Last Spring, we wrote a popular blog (New CU-Boulder Biotech Building to Anchor Local Bioscience Industry) on the Colorado Institute in Molecular Biotechnology (CIMB), its future home in the new Jenny Smoly Caruthers Biotechnology Building, and the potential impact on the local economy. While the Caruthers biotech building has pushed back its opening date from November 2011 to early in 2012, the CIMB is going strong and has in fact reorganized to become the new Biofrontiers Institute.
On September 12, the University of Colorado Board of Regents voted to create and support the Biofrontiers Institute as a systemwide interdisciplinary research and education entity, following on the CIMB's success in "breaking down academic barriers and working across disciplines on significant challenges in bioscience and translating new knowledge into biotechnology solutions."
(The CU-Boulder campus under the backdrop of the Rocky Mountains, right, and wet lab researchers, below, courtesy of CU-Boulder)
Current Biofrontiers Institute research projects include work in these areas:
•Microbial genetics and genomics
•Bioengineering (tissues, cells, etc.)
•Human disease genetics (inherited diseases, cancer, and infectious disease)
•Imaging (cells, molecules, whole organism)
•Bioscience technology development (diagnostics, therapeutics, clean energy)
•Vaccines
•Small molecule screening
A second important component of the Biofrontiers Institute is creating the next generation of bioscientists. To further that goal, Biofrontiers and CU have established the IQ (Interdisciplinary Quantitative) Biology PhD degree program. According to director (and Nobel Prize winner) Thomas Cech:
We are at the beginning of a new golden age for bioscience. New technologies have produced mountains of biological data. Navigating these mountains for meaning demands a new kind of scientist. One who is comfortable with mathematical and computational analysis. One who can reach across a wide range of disciplines, work with multiple experts, and think fearlessly.
Lastly under the umbrella of the Biofrontiers Institute is the Butcher Program, which is responsible for awards, seed grants and a biannual symposium for CU scientists, thanks to the generosity of Colorado philanthropists Jane and Charlie Butcher. The Butchers have been supporters of CIMB (now Biofrontiers) since 2002 and have also contributed to the building fund for the new biotech facility due for completion in the next few months.
If you are a researcher, lab manager, purchasing agent, or biotechnology equipment supplier, you won't want to miss Biotechnology Calendar Inc.'s 14th Annual Boulder BioResearch Product Faire™ event held on the CU-Boulder campus. This popular and well-attended life science expo will be held on June 13 in 2012. For more information, click the button below, and note our other Colorado events also coming in June:
Other Biotechnology Calendar Inc. events in Colorado include:
•2nd Annual National Jewish Health BioResearch Product Faire™ Front Line Event™ trade show, June 11, 2012
•3nd Annual Denver BioResearch Product Faire™, CSU Anshutz Medical Campus event June 12, 2012
•2nd Annual Foothills Campus BioResearch Product Faire™ Front Line Event™ trade show, CSU Ft. Collins/Foothills June 15, 2012
•5th Annual Ft. Collins BioResearch Product Faire™ Front Line Event™ trade show at the CSU Ft. Collins Campus June 14, 2012