The University of California Systemwide Biotechnology Research and Teaching Program, which supports and promotes biotechnology across the state, is planning to move to UC Davis from UC Berkeley. Martina Newell-McGloughlin, currently director of the UC Davis biotechnology program and the UC systemwide Life Sciences Informatics Program, is the new director-designate.

"Biotechnology is certainly an exciting research area that has many positive outcomes for our society. UC Davis welcomes the opportunity to serve as the system- wide host for this program," said UC Davis Provost Virginia Hinshaw.

Founded in 1985, the systemwide program supports research, teaching and outreach efforts related to biotechnology. Between 1985 and 1998, the program awarded 121 grants totaling over $18 million, and supported 789 graduate students and postdoctoral scholars. Grants are awarded in areas including biomedicine, agriculture, environmental sciences and social sciences such as law and economics.

Grants are open to all UC faculty and the three national laboratories affiliated with the university. Most grants are given as "seed money," small grants for preliminary work or to help attract larger grants from other sources. The program's annual budget is approximately $1.5 million in state funds.

A major aim for the program is to forge connections between areas such as electrical engineering, computer science and biology, Newell-McGloughlin said.

"We're now seeing a merging of information technology and biotechnology," said Newell-McGloughlin. In the post-genome sequencing era, biologists needed to take advantage of these emerging technologies, she said. By creating collaborations between specialists in different fields, the UC biotech program creates the basis for future technologies, she said.

Another major objective will be to promote training in these new technologies, to supply the demand from industry for qualified workers. Studies show that the demand for researchers trained in both computational science and molecular biology far exceeds supply.

At UC Davis, the program joins a wide range of research and training in biotechnology and related fields such as plant and animal genomics; medical, veterinary and environmental research; and biomedical engineering. Earlier this year, the campus broke ground on a building to house the $95 million Genome Center.

"UC Davis' strength is that we have a great breadth of biotechnology - medical, agricultural, environmental - and technology such as biological microelectronics," said Newell-McGloughlin.

Newell-McGloughlin credited the "incredible support" of the campus for the success of UC Davis' own biotechnology program. The UC Davis biotech program fosters links between the university, industry and public agencies, and runs educational and outreach programs. The university offers an undergraduate major in biotechnology, and graduate students can take a Designated Emphasis in Biotechnology.

This summer, the program has run training classes in bioinformatics for community college instructors, so that they can develop courses for their own students.

"Martina and her colleagues deserve a great deal of credit for putting together a winning proposal. The move of this program to UC Davis is a clear sign that this campus is recognized for its breadth and excellence in the biological sciences," said Leo Chalupa, interim dean of biological sciences.

Newell-McGloughlin will relinquish her directorship of the UC Davis biotech program upon taking the position with the UC systemwide program. She will remain director of the UC Life Sciences Informatics Program, which offers matching grants to UC researchers working with companies to develop, apply or test informatics tools in areas such as agriculture, medicine and biology.

The University of California has a close relationship with the state's biotech industry - one in four California biotech firms were started by UC faculty, one in three are within 35 miles of a UC campus, and 85 per cent employ staff with graduate degrees from the university.