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This March, nine students from Carthage’s Advanced Integrated Laboratory (CHM 3110) course traded their campus lab coats for visitor badges as they toured AbbVie’s Abbott Park and Lakefront (North Chicago) facilities.

Led by Professor John Kirk, CHM 3110 is a lab-intensive course designed to master complex analytical chemical instrumentation. A hallmark of the course is its annual field trip to a premier analytical facility, providing students a direct look at how the instruments they use in the classroom — like mass spectrometers and nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers — operate at a global industrial scale.

The Science of the Tablet: Abbott Park (March 19)

The first leg of the trip at Abbott Park focused on drug product development. While the active ingredients are manufactured elsewhere, this site is where the “puzzle” comes together. Students toured:

• The Mass Spec Lab and Physical Properties Lab: Seeing how AbbVie scientists use cutting-edge techniques like mass spectrometry, scanning electron microscopy, and Raman microscopy to analyze drug products in development.
• Formulation Development Lab and Drug Product Pilot Plant: This tour showed how the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) is combined with other inactive materials and processed into its final medicinal form, such as a tablet or capsule. Students were able to view the equipment used to scale up drug product manufacturing from 100 dosage units per hour to >100,000 dosage units per hour.
• Alumni Networking: Students joined a career panel and lunch with AbbVie employees and Carthage alumni to discuss the jump from Carthage to a career in industry.

Scaling for Clinical Trials: North Chicago (March 26)

On the second visit to the North Chicago Lakefront site, the focus shifted to the “small molecule” chemistry required for the next generation of medicine:

• API Pilot Plant: Students toured the facility where APIs are synthesized specifically for clinical trials. Unlike commercial plants, this site is dedicated to producing the high-purity batches needed for clinical testing and pre-clinical research.
• NMR Facility: Students visited the state-of-the-art nuclear magnetic resonance facility to see how powerful magnets are used to verify the precise structure of new molecules.

The Career Roadmap

The North Chicago visit featured an invaluable mentorship session with host Kevin Parker. He provided a “roadmap” for success, discussing not only how to secure an entry-level position at a company like AbbVie but also how to strategically advance within a global organization.

An Insider Perspective

The experience was uniquely enriched by Paul David, Carthage assistant professor of chemistry, who recently joined the faculty after a distinguished 20+ year career at Abbott and AbbVie. Having retired from the very halls the students were walking, Prof. David helped facilitate the visits and provided firsthand commentary on the evolution of the facilities and the industry.

Sponsoring Department, Office, or Organization:

Chemistry Department

For more information, contact:

John Kirk: jkirk1@carthage.edu