Supporting innovative research at the cutting edge of biotechnology, the University of California Systemwide Biotechnology Research and Education Program has awarded 11 new training grants to graduate students and their faculty mentors at eight UC campuses.

The $50,000-per-year Graduate Research and Education in Adaptive bioTechnology (GREAT) training grants are among the highest individual awards given for graduate education and training anywhere in the nation. They will fund biotechnology-related research into such areas as stem cells, protein mapping and cell membrane modeling that incorporate cross-disciplinary training that spans all fields of science, engineering, medicine and agriculture.

"Rapid advancements in technology are catalyzed by providing an environment to nurture diverse fields of study," said Martina Newell McGloughlin, director of the UC systemwide biotechnology program, headquartered at UC Davis. "Examples are found in the areas of nanotechnology and modeling of biological materials."

Grant recipients were selected according to their demonstrated ability to understand and solve problems that cross varied disciplines.

The 11 GREAT training grants were awarded to:

UC BERKELEY

• Chemical engineering graduate student Krishanu Saha and Professor David Schaffer for engineering synthetic and injectable scaffolds for stem cell control;
• Physics graduate student Jeffrey Vieregg and Professor Ignacio Tinoco for RNA folding;
• Chemistry graduate student Thomas Lowery and Professor David Wemmer for biomolecular assays and imaging;

UC DAVIS

• Chemical engineering graduate student Sandra Bennun-Serrano and Professor Roland Faller for modeling cell membranes;

UCLA

• Pharmacologist graduate student Fulai Jin and Professor Jing Huang for protein interactome mapping;

UC RIVERSIDE

• Chemical and environmental engineering graduate student Mangesh Bangar and Professor Nosang Myung for novel nanowire sensor arrays;

UC SAN DIEGO

• Bioinformatics graduate student Thuy Vo and Professor Bernhard Palsson for mathematical modeling of mitochondrial metabolism;

UC SAN FRANCISCO

• Biomedical graduate student Siddhartha Mitra and Professor Steven Finkbeiner for innovative analysis of molecular and cellular pathogenesis;
• Biophysics graduate student Caleb Bashor and Professor Wendell Lim for engineering cellular signal processing;

UC SANTA BARBARA

• Chemistry/biochemistry graduate student Rashda Khan and Professor Galen Stucky for design of novel biomaterials; and

UC SANTA CRUZ

• Electrical engineering graduate student Dongliang Yin and Professor Holger Schmidt for optical studies of biological molecules.

The GREAT program, developed two years ago, supports the training of the brightest young University of California graduate students in theoretical and experimental research at the interface between the life sciences and the physical, chemical, engineering, mathematical and computational sciences.

This year's awards bring the total number of GREAT training grants to 22. Of the 10 UC campuses, all but the newly opened Merced campus have received one or more of these grants.

The GREAT program is intended to foster and support meritorious research in biotechnology; enhance training for students and postdoctoral fellows; and inform government, industry, and the public about developments in biotechnology and their impact in the public arena.

"Our program is committed to support novel research and training, and to educating students and the public about the exciting promise and potential of biotechnology," McGloughlin said. "We promote open and factual discussions on scientific research as it applies to biotechnology and make ourselves available to the public, other institutions and government officials to answer questions."