Milestones & Momentum: UTM’s Amgen Biotech Experience Program Moves into New Science Building
U of T Mississauga’s Amgen Biotech Experience (ABE) program has a new home, setting up shop in the light-filled New Science Building earlier this year. For Kristina Han, ABE Master Lab Technician and the program's Site Coordinator, the expanded space is not only more practical in the day to day; it provides a welcome opportunity to grow.
The ABE program is an international program funded by the Amgen Foundation, the philanthropic arm of one of the world’s leading biotech companies. The Foundation partners with organizations where Amgen has a presence, and the company has a well-established relationship with the University of Toronto, including a co-op partnership with UTM’s Masters of Biotech Program, the Amgen Canada Inc. Smart Classroom, located here on campus in the Maanjiwe nendamowinan building, and the Amgen Scholars Program, which runs each summer at St. George.
ABE@UTM launched in 2017 with strong support from the Office of Vice-Principal, Research and Innovation, the Office of Advancements, as well as the Departments of Chemistry and Physical Sciences and Biology. The program grew quickly in both reach and scope across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area. In 2023, under the guidance of the UTM team, ABE expanded to the Ottawa region with a distribution site at Carleton University, which has also seen exponential growth over the last two years.
The UTM site is co-chaired by Prof. Voula Kanelis from the Department of Chemical and Physical Sciences and Biology professor Steven Chatfield. ABE@CAR is chaired by Prof. Martha Mullally from Carleton’s Department of Biology.
The program introduces local grade 12 students to scientific discovery, providing teachers with equipment, supplies, curriculum, and professional development so they can conduct hands-on experiments in their classrooms.
Teachers from across the GTHA come to UTM for two days of mandatory training and then book two-three-week time blocks during the school year in which they’ll run the ABE labs in class. They travel back to campus to pick up the equipment kits, packed carefully by Han and her work study student, and then follow the robust curriculum in their classrooms.
“Most of our schools do the labs every semester,” Han explains. “It’s a group effort to make sure the labs are meaningful for the students, which sometimes means that teachers are swapping units that they teach so they can cover the background materials needed for the students to get the most out of the labs. We have some amazing, dedicated teachers here — the students are lucky to have them!”
It’s become quite a community. Teacher feedback helps inform the program, and they share resources amongst themselves, such as assessments, schedules, and tips on positioning the program’s benefits to school administrators.
A slow start due to the pandemic was more than made up for in recent years, doubling numbers since 2023 and then hitting a major milestone this spring. In March, the Amgen Biotech Experience Canada program reached 10,000 students, and is currently used by more than 100 active teachers in 60+ schools across roughly 16 districts. Both sites are at capacity.
And that growth is happening across the globe. In September, UTM hosted the ABE program’s 1 Millionth Student Celebration in collaboration with the Office of Advancement, welcoming Vice-President and Principal, Alexandra Gillespie; Ugur Gunaydin, the General Manager of Amgen Canada; MPP Sheref Sabawy, who spoke on the important of curiosity in driving passion and career goals; and Euginia Nicoletti, who shared her experience as the first teacher to implement ABE in her classroom in Canada.
“At the event, I connected with a first-year student here at UTM who did the ABE labs in her grade 12 year and decided to pursue Biology as a result,” says Han. “Reaching one million students overall is such a phenomenal milestone, and we’re so fortunate to be a part of that.”
Looking ahead, Han says they’re focusing on smaller scale experiments, which are geared toward younger students.
“These are more things like pipette art, for grades 9 and 10 students to introduce them to the concept of pipetting, or the dog drool or kitten paternity labs that explore DNA fingerprinting and hereditary traits for grade 10 or 11 students,” she says.
“Teachers now have something to do with their students, regardless of which grade they are teaching for that year. We hope more science teachers within those schools will incorporate these labs into all their science classes.”
News of the popular program is spreading, either via word of mouth, contact with board STEM coordinators (in one case, a former ABE teacher), and former teachers who had worked with the program and since gone on to become department heads or district science leaders.
For Han, it all signals a need to expand and reach more students.
“We must be doing something right if everyone’s excited to share about the ABE labs, right?” she smiles, seeming quite comfortable in the sunny new digs. “We’re full steam ahead, looking forward to the next 10,000 students!”
