Along with some of her classmates, Ayomide Kumapayi is beginning the seemingly not-so-simple process of separating molecules.

“Right now we are just trying to separate the E. coli from the protein, so that is what we are doing right now,” Kumapayi said Wednesday afternoon.

Originally from Nigeria, Kumapayi is in her second year at the Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (ACPHS). The group was learning a research technique using the state-of-the-art equipment inside the college’s new Stack Family Center for Biopharmaceutical Education and Training, or CBET.

“I was always very interested in the industry as a whole,” she said. “I just knew I wanted to be manufacturing something, be part of the manufacturing team, producing drugs and coming up with new techniques and stuff like that.”

CBET opened earlier this year and is the nation’s first biopharmaceutical training center based at a pharmacy college; the rest are at engineering schools.

“It is really exciting to have everyone finally getting their hands on the equipment and seeing the spark in their eye when they can actually understand what’s going on at the biological level,” said CBET’s Associate Director Dr. Julien Rosenberg.

ACPHS President Dr. Gregory Dewey says CBET’s two labs were designed to train students and scientists how to develop an array of emerging drugs and treatments.

“Biopharmaceuticals are basically a way of customizing therapies and oncology is the biggest one, but it is a very broad spectrum of disease states,” Dr. Dewey said. “Rheumatoid arthritis is a big one; vaccines are biopharmaceutical and monoclonal antibodies.”

Administrators say another huge component is trying to close the skills gap. More than half of the jobs in the nation’s research and development sector are within the biopharmaceutical industry.

“A recent survey of CEOs of the biopharmaceutical industry said this is one of the top five impediments to progress, the lack of a skilled workforce,” Dewey said. “That’s what CBET is addressing.”

CBET isn’t just for traditional students. Working pharmacists like Sri Venigalla are invited to hone their skills and learn new ones.

“I kind of wanted to prepare myself for the future of pharmacy rather than be stuck in the past,” said Venigalla, who works at a community retail pharmacy in Long Island. “That is why I came here to this program, and it’s been an amazing experience.”

Regardless of the point they’re at in their educational and professional careers, the center offers a unique opportunity to help shape a rapidly evolving industry.

“It is gratifying,” Kumapayi said. “Right now, I know there are not a lot of pharmacists in the biomanufacturing process, but looking forward, I see a future for us in biomanufacturing. It is really, really eye-opening to be right here, right now.”