- Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences
Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences (short KGI) is a small graduate school in
Claremont, California . It was founded in1997 through a startup grant of $50 million from theW. M. Keck Foundation . KGI is a member of theClaremont Colleges .KGI offers a professional science masters degree called the Master of Bioscience (MBS), as well as a PhD in Applied Life Sciences, which is built upon the MBS degree, and a separate PhD in Computational and Systems Biology. The two year MBS program integrates scientific, engineering, and business curriculum, culminating in a Team Master's Project (TMP), which is sponsored by one of KGI's industry partners.
Team Masters Project
The capstone of the MBS program is the TMP in which teams of three to five students work with sponsoring companies to solve real problems. The Team Masters Projects ideally include both business and technical aspects; for example, students may be asked to validate a new technology and to develop a strategy for market penetration of the technology. The actual deliverables for each TMP are negotiatied by the student team and the company liaison.
Careers
KGI MBS graduates have been hired by companies including
Amgen ,Genentech ,Beckman Coulter , andEli Lilly . Graduate employment is typically in the areas ofMarketing ,Regulatory Affairs ,Business Development ,Project Management or Research.Other
Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences is accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities of the
Western Association of Schools and Colleges Notable members of Keck's advisory council include
Bruce Alberts ,Simon Ramo ,John Hopfield ,Alfred Mann , and J. Craig Venter.Arthur Riggs , one ofGenentech 's founding scientists, is a trustee of the institute.Ionian Technologies was founded in 2000, and is the first
spin-off company to commercialize technology developed at KGI. Ionian focuses onmolecular diagnostics for emerging and infectious diseases, and in2004 was awarded a contract to develop a handheld biothreat detector usingisothermal amplification ofDNA [ [http://www.pnas.org/cgi/reprint/100/8/4504 Isothermal reactions for the amplification of oligonucleotides - Van Ness et al. 100 (8): 4504 - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ] ] . Other KGI startups include Zuyder Pharmaceuticals and Claremont BioSciences.News
*KGI students Peter Vandeventer and Christopher Warner were awarded "Science, Mathematics and Research for Transformation" (SMART) scholarships from the
US Department of Defense to support PhD research related toBiodefense . [http://www.claremont-courier.com/archives/6-30-07%20KGI_Scholarship.doc] Only 100 SMART scholarships were awarded nationwide, out of 1600 applicants.*The
Haynes Foundation recently awarded a grant to support an 18 month project titled “The Marketplace for Ideas: Can Los Angeles Build a Successful Biotechnology Cluster?” which is led by professor Steve Casper [ [http://www.claremont-courier.com/pages/Topstory062307.2.html Foundation gives $84,000 toward KGI study ] ] .*In June 2006 KGI received a grant of $100,000 from the Michael J. Connell Foundation of
Pasadena in support of Professor Animesh Ray's project titled “Creating a Comprehensive Integrated Database for Multidisciplinary Data on the Avian Influenza”.*In April 2005, the
Amgen Foundation donated $2 million to establish a teaching and research scalebioprocessing center at KGI. Additional donations from Amgen EVP Dennis Fenton and the W.M. Keck Foundation will endow a professorship in honor ofGeorge B. Rathmann to direct the center. In January 2006 Dr. Matthew S. Croughan was selected as the center's first director.*A group of KGI faculty was awarded a $4.88 million grant through the NSF's Frontiers in Integrative Biological Research (FIBR) program to study the basis of modularity in biology.
Past Opposition
The decision to establish Keck Graduate Institute as a seventh Claremont College met with some opposition, particularly from faculty of the other Claremont Colleges who objected to its lack of
tenure , and environmentalists who opposed its plans to build a campus next to the Bernard Field Station, an area of undevelopedscrubland . The environmental issue was largely settled when KGI decided to establish its campus at a different location, and other opposition gradually faded. [cite news | title = Keck foes persist in fight | work = Los Angeles Times (Claremont supplement) | date =November 23 ,2000 ] [ [http://www.claremont-courier.com/pages/Topstory050907.3.html Keck Graduate Institute To Celebrate 10th Year At Weekend Commencement ] ]References
External links
* [http://www.kgi.edu KGI homepage]
* [http://www.wmkeck.org/projects/index.html W.M. Keck Foundation Special Projects]
* [http://www.claremont.edu/ Claremont Colleges homepage]
* [http://www.wmkeck.org/index.html W.M. Keck Keck Foundation Homepage]
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