The Applied Biology and Bioprocess Engineering Training Grant was initiated at Berkeley in the fall of 1989. It is a collaborative undertaking, combining the strengths of three outstanding departments; chemistry, chemical engineering and molecular and cell biology. Specifically, this program focuses on research training in areas relevant to the needs of biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and chemical companies currently involved in the manufacture of products using biological routes. Trainees acquire expertise in areas such as molecular genetics, bacterial, yeast and fungal fermentation, mammalian cell culture, enzyme technology, bioproduct recovery and purification, combinatorial biocatalysis, and biomedical applications of materials science and bioengineering. The graduate program includes laboratory and classroom instruction in cell culture techniques (mammalian and bacteria cell culture), protein and enzyme isolation, purification and immobilization, mutagenesis and gene expression, protein and nucleic acid chemistry, separation and purification methods, and computational biology. This is supplemented with seminars and courses on topics spanning industrial research and development activities and advanced scientific areas, including fermentations involving recombinant organisms, tissue engineering, bioproduct recovery, recombinant DNA techniques, metabolic regulation, enzyme inhibitor design, and the application of enzymes and antibodies as catalysts in organic syntheses. Lectures from internationally known scientists in a variety of related disciplines further enrich the training program. Research is conducted in the various areas described above under the supervision of the faculty mentors. Students in the program also undertake an industrial internship, typically at Bay Area biotechnology companies.

All faculty have close interactions with the biotechnology industry, an important element to the mission of our training environment. Numerous companies - including Amyris (co-founded by Professor Jay Keasling), Bio-Rad Laboratories, British Petroleum, Dow, Genentech, Geron, ImmuneRegen BioSciences, Merck, Novartis, and Virxsys - collaborate closely with training faculty and/or support research in faculty laboratories. There is both formal and informal interchange between students, faculty and staff from these companies. Furthermore, many program faculty serve on one or more scientific advisory boards for companies, which enables them to learn major problems in industry and thereby provides an important context that aids their choice of research problems. Our geographical localization in the heart of the biotech industry has greatly enhanced these opportunities. Finally, all program trainees conduct industrial internships during their training period. This unique environment is ideally suited to accomplish the objectives of the NIH Training program in Applied Biology and Biotechnology for several reasons: 1) continuous communication with industry provides our faculty and training program with valuable insights into important problems in industry, 2) it provides our students with dual experience in academic and industrial research cultures, and 3) it establishes important contacts that can and do lead to longer term career opportunities for our trainees in industry.

Of additional importance is the proximity of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), whose staff scientists and engineers provide a dimension of applied science that exposes trainees to the conduct of research in a quasi-industrial setting. Nearly all training faculty have joint appointments at LBNL (including the Program Director), with access to facilities, support and participate in large-scale, coordinated research programs. Trainees of LBNL-associated faculty work closely with LBNL scientists and engineers on their thesis research topics, and make extensive use of LBNL equipment.

The ABBE program provides a unique and distinctive environment to focus and provide momentum to training and educational efforts at the interface between academic and industrial research in biotechnology. The success of this approach and the training environment at Berkeley is best judged by the results to date. Over the past nine years, 23 trainees have completed their doctoral degrees and 10 are currently in training. A total of 37 trainees have been supported. All of those who have completed their doctoral degrees hold positions in biotechnology or major pharmaceutical companies, in academic positions, or are currently post-doctoral fellows.