Abstract:

We have established a research partnership between 4 local universities (San Francisco State, Stanford, UC Berkeley & UC San Francisco), the Exploratorium Science Museum, IBM Almaden and the National Science Foundation (NSF) through an NSF Cooperative agreement that is now in the sixth year of a 10-year agreement. This NSF Science & Technology Center (STC), the Center for Cellular Construction (CCC), is focused on establishing a new area of engineering: Cellular Engineering.

Cutting-edge research is approached using the engineering principles of design, build and test with 4 major themes:
1) Cell Probe,
2) CellCAD,
3) Cellular Legos and
4) Living Bioreactor.

San Francisco State University (SFSU), a Minority Serving Institution (MSI), is a Research Active institution while the other 3 universities are Research Intensive. SFSU provides research training for undergraduate and master’s students who also have full access to the research infra-structure facilities, faculty and staff of all the other partner institutions. The partnership thereby benefits from the access and opportunity to participate in the scientific and professional training of a Diverse population of developing scientists. The Partnership is further enhanced by the participation of diverse faculty from SFSU.

We will describe the role each partner plays in the Center, the various program activities and the outcomes of these efforts to date. We will also provide, in greater detail, the training program design and structure provided in preparation for graduate study and scientific careers. In addition, we will elaborate on our other Industrial partners who provide significant student funding support to over 100 SFSU students/year conducting research in CCC labs at SFSU and UCSF. These include Genentech, Inc. and VIR Biosciences as well as the Genentech Foundation and the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation. The NSF STC program provides research release time for the SFSU faculty participants as well as a Scholarship for a MS student in each SFSU faculty participant’s lab.

Keywords:

Cellular Engineering, STEM training, Cell Biology, Computer Assisted Learning, Artificial Intelligence.