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The Program in Integrated Training for Biotechnology Leadership

Tremendous advances in basic biology at the cellular and molecular levels have created numerous commercial opportunities in modern biotechnology. The biotechnology industry needs scientists and engineers trained to facilitate the translation of basic biological research into applications of commercial importance, and academia needs broadly educated faculty to train the next generation of students in modern biotechnology.

To provide graduate students with the training and orientation to combine basic and applied research, the University of Colorado at Boulder offers a pre-doctoral research training program, "Integrated Training for Biotechnology Leadership." This integrated, interdisciplinary program encompasses both modern biological research and laboratory methods and quantitative methods of bioengineering, applied mathematics, and computer analysis. The primary goals of this training program are for its graduates to have the skills and credentials necessary to undertake crossdisciplinary research in modern industrial, academic, and governmental biotechnology research laboratories, and to serve as leaders in the continued advancement of beneficial applications of modern biology.

THE TRAINING PROGRAM HAS SIX PRIMARY COMPONENTS:

• Interdisciplinary and Crossdisciplinary Coursework
• Crossdisciplinary Laboratory Rotations
• Industry Internships
• Seminars and Symposia
• Interdisciplinary Graduate Research
• Special Leadership Activities

These components are held together by the common theme of the integration of molecular biology, biochemistry, and bioengineering for the advancement of biotechnology research and application. Upon completion of the core requirements, students receive an Interdisciplinary Certificate in Biotechnology approved by the Graduate School of the University of Colorado.

THE PROGRAM IS AN INTEGRATED EFFORT BY A CONSORTIUM OF FOUR UNITS:

• The Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering
• The Biochemistry Division of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
• The Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology
• The biotechnology industry located in the Boulder/Denver area

Each student may choose any of the participating departments as his or her home department from which the PhD degree is issued.

Industry mentors supervise internships and participate on dissertation committees and in other activities that help identify research problems which are of both fundamental interest and commercial importance, and which may be pursued cooperatively. Engineering faculty participate on bioscience thesis committees (and vice versa) to help identify interdisciplinary research problems.

The combined faculty have prepared integrated courses, seminars, and symposia to assure a comprehensive training program. Students participate in industry internships and lab rotations to gain a better appreciation of the variety of perspectives and approaches within each unit. This integrated effort is designed to show trainees the benefits of interdisciplinary and industry/university cooperation and to teach them to lead and train the next generation of biotechnology researchers and educators.

Specifics of the Program

The Six Primary Components

1. Interdisciplinary and Crossdisciplinary Coursework
   In addition to meeting home department requirements, each student takes the biotechnology core curriculum CHEN 5830 - Introduction to Modern Biotechnology and CHEN 5831 - Biotechnology Case Studies. In these courses, students work together as interdisciplinary teams. Guest lectures are provided by industry representatives and include topics in financing, intellectual property, and ethics. In addition, each bioscience student takes at least one bioengineering course, and each bioengineering student takes at least one bioscience course. Several of the course selections include laboratory components on modern biotechnology methods.
2. Crossdisciplinary Lab Rotations
   At least one rotation is outside the student's home department. During the first year, students undertake an individualized program of laboratory training by doing two or three laboratory rotations with the participating faculty. Trainees learn a wide variety of laboratory and computational techniques associated with modern biotechnology practices, and learn to balance their view of basic and applied biotechnology research.
3. Industry Internships
   Unless they have prior biotechnology industrial experience approved by the Program Director, all students undertake industry internships with participating biotechnology companies. These internships are typically performed during the summer after the first or second year of graduate study. They are very popular and in some cases have led to thesis projects or future employment.
4. Seminars and Symposia
   The Biotechnology Program hosts several seminar speakers during the academic year, and the biotechnology students meet the speakers for lunch. During the summer, biotechnology students organize the Biotechnology Student Summer Seminars (BS3), at which presentations are made by the students and industry mentors. They also participate in supergroups and symposia such as the RNA Club and the MCDB Graduate Student symposium.
5. Interdisciplinary Graduate Research
   Students perform their graduate research under the direction of participating faculty. Students often have co-advisors or committee members from industry and the participating departments besides their home departments. The program encourages cooperative research, a portion of which is undertaken in an industrial or academic lab other than that of the primary advisor. Occasionally, the majority of a dissertation project is carried out in an industry laboratory or in a different department than the student's home department.
6. Special Leadership Activities
   Classroom and laboratory training are supplemented by activities which impart leadership and communication skills. These include mentoring undergraduate researchers, serving as teaching assistants, giving research talks at seminars and symposia, and organizing the seminar and symposium programs.

Selection of Trainees
The Biotechnology Program seeks outstanding trainees from biochemistry, biology, chemical and biological engineering, chemistry, computer science, mathematics, physics and related departments throughout the country. Prospective students should apply for graduate study in one of the three home departments. All accepted students are provided with the option of participating in the Biotechnology Program. Students may also petition to switch home departments after enrolling. Admission is on the basis of GPA, GRE scores, quality of undergraduate program, letters of recommendations, and essays. The program is designed to accommodate a diverse pool of applicants and encourages qualified members of underrepresented groups to apply.

Financial Aid
All applicants for graduate study are considered for financial aid. The participating departments have a variety of federal, state, university, and private funds to provide competitive stipends and tuition support for entering students. Research and teaching assistantships provide additional support for students throughout their graduate study.

Participating Departments and Local Biotechnology Industry

THE DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL ENGINEERING
University of Colorado, Campus Box 424
Boulder, CO 80309-0424
Graduate Secretary (303) 492-7471; Fax (303) 492-4341
chemeng@colorado.edu
http://www.colorado.edu/che/

The Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering has 17 full-time tenure (or tenure track) faculty members, and a highly successful active research program with expenditures totaling about 4 million dollars per year from federal, state, and industrial sources. Cooperative research is carried out with two federally funded laboratories in or near Boulder (National Institute of Standards and technology and National Renewable Energy Laboratory). Other affiliated programs include the NASA-funded Bioserve Space Technologies Center, the industry-funded Center for Membrane Applied Science and Technology, Center for Fundamentals and Applications of Photopolymerizations, and the Center for Pharmaceutical Biotechnology.

The Department has excellent facilities and equipment to facilitate research in bioengineering and biotechnology, catalysis and surface science, ceramics and polymers, supercritical fluids, membranes and thin films, fluid mechanics, and process control. Most laboratories are equipped with computers for data acquisition, processing, and equipment operation. Research is augmented by a full-time instrument maker and an electronics engineer, with well-equipped machine and electronics shops. A new biotechnology laboratory was completed in 1996.

THE DEPARTMENT OF MOLECULAR, CELLULAR AND DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY
University of Colorado, Campus Box 347
Boulder, CO 80309-0347
Graduate Secretary (303) 492-7230; Fax (303) 492-7744
mcdbgradinfo@beagle.colorado.edu
http://www.mcdb.colorado.edu

The Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology currently has 24 full-time tenured (or tenure-track) faculty members and an outstanding, energetic research program with current annual funding of over 10 million dollars. The current research programs concentrate on understanding the molecular basis of life by integrating molecular biology, biochemistry, cell biology, and genetics. Distinctive strengths include gene expression and regulation, microtubule structure and function, growth and differentiation of cultured animal cells, and development of model organisms.

There are several auxiliary facilities that serve the Department: instrument/machine shop, electron microscope suite, million volt electron microscope, microchemistry facility, photography/graphic arts studio, animal care facility, monoclonal antibody laboratory, reference library/reading room, and computer facilities with access to national network.

Currently, the Department is in the midst of an expansion project that will significantly increase the faculty population. A new building to house new fields of research was completed in 1995.

DIVISION OF BIOCHEMISTRY, DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY AND BIOCHEMISTRY
University of Colorado, Campus Box 215
Boulder, CO 80309-0215
Graduate Secretary (303) 492-8978; Fax (303) 492-5894
hilary.oppermann@colorado.edu
http://.colorado.edu/chemistry/

The Division of Biochemistry currently has 13 full-time tenured (or tenure track) faculty, several of whom are of substantial national prominence. The current level of research support in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry is about 10 million dollars per year. Research in the Division of Biochemistry is particularly strong in the areas of gene expression and regulation, RNA processing and splicing, nucleic acid chemistry, kinetics and mechanisms of enzymes, bacterial ice nucleation, biophysical chemistry of hemoglobin, and NMR spectroscopy for determination of structure and dynamics of proteins and nucleic acids.

Instrumentation essential to modern biochemical research is available: machine stop, glassblowing shop, electronics shop, chemical and labware stockroom, computing system and central analytical facility, cell culture facility, peptide and DNA synthesizers, growth chambers, ultracentrifuge facility, and color graphics system for macromolecular modeling. In addition, the Biochemistry Division has recently completed a remodeling and addition project which includes a reading room, seminar room, computer facility, new research laboratories, instrumentation and classrooms.

LOCAL BIOTECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY
The Boulder/Denver area has numerous biotechnology companies that participate in the Biotechnology Training Program: Amgen (molecular biology research and development, protein renaturation, and pilot-scale fermentation and product recovery); Baxter Hemoglobin (clinical trials for recombinant hemoglobin, development of pharmaceutical proteins expressed by bacteria); Hauser Chemical Research, Inc. (extraction and purification of natural products and work with taxol, an anti-tumor drug); Gilead (RNA ligands identified through SELEX procedures); Ribozyme Pharmaceuticals (catalytic properties of RNA molecules); Xenometrix (cell-based diagnostics); Proligo (nucleic-acid technologies); FeRx (magnetically delivered therapeutics); Heska (animal biotechnology); BioStar (medical kits and diagnostics; and Coors Brewing Company (brewing, fermentation, microbiology). The Boulder division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (protein separations, biological property determinations) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (biomass reuse, novel fermentor designs) are also participating in the Program.

THE UNIVERSITY AND SURROUNDING COMMUNITY
The University of Colorado has traditionally been one of the strongest teaching and research centers in the nation. It has a student body of 25,000 on the Boulder campus and is composed of sixteen schools and colleges offering advanced degrees in 120 fields. The graduate student body numbers about 5,000. The campus is within sight of the Flatirons, a spectacular series of rock formations that represent the first rise of the Rocky Mountains above the Great Plains.

The city of Boulder (population 90,000) is characterized by mild winters and sunny, dry summers, a beautiful natural environment and a cosmopolitan atmosphere. Boulder's commitment to a pleasant, well-planned community attracts a variety of individuals to the area. The city is a center of high technology enterprise and cultural activity, and is a year-round haven for outdoor enthusiasts. Boulder's location 25 miles northwest of Denver (the capital of Colorado) affords access to a wide range of activities including excellent museums, fine shopping, major musical performances, theatre, and a convenient international airport.

CORRESPONDENCE AND INFORMATION
For more information, contact:
Biotechnology Program
c/o Ellen Romig
424 UCB
University of Colorado at Boulder
Boulder, CO 80309-0424
Phone: (303) 492-6650; Fax: (303) 492-4341
Email: romige@colorado.edu

Applications for the Ph.D. program may be obtained directly from the chosen major department, or by returning the attached questionnaire (fill out on-line and print).