Hats off to Assistant Professor of Life Sciences Aron Kamajaya, Ph.D., for his role in procuring grant-funded partnerships for Pierce in two new student training and research-focused projects in the bioengineering and biotechnology fields.

Pierce College is a recipient of the subaward for the National Science Foundation-Advanced Technological Education (NFS-ATE) grant, Developing Classroom-based Undergraduate Research Experiences in Antibody Bioengineering. Pierce is one of four community college partners in this grant and the only representative from Southern California. 

The aim is to build a Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) program that can be implemented in a Biotech training program. The CURE program has been shown to increase student performance and retention.

“Ours will be the first CURE aimed at Biotech training courses,” Kamajaya said, adding that this grant will complement a half-million-dollar NSF-ATE grant, Training the Skilled Biomanufacturing Workforce Through Innovative Internships in Protein Biomanufacturing, also just awarded.

Pierce will partner with New York-based DNA Learning Center at world-class academic research institution Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory to create training and internships in biomanufacturing, a process that uses cells to produce useful products such as proteins.

“We will establish the first in-house Biotech internship opportunity in Los Angeles county right here at Pierce College,” he said.

Kamajaya, who joined Pierce faculty in Fall 2018 teaching microbiology, has expertise in protein chemistry and engineering that led to receiving the award. Prior to coming to Pierce, he engineered a ketamine biosensor using a nicotine biosensor as a starting point (find his work at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6874132/).

“We chose antibody research as it is, arguably, the most important for biological products in the market, ranging from anti-cancer and anti-migraine therapies to the more recent anti-viral therapy for COVID-19,” said Kamajaya.

The formal announcements for each of these grants are found at

NSF Antibody Engineering Grant

NSF Biomanufacturing Grant

The Summer Schedule for 2021 is now posted online. You can find it by clicking the Summer button at the top of the L.A. Pierce College home page. It's also now in your student portal so you can search for classes and get ready to register.

We are again offering three short online Summer Sessions, ready for you so you can stay on track to your goals. June 14 is the start date for Summer A and Summer 8-week; July 14 is the start date for Summer B.

SUMMER SESSION DATES

Summer A, 5-week, June 14 – July 18, 2021

Summer B, 5-week, July 19 – Aug. 22, 2021

Summer 8-week, June 14 – Aug. 8, 2021

REGISTRATION DATES

Continuing students register starting Monday, April 19.

Open Enrollment starts May 10.

New or haven’t applied to Pierce College yet? Go to the home page top right and click “Apply Online” or go to http://www.laccd.edu/Students/opencccapply/applylapc/Pages/default.aspx.

You will be assigned a Student I.D. number and can then register for classes.

Visit our Schedules web page at www.piercecollege.edu/schedules and select the “Summer” tab to find class schedules for all three sessions.

SEARCH FOR CLASSES
You can also search for classes without logging in to your Student Information System (SIS) portal at https://mycollege-guest.laccd.edu/psc/classsearchguest/EMPLOYEE/HRMS/c/COMMUNITY_ACCESS.CLASS_SEARCH.GBL?Campus=LAPC

Once you log in to your SIS portal, you can manage classes, search for classes, find your priority registration appointment, enroll and more. You can even apply for Scholarships in your portal.

Need support? The Student Support help desk number at Pierce is 818-464-4410, Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Staffers are trained to field questions from IT issues to financial aid to help solve your problem. The Student Support email address is LAPCStudentSupport@laccd.edu.

You can count on L.A. Pierce College to be here for you with the classes you need this Summer! We are here for you.