...Director's message
UC BREP has a 16-year record of recognized excellence in fostering integrated multidisciplinary research and training across the nine UC campuses, the three national laboratories and the Agriculture Experiment Station. Program grants have been leveraged four- to ten-fold by supported investigators who were subsequently funded by federal or private sector grants. Research and education projects seeded by the program have evolved into ongoing training programs, Organized Research Unit (ORUs) and major research centers, including UC Santa Barbara's Marine Biotechnology Center, and UC Davis's Center for Engineering Plants Resistance Against Pathogens (CEPRAP).

UC BREP has fostered entirely new fields of research often well ahead of federal programs. Participating students have proceeded rapidly into independent academic and industrial careers. Public policy analyses and public education have been extremely effective. In a recent, extensive five-year peer review of the program, one reviewer commented, "UC BREP is a highly successful program as judged by the objective measures of dollars leveraged and students trained and as judged by industry satisfaction. Other benefits have also been realized in research funding and faculty collaborations."

It is important for UC to continue to forward innovative science through research and training. The biotechnology industry has now entered an era where in silico and ex machina approaches are dominating the drive for investigations in this field and leading to advances not dreamed of just a few short years ago. In the post-genome era, engineering, chemistry, computer sciences and mathematics will be as integral to biology as they are presently to high-energy physics and astronomy.

As the science evolves, so too does UC BREP-encouraging young researchers to become scientists who will make today's dreams a reality. The results and outcomes of University of California's premier biotech training grant program is a testament to successful research and education and continues to play a critical role in the eminence of our state. We are proud to serve humanity.

...Future Promise
A computer program that Jim Kent developed as a UC Santa Cruz graduate student helped the publicly funded Human Genome Project win the race to sequence the genetic code that controls human health and development.

And Kent's work was supported in part by the UC Biotechnology Research and Education Program. Since 1985, this UC program has been providing grants for cutting-edge research, like genomics, with great promise for better medicines, improved quality and production of food and fiber, and enhancing the quality of a cleaner environment."