The Biotechnology Training Program (BTP) at the University of Virginia

University of Virginia

The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...

 (UVa) is an National Institutes of Health

National Institutes of Health

The National Institutes of Health are an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and are the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and health-related research. Its science and engineering counterpart is the National Science Foundation...

 (NIH) sponsored PhD level research program founded in 2000. The BTP is open to all UVa PhD students in any science or engineering department at UVa . It is one of nineteen NIH BTP's nationwide and the only one in Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

.

History

Beginning in 1989 and continuing through the 1990s, a group of medical school labs interested in the interaction of cells

Cell (biology)

The cell is the basic structural and functional unit of all known living organisms. It is the smallest unit of life that is classified as a living thing, and is often called the building block of life. The Alberts text discusses how the "cellular building blocks" move to shape developing embryos....

 with extracellular matrix

Extracellular matrix

In biology, the extracellular matrix is the extracellular part of animal tissue that usually provides structural support to the animal cells in addition to performing various other important functions. The extracellular matrix is the defining feature of connective tissue in animals.Extracellular...

 met monthly to share data as the Matrix Group. Several seminars per year from well-known experts were also organized. The group evolved into a critical mass of nineteen independently funded mentors from thirteen different basic science and clinical departments in the Schools of Medicine and Engineering. In January 1998 the Group sought student 'biotechnology' funding from the NIH. This NIH support mechanism was established by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences

National Institute of General Medical Sciences

The National Institute of General Medical Sciences is a part of the National Institutes of Health that primarily supports research that lays the foundation for advances in disease diagnosis, treatment and prevention...

 in 1988 after prompting from the United States Congress

United States Congress

The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....

. A revision of the proposal was funded in 2000. This gave birth to the UVa Biotechnology Training Program in a form that extended beyond Matrix Group themes to a wide variety of biological, engineering and technological topics. Since 2000, the BTP has trained or is currently training over fifty students from home departments in Biochemistry

Biochemistry

Biochemistry, sometimes called biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes in living organisms, including, but not limited to, living matter. Biochemistry governs all living organisms and living processes...

, Cell Biology

Cell biology

Cell biology is a scientific discipline that studies cells – their physiological properties, their structure, the organelles they contain, interactions with their environment, their life cycle, division and death. This is done both on a microscopic and molecular level...

, Chemistry

Chemistry

Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....

, Medicine

Medicine

Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....

, Microbiology

Microbiology

Microbiology is the study of microorganisms, which are defined as any microscopic organism that comprises either a single cell , cell clusters or no cell at all . This includes eukaryotes, such as fungi and protists, and prokaryotes...

, Pathology

Pathology

Pathology is the precise study and diagnosis of disease. The word pathology is from Ancient Greek , pathos, "feeling, suffering"; and , -logia, "the study of". Pathologization, to pathologize, refers to the process of defining a condition or behavior as pathological, e.g. pathological gambling....

, Pharmacology

Pharmacology

Pharmacology is the branch of medicine and biology concerned with the study of drug action. More specifically, it is the study of the interactions that occur between a living organism and chemicals that affect normal or abnormal biochemical function...

, Physiology

Physiology

Physiology is the science of the function of living systems. This includes how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and bio-molecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system. The highest honor awarded in physiology is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or...

, Biomedical Engineering

Biomedical engineering

Biomedical Engineering is the application of engineering principles and design concepts to medicine and biology. This field seeks to close the gap between engineering and medicine: It combines the design and problem solving skills of engineering with medical and biological sciences to improve...

, Chemical Engineering

Chemical engineering

Chemical engineering is the branch of engineering that deals with physical science , and life sciences with mathematics and economics, to the process of converting raw materials or chemicals into more useful or valuable forms...

 and Systems Engineering

Systems engineering

Systems engineering is an interdisciplinary field of engineering that focuses on how complex engineering projects should be designed and managed over the life cycle of the project. Issues such as logistics, the coordination of different teams, and automatic control of machinery become more...

. Among alumni, three are now Assistant Professors. Some are currently training as postdoctoral fellows. Others have taken permanent employment in government or industry.

Mission

The mission of the BTP is threefold:

1. First and foremost to transform undergraduates into high caliber scientists.
2. To educate students in the different cultures of science. All students train for 2 – 3 months in an industrial setting within or outside of the United States.
3. To promote synergy among the disciplines via data sharing, seminars and symposia. This is an opportune time for students to be brushing shoulders with fellows in engineering, chemistry or biology. This union of disciplines stimulates new ideas and perspectives. This is the foundation for novel basic science and biotechnological innovation.

Admissions

Applicants are primarily in the first year of their departmental PhD program. According to NIH guidelines, only US citizen or green card holders can be supported. Assuming this criterion is met, any PhD science student is eligible to apply http://faculty.virginia.edu/biotech/index.html, even if their mentor has not previously been associated with the BTP. The deadline is yearly in late April or early May. Admission is academically selective. To expose the BTP to minorities and the disadvantaged, the BTP formally interacts with programs at Norfolk State University

Norfolk State University

Norfolk State University is a four-year, state-supported, coed, liberal arts, historically black university located in Norfolk, Virginia. It is member school of the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund and the Virginia High-Tech Partnership.-Academics:...

 and Virginia Union University

Virginia Union University

Virginia Union University is a historically black university located in Richmond, Virginia, United States. It took its present name in 1899 upon the merger of two older schools, Richmond Theological Institute and Wayland Seminary, each founded after the end of American Civil War by the American...

, and is seeking collaborations with southwest Virginia.

Curriculum

BTP training is research directed. Research is time consuming. Extra courses http://faculty.virginia.edu/biotech/index.html beyond departmental PhD courses are minimized to an introductory chemical engineering course approachable by both non-engineers and engineers, and a course each in statistics and research ethics. The required cell or biological chemistry courses are usually completed as part of departmental requirements.

Current research

BTP research themes are broad and overlapping. Many have a foundation or are directed towards cell or tissue

Tissue (biology)

Tissue is a cellular organizational level intermediate between cells and a complete organism. A tissue is an ensemble of cells, not necessarily identical, but from the same origin, that together carry out a specific function. These are called tissues because of their identical functioning...

 biology

Biology

Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...

.
These themes are as follows. (i) Engineering cell and tissue biomatrices, cell signaling

Cell signaling

Cell signaling is part of a complex system of communication that governs basic cellular activities and coordinates cell actions. The ability of cells to perceive and correctly respond to their microenvironment is the basis of development, tissue repair, and immunity as well as normal tissue...

, mechanotransduction

Mechanotransduction

Mechanotransduction refers to the many mechanisms by which cells convert mechanical stimulus into chemical activity.- Tendon :The process of is explained for the lay-reader at http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/43/4/247.full- Ear :...

 and kinetics. (ii) Biodetection assays, genomics

Genomics

Genomics is a discipline in genetics concerning the study of the genomes of organisms. The field includes intensive efforts to determine the entire DNA sequence of organisms and fine-scale genetic mapping efforts. The field also includes studies of intragenomic phenomena such as heterosis,...

/proteomics

Proteomics

Proteomics is the large-scale study of proteins, particularly their structures and functions. Proteins are vital parts of living organisms, as they are the main components of the physiological metabolic pathways of cells. The term "proteomics" was first coined in 1997 to make an analogy with...

, protein structure

Protein structure

Proteins are an important class of biological macromolecules present in all organisms. Proteins are polymers of amino acids. Classified by their physical size, proteins are nanoparticles . Each protein polymer – also known as a polypeptide – consists of a sequence formed from 20 possible L-α-amino...

, immune therapy. (iii) Biomaterials/bioprocessing, combinatorial chemistry

Combinatorial chemistry

Combinatorial chemistry involves the rapid synthesis or the computer simulation of a large number of different but structurally related molecules or materials...

, drug screening/purification

Purification

Purification is the process of rendering something pure, i.e. clean of foreign elements and/or pollution, and may refer to:* List of purification methods in chemistry* Water purification** Organisms used in water purification...

/delivery together encompass broad areas of discovery research and drug development

Drug development

Drug development is a blanket term used to define the process of bringing a new drug to the market once a lead compound has been identified through the process of drug discovery...

. (iv) Bacterial chemotaxis

Chemotaxis

Chemotaxis is the phenomenon in which somatic cells, bacteria, and other single-cell or multicellular organisms direct their movements according to certain chemicals in their environment. This is important for bacteria to find food by swimming towards the highest concentration of food molecules,...

/infection

Infection

An infection is the colonization of a host organism by parasite species. Infecting parasites seek to use the host's resources to reproduce, often resulting in disease...

/metabolism

Metabolism

Metabolism is the set of chemical reactions that happen in the cells of living organisms to sustain life. These processes allow organisms to grow and reproduce, maintain their structures, and respond to their environments. Metabolism is usually divided into two categories...

, biodefense

Biodefense

Biodefense refers to short term, local, usually military measures to restore biosecurity to a given group of persons in a given area who are, or may be, subject to biological warfare— in the civilian terminology, it is a very robust biohazard response. It is technically possible to apply...

. (iv) Gene regulation mechanisms, genetic disease/regenerative medicine

Regenerative medicine

Regenerative medicine is the "process of replacing or regenerating human cells, tissues or organs to restore orestablish normal function". This field holds the promise of regenerating damaged tissues and organs in the body by replacing damaged tissue and/or by stimulating the body's own repair...

, cell therapy

Cell therapy

Cell therapy describes the process of introducing new cells into a tissue in order to treat a disease. Cell therapies often focus on the treatment of hereditary diseases, with or without the addition of gene therapy...

. Needed is a new generation of young scientists who approach new scientific challenges with analytical minds and an extensive array of modern technologies

Faculty

Mentoring BTP students is a highly engaged, collaborative and well-funded faculty of fifty-six Assistant, Associate and full Professors from a diversity of science departments.

Program features

The BTP is a training program 'for the students by the students. Trainees take direct responsibility for programmatic features including: editorship of the BTP newsletter, organization of BTP Minority Day, high school and Day of Caring outreach, BTP poster presentations at other institutions, organization of BTP seminars, social activities, new student dinner, and BTP Symposia. For more information, contact mthall@Virginia.edu.

Other BTPs

Other institutions with NIGMS supported BTPs http://www.nigms.nih.gov/Training/InstPredoc/PredocInst-Biotechnology.htm include: University of California Berkeley (schaffer@cchem.berkeley.edu), University of California Davis (bdhammock@ucdavis.edu), University of California Los Angeles (hmonbouq@ucla.edu), University of California, San Diego (wfenical@ucsd.edu), University of Colorado at Boulder (theodore.randolph@Colorado.edu), Georgia Institute of Technology (Northwestern University), University of Iowa (daniel-quinn@uiowa.edu), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (wittrup@mit.edu), University of Michigan at Ann Arbor (jswan@umich.edu), University of Minnesota (wshu@cems.umn.edu), Rutgers The State University of New Jersey (hpederse@sol.rutgers.edu), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (dordick@rpi.edu), Duke University (reichert@acpub.duke.edu), North Carolina State University, Raleigh (rmkelly@eos.ncsu.edu), Rice University (jwest@rice.edu ), Washington State University (reevesr@wsu.edu), University of Wisconsin Madison (biotech@bact.wisc.edu).

External links

• http://www.virginia.edu/
• http://faculty.virginia.edu/biotech/index.html
• http://oscar.virginia.edu/researchnews/x7772.xml
• http://www.nigms.nih.gov/Training/InstPredoc/
• http://www.nigms.nih.gov/Training/InstPredoc/PredocDesc-Biotechnology.htm
• http://www.nigms.nih.gov/Training/InstPredoc/PredocInst-Biotechnology.htm
• http://www.nsu.edu/biotechnology/
• http://www.vuu.edu/academics/sciencefaculty.htm
• http://www.dayofcaring.info/
• http://www.jmu.edu/biology/biotechnology.shtml