s chapters of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, spent a day at the National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center for Structured Organic Particulate Systems. We were given a descriptive overview of continuous pharmaceutical manufacturing and a tour of their actual continuous manufacturing line, while networking with the other universities and student organizations.

Our chapter feels a strong responsibility to engage the local Baltimore youth community through various outreach activities. To encourage local middle school students to become interested in STEM fields, we participated in BioTech Day during the Maryland STEM Festival, as well as with the UMB Continuing Umbrella of Research Experiences (CURE) Scholars. During BioTech Day, we gave an overview of biotechnology and potential careers, followed by exciting hands-on activities, including creating DNA bracelets and extracting DNA from strawberries. For the CURE program, we gave a short overview of pharmaceutical drug design, delivery, and various types of dosage forms, followed by hands-on activities of mock dosage forms. Additionally, many of our chapter members participated as judges in an annual middle school science fair. More than 500 students presented science projects at this event, and we were tasked with determining how well the students understood and used the scientific process in their projects.

Overall, our UMB AAPS student chapter has created an all-inclusive environment for students, postdocs, and faculty members interested in the pharmaceutical sciences across all schools on campus. In doing so, we have fostered the professional and personal growth of current members, while also laying the foundation for future generations of our chapter.