Genomics, Grit, and Gloucester: Building a Blue Economy

This week ware are joined by Bonnie Fendrock, Executive Director of the Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute. 

For over a decade, GMGI has been at the forefront of ocean science, using genomics to tackle some of the biggest challenges facing our marine environments and human health. But their impact doesn't stop at the water's edge — through the Gloucester Biotechnology Academy, they're transforming lives by training the next generation of biotech professionals, tuition-free. 

Under Bonnie's leadership, GMGI is expanding in meaningful ways, bucking the trend in a lot of science based institutions. They have new state grants, a groundbreaking Virtual Living Ocean initiative, and even a second Biotech Academy opening in Boston.

To hear more, tune into Happy Planet on Apple, Spotify, our website, or pretty much anywhere you listen to podcasts. 

 Bonnie Fendrock

GMGI

Transcript

GMGI - GOOD TAKE

Bonnie 0:06

Welcome to the podcast where we celebrate innovation for a happy planet. I am your host, Abigail Carroll. Today, I am thrilled to be joined by Bonnie Fendrock, executive director of the Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute. For over a decade, GMGI has been at the forefront of ocean science, using genomics to tackle some of the biggest challenges facing our marine environments and human health. But their impact doesn't stop at the water's edge. Through the Gloucester Biotechnology Academy, they're transforming lives of Gloucester youth by training the next generation of biotech professionals, tuition-free. Under Bonnie's leadership, GMGI is expanding in extraordinary ways: new state grants, a groundbreaking virtual living ocean initiative, and even a second biotech academy opening in Boston. Bonnie brings a rare blend of scientific expertise and entrepreneurial vision to this work, and today she's going to walk us through the research, the people, and the bold ideas driving GMGI's next chapter. So let's dive in and explore how one small institute on Cape Ann is making waves locally, nationally, and beyond. Bonnie, welcome to the podcast Good morning. It's great to, to do this

Abigail 1:29

So nice to have you on the podcast, Bonnie. You are down in Gloucester right on the working waterfront, which is a kind of an exceptional working waterfront because it seems still so authentic and intact even though the city around it is a growing, vital city that relates to so many other activities. But tell me a little bit about the Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute and what you do there.

Bonnie 1:56

Great. Our mission is to address critical challenges that face our oceans, human health, and the environment, and we do this through innovative scientific research and education. So we really have two main thrusts: research and education. And I could tell you a little bit about

Research Labs

Bonnie 2:16

both of those, the research labs and what they're focused on, and I could tell you a little bit about our Gloucester Biotech Academy.

Research Labs

Bonnie 2:22

So the research labs on the historic waterfront that you described here in Gloucester, really place us on the edge of the ocean and at the forefront of genomic innovation to help us understand the oceans, inform effective conservation management, promote sustainable fisheries, because we're right here working with the fisheries,

Biotech Academy

Bonnie 2:46

and uncover new discoveries that impact human health. And then

Biotech Academy

Bonnie 2:51

the education side, we have created what we call the Gloucester Biotechnology Academy. It's the educational arm of the Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute, GMGI. And over the course of nine months, we train and prepare high school graduates for careers in biotechnology and life sciences. So it's pretty intensive, where students are essentially in the lab for six months, and then we find them co-ops for an additional three months. So it's a very intensive technical training program. They're well prepared to work in all of the laboratories, whether it's academic, biotech, or pharmaceutical labs mostly in the Cambridge and biotech area, although there are some organizations around the North Shore and north of us that also hire our students. So really- Bonnie? Yeah.

Abigail 3:47

I just, I wanted to just interrupt so it was clear. Is the understanding that these kids are in college, or is this a replacement for college? A skip college, skip the debt, and get right into a technical marine career

Bonnie 4:03

Yeah, it's really a vocational program. We are taking high school graduates, so they do not have to have, and most do not have college degrees. Many of them will start out after graduating with a certificate in our program and go into careers in biotech. Some choose to go back to school. And we have arrangements with a number of local institutions that give them credit into those into those universities and colleges. And it's also a tuition-free program. Through the support of philanthropy and much, a lot of support from the state in terms of workforce development, we've been able to really offer an economic way for students to get highly trained and then get employed in a growing industry in our area.

Abigail 4:57

What are some of the things like specifically that these students work on in these in these programs or training

Bonnie 5:06

Yeah. So over six months they have basically three modules, but we're always evaluating and adding to it, and i'll tell you a little bit about that. But the three basic mole- modules are cell culture, molecular biology, and biomanufacturing, and those are all skill sets that are highly valued in the life sciences community, whether it's, again, academia, the biotech companies, or pharmaceutical companies. So people need to know how to work with all of those systems and technologies when they get into a lab. Those are the basic entry level but still highly skilled technicians, entry level technicians when they get into a, when they get into a lab and start their co-ops. So they can basically jump in and work alongside a graduate student, they can work on- alongside a post-doctoral fellow and they have the experience not only with that skill set, but they also have the experience of learning. So a lot of what they gain in this program is confidence of learning. And so even if they encounter a new technique that they have to figure out and learn, they have the confidence to do that based on this six-month program

Abigail 6:29

Very interesting. I think these, these very practical.. Vocational seems like it's a, a word that, we use too lightly, but there's a real skill set behind these vocations. And and I think some of these programs that you're offering are really exciting for young people who, and really challenging our whole, upper education idea at a time when... there are a lot of moving parts right now, especially with this administration, and this seems like a, a really great offensive play to get young people educated in a workforce that could be getting decent livings for them.

Bonnie 7:09

Yeah, we just celebrated our 10th anniversary here in Gloucester, which is very exciting. So we had the lieutenant governor Kim Driscoll, come and celebrate with us. I think what is so profound is that students realize that their lives are changed forever. They're on a different track than they ever have even thought about before. The opportunities in front of them are tremendous, and when you hear the students speak about how life-changing the program is, you're like, "Why aren't we doing this more across the entire country?" And we are, we have big visions of,

Abigail 7:52

You're expanding already, so

Bonnie 7:54

Yeah, based on the success that we've had with the Gloucester Biotech Academy, we're going to be expanding that program into Boston, into the Seaport area in Boston. And we're gonna be opening up a second Biotech Academy in in the Seaport District, so we'll be able to serve a greater number of students. But we'll also leverage the engagement and the growth of our relationships in the life science area with all of our graduates, both from Gloucester as well as, from this new Boston program. And that will, the Boston program will open up in the spring of 2027 When you see the confidence that these students walk out with compared to, how they question themselves when they first come in, it's tremendously powerful.

Abigail 8:43

Wow that's amazing

Bonnie 8:44

Yeah. We're really a leading nonprofit on Cape Ann. We play an important role in driving economic growth, supporting workforce development, and we're really a local innovator, and we are building upon that for the next decade. So we're really excited about the past 10 years, and we're looking forward to the next 10

Abigail 9:05

It sounds like you have some new things

Virtual Living Ocean & New Grants

Abigail 9:07

on the horizon. Do you wanna talk about those?

Bonnie 9:09

So a couple things to highlight what's on our horizon

Virtual Living Ocean & New Grants

Bonnie 9:13

is we were recently awarded two major infrastructure grants from the state, specifically from the Clean Energy Center, the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, and these grants are infrastructure gl- grants, so they're gonna support new laboratory capabilities, and this builds upon our decade-long work doing environmental DNA analysis. So we're expanding those facilities, and this is really the foundation for one of our new major initiatives, which is called the Virtual Living Ocean, which is an AI-powered platform that really builds on our expertise in this area, environmental DNA, and will provide insights and information and data that's gonna support the fisheries and regulators and industry and conservation efforts. So this is a huge, new initiative that we're undertaking, and with these grants, we're really building the foundation for the Virtual Living Ocean. We're really positioning Gloucester and the state of Massachusetts as leaders in blue innovation and climate resilience. The other, things that we really do here in Gloucester that are so important to the community are we host a number of conferences, our Educational Workforce Development Conference, the Science Forum. We do many science-based programs, and, it's so important to GMGI to make science accessible to the community here in Gloucester. It's very important to us. We are an innovator in this community that has a long history with the commercial fishing community, and, for this whole community to understand what we do is so important because as people see that we can make a difference locally, regionally, and nationally, I think we'll just gain more and more understanding

Genomics & DNA Research

Bonnie 11:15

and support for what we do here.

Abigail 11:18

Tell me about the fundamental work you've been doing with

Genomics & DNA Research

Abigail 11:21

genomics down there at the institute

Bonnie 11:25

So I think this institute has genomics in its name for a reason, right? Because genomics is essentially the study of DNA, and DNA is the blueprint for life for all of us, right? It's basically the instructions for how everything develops, what it does. It's in every single living cell and organism. So DNA is so important to life, right? It's really important, and it really helps us understand how living things function, how they adapt, and how they interact with their environment. So what has not been highly studied is the genomics of life in the ocean. So this is this huge, vast biodiverse space, and it's one of the least understood places on the Earth. So it really opens Genomics opens the doors to discoveries that we barely understand. So we really believe, and we already have some understanding, that genomics can open the door to new knowledge, technologies that'll improve our world, and better ways to support human health. So that's really what the genomics research is all about. It's focused on greater understanding that's gonna make a difference in the environment and in health, and in human health. When you analyze genetic information, you can figure out how marine species are changing and how th- those species are playing a role or telling us about climate change, pollution, and then we can make smarter decisions about conservation and sustainable fishing. So it's, it helps us make better and smarter decisions given the information that is derived from genomics

Abigail 13:39

Interesting. And so is this-- is genomics fundamental to what you're teaching these young students? Is that part of that program? So everything

Bonnie 13:50

everything ties together. So the students in the molecular biology segment, they really break apart cells, look at DNA, and they discern, DNA from one organism versus the other, because every DNA is different in, So we can tell the difference. We do experiments discerning different types of fishes, for example. And that's where students really understand the importance of this blueprint that is really powerful in determining who we are, who our, what our environment is, the organisms in our environment. We tr- test it out, I'm just gonna share with you a new module yesterday with the with the students. This is actually related also to our basic research. So the students in partnership with Maritime Gloucester, which is another nonprofit here on Cape Ann, went out on a boat yesterday, collected water samples so that they can assess the environmental DNA. So today, they're back in the lab, and they're going to be studying and testing those water samples because that's what the environmental DNA program is all about. Taking water samples, taking out the DNA from those water samples, and it gives you information. What fish have traveled through the water? What birds have even been in the water? What what seals and mammals have been through the water? You can assess all of this by taking a sample of DNA. So you can envision with the fisheries, it can be a better marker and a better informer of what fish have or have not been there. So in partnership with the fisheries, we have a tool potentially that could be used in the future for assessha- assessing fish stocks, fish populations, fish types and the impact of whether it's industry or climate on those fish populations. We, e- absolutely, what we're doing with the students in the classroom is connected to what we're doing on the harbor, and it's connected to the community here in Gloucester

Abigail 16:12

I love it. I love this predictive tool, or maybe not predictive, but this assessment tool that could be handy for the fishermen. And the first the first step in, in, in creating a robust fishery is understanding what you have today, and I can see how that's really impactful.

Bonnie 16:31

So the research work around environmental DNA has been going on for a long time at the research institute. We now have created a environmental DNA service business. So in addition to the basic research that we're doing, we are also offering it as a service to potential customers. Companies that are assessing the environment for their clients are looking to us to help them provide really good data and analysis of the samples for their clients. So this is really an area of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurialism that we're building here in Gloucester to be able to build a business that then would be, a partner for employment and a part- and be able to also sustain the institute. It's our first entrance into a, a business endeavor right here on the harbor. So it's very exciting. And the grant that I talked about with the Clean Energy Center is really supporting the infrastructure, the space, and the equipment that we need to to expand the space and bring in additional equipment. It's also supporting work that we're doing on the marine biomedical research side, so expanding our the water tank work that we do inside at the institute to look at long-lived organisms that are in the ocean that can give us insights into cancer and longevity. And then, yes, we are going to have some maker space to attract partners and collaborators that really have technologies or ideas or solutions that they wanna work on, and we'll make that space available for a few partners and collaborators.

Abigail 18:30

You be able to grow in place where you are?

Bonnie 18:33

We're hoping to. We had the first floor of our facility, so actually this grant is enabling us to expand into the second floor, and there is still additional space there. So yeah, we have a, a great amount of space right now to work with for the foreseeable future and to expand into. Very excited about that. Yeah

Abigail 18:52

So you're having an impact in, in a bunch of different areas with a bunch of different players. It's a really seems to be a very, an expanding role. You're impacting the waterfront, you're impacting young people, and now you're offering new services to to corporates that are looking for this. How do you see the, the kind of specific impact of GMGI? What is, what does that look like to you?

Bonnie 19:19

So I think that what is really exciting, I think GMGI is at a moment right now of incredible growth. What we have really done over the past decade is establish ourselves. The academy, was an experiment a decade ago. It's been incredibly successful, and through that success we're expanding that model. So I think what excites me the most is the potential to make an greater impact not only locally, which we have done, but regionally and nationally. And that's where I think these grants, and hopefully we continue to capture additional resources that will really allow us to become a major globally recognized thought leader on genomics research, and that, we're in, in, in the scheme of research institutes, we're really still very young. This next decade is gonna be incredibly important, I think, as we expand our reach with partners, and we expand our reach with collaborators, and we bring more innovation to Gloucester. That's what I'm really excited about. That, the vision of making Gloucester part of an innovation economy that fits in with who this city is. It fits in with it, meaning we're doing work based on the ocean, based on the fisheries, based on marine science, I think is really where what is so exciting for the future

Abigail 21:05

I like that. And you're around the people who are asking the questions that you're hoping to answer, and that's a really great place to be with innovation. I think a lot of a lot of people, want to s- do a startup, but they're, it's, they're in a new industry or they think they see a problem, but the problem's not quite the problem they're trying to solve because the people who are actually struggling with the problems are not feeding them the information. It's really good to be right there at the heart of the questions.

Bonnie 21:36

And innova- innovation is hard. Innovation and, and being successful as a innovator is a big challenge. Surrounding yourself with the right the right ecosystem that can help us do that I think is the next phase of our, next phase of our growth for sure. Having new players, new partners, new collaborators that are gonna lift us up to that next level

Abigail 22:01

That's great. We-- you mentioned these, these significant grants that you've just received bravo. They came from regional regional forces. There's been a little-- a lot of pushback on the federal level, and I know it, it might be

Navigating Federal Funding Challenges

Abigail 22:50

sensitive, but if you don't mind, I'd love to talk about how institutions like yours are feeling or not the pain from shifting priorities at a federal level and and how you manage that.

Bonnie 23:05

So we are, definitely feeling

Navigating Federal Funding Challenges

Bonnie 23:08

the pushback from

Navigating Federal Funding Challenges

Bonnie 23:10

the federal level. We apply for federal grants, and it's challenging times. And it's particularly challenging when, science, fundamental science is also being questioned because that's what we are all about. And yeah that resource constraint trickles down to everyone. Whether it's even the institutions that have been around for a very long time that are trying to get grants, to organizations like ours, non-profits, that are fairly new and trying to get grants. We are all feeling it. Y- you can't go anywhere, in this community or beyond, or to academic institutions in our area. Everybody is feeling the pressure. So we're, of course, really fortunate to be located in Massachusetts, that's deeply, committed to these values of innovation and education and science. But they can't fulfill everything for us, right? So we just have to keep applying, and we have to be creative. The environmental DNA service business is one way to be creative because we're seeing a need, so we can build a business that could potentially support our science. We have to push harder on philanthropy. And philanthropy, has to see impact, so we need to make the impact of what we're doing very tangible, for those who want to support science and want to support work that's gonna make a difference for human health and the environment and the oceans. W- we need a diverse portfolio. It has been an organization that has had a diverse portfolio, but we need to just keep finding the philanthropy, the foundations, and other granting organizations that support what we do. And we just need to press harder as organizations, even the federal government pull away. We just need to keep it 'Cause what we're doing is way too important for us to lift up our foot on the pedal. We have to press harder

Abigail 25:16

When you're finding jobs for young people or preparing kids for real jobs in a real workforce with real salaries, that seems like like a real mission that nobody can dispute. Right or left, science, no science, kids get jobs, that is nondisputable good

Bonnie 25:38

And we don't... and big problems of human health, cancer, we don't have answers for all of those, so we can't stop working on that. We don't have answers for how the environment is changing and how innovation can play a role in that. So we believe in the mission, and we are going to keep working hard to support that mission. What we need to do is find the partners and collaborators that also believe in what we're doing and work with them. And clearly, the state of Massachusetts has been an amazing partner, whether it's for workforce development, the Biotechnology Academy, or from the Clean Energy Center for the im- in- expansion of our research side. We've been very fortunate in that way. So we're lu- lucky to be geographically located where we are and in a state that is a great partner for us. So that's very fortunate

Abigail 26:33

Indeed. I've, I'm just wondering if we-- you've been looking at the genomics of the environment around you for a good decade now and are there any kind of trends that you guys have picked up on or that you could share? Is there anything like that, that that you could

Bonnie 26:52

So from the data that we have generated from the environmental DNA, so I, I we know that some of the data that has been generated in terms of fish being there or not there, a yes/no, is not always in agreement with the data that we have gathered from the environmental DNA. So that is... what we do know is that, we have gained validity with the, different organizations that look at that and are regulating fishing as being a legitimate tool. And so I think the data that we've generated that gives a different answer than maybe has been received doing trawling data has made us a legitimate partner and will continue to really validate that and work closely together with the regulators and the organizations that, are trying to put the best policies and rules in place. We're not a policy maker. We're the data provider, right? We're providing the science. But we're trying to provide and be a good partner, so I think that's where we've been able to take a step forward and be viewed as a valid generator of data that will be used in partnership with the regulators as we go forward. There's nothing new that's been mandated yet because there's still a lot of work to do. We can tell like presence and absence really well based on environmental DNA data. What we can't tell yet, for example, is numbers, like how many, right? So how many. Refining all of that is gonna become incredibly important as part of our work as we go forward.

Abigail 28:40

That's really interesting. What drew you to come work for GMGI?

Bonnie 28:46

It's really interesting because I moved to Gloucester about a decade ago, and I was driving by this building that had these big letters G-M-G-I on it, and I was very curious about that. It turns out that, we've been coming here for a long time. Gloucester's been a very important destination for me and my family. We came that's why we wanted to live up here eventually because we, spent time in the summers up here, and there's so much history and so much beauty, obviously environmental beauty up here that I really am so happy that I've been here for a decade. So driving by this building, I'm like, "What does GMGI stand for?" And then I learned it stands for Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute, and as a former biotech executive, I thought, "Ah, genomics. I know what that word is all about so let me find out more." And one th- one connection and one inquiry led to the next, and I got involved as a volunteer working with the research side just looking at different commercial opportunities that, were being evaluated. I did that for about five years. And my background in biotech is a good marriage for a lot of what we do here because obviously the students are going to life science companies. The other way that I was trying to help and provided some ideas for, companies that students could go towards, and then I worked with the commercialization team and then had an opportunity to step in, to lead the organization. And, I'm- have had a lot of experience with a lot of different technologies, and have been involved in leading startups. It's a growing organization, so the fit of my background and what GMGI is doing made sense for us. And I've been, just really excited to be engaged with it and understand, w- what we've been doing for the past 10 years in that building that has GMGI on the side of it. So I think it'll be a- another great 10 years for the organization of growing and getting even greater recognition beyond Gloucester and beyond Boston. Yeah, it's an

Abigail 31:02

sounds like an, an exciting time, and you're doing a great job at the helm finding money when when a lot of people are struggling and being on the expansion route rather than the contraction route as a lot of people are doing right now. So hats off.

Bonnie 31:18

Well, hats off to the team that's here also. I'm not the solo, it's a great group of people that are dedicated to the mission here. And they're the ones rolling up their sleeves and really making the academy successful and the research institute successful, and also finding these resources. So we're grateful to the team here at GMGI

Abigail 31:40

Very exciting. So given your job and given the view of-- that you have on a lot of sort of environmental matters going on in the world are you optimistic about the, the planet

Vision & Advice

Abigail 31:54

right now from an environmental standpoint?

Bonnie 31:57

Well, given a lot of the things that we talked about

Vision & Advice

Bonnie 31:59

in terms of, being

Vision & Advice

Bonnie 32:01

surrounded sometimes by folks who don't believe in the science, one, one could lose one's optimism, but I have not. And I'm just naturally a very optimistic person, but I see what's going on and I have spent a career in science and I think that there is so much in front of us to be discovered, to be understood, that I am very optimistic. I look at the young people that graduate from the academy, and the dedication that they have, and the difference that it's made in their lives, and how they wanna make a difference going forward. And then I look at how much discovery there is yet to be made about the ocean. I g- I'm very optimristi- optimistic because, there's so much untapped potential for us, I think, to make a difference in our environment, make a difference in human health in, this enormous resource that we have barely started to understand. I'm really very optimistic. I'm a science believer, and I think there are so many problems still to be understood and solved. And to me, science is the avenue to get to the root of those problems and to come up with solutions

Abigail 33:23

I'm totally in agreement. Innovation is is our way out. So Another sort of take on that is do you have any advice on peop- for people who, might wanna make an environmental difference in their life? Maybe these people live in a, near the waterfront or maybe they don't. Do you have a unique perspective on that? There's some- something that you think people should be focused on?

Bonnie 33:50

For me, my advice is really to start with education. And it doesn't have to be a formal... you don't have to go back to college to learn about the environment. I think there's so much that we can learn even all the talks that we give here, people come to them and they learn, right? So we have science talks, and you can learn from that. There's so much that you can learn. To me, I think if you really wanna have a point of view and a position, cultivating a strong curiosity and using science-based information to answer questions and then formulate a position is what makes sense to me. I also think people should take action, in whatever way possible. Do something to get involved. Volunteer, donate your expertise, get involved. We have many from the community here in Gloucester who volunteer, whether it's mentors for the academy or down at the research institute if they have some particular expertise in technology. We're so fortunate, and I think that when people get involved and they work side by side and shoulder to shoulder with people that are actually involved in the work, it makes a difference. And, of course it needs to be said that supporting financially in organizations like ours is essentially very important, particularly during these times when, as we talked about, resources are more challenged. Our job is to be good stewards of the environment and health, make and show our impact. Show our impact so individuals and communities will support us, because of the difference that, we're making. And we try to do that every day