The following requirements are in addition to, or further elaborate upon, those requirements outlined in the Student Services section of this Web site.

Trainees supported by the Biotechnology Cluster must fulfill the class requirements for the Biotechnology Training Program, which are available at www.biotechtraining.northwestern.edu. Trainees may have taken previously or take during their graduate training seven courses, which cover core subjects of modern biology & biotechnology. Biochemistry (Biol Sci 309, IBiS 405, or equivalent), Ethics in Biological Research (IBiS 423 or equivalent), Molecular Biology (Biol Sci 390, IBiS 402, or equivalent), Advances in Biotechnology (ChBE 478), and 3 Biotechnology Electives. Numerous courses in multiple departments can be used to fulfill the electives. Examples are available on the Biotechnology Training Program Web site, and potential trainees are encouraged to contact the director to discuss the course plan.

The Training Program has two monthly events for trainees of the Biotechnology Program. These events are the Research in Progress Meeting, which is attended by only the trainees of the NIH Biotechnology Training Program and the Biotechnology Cluster, and the Biotechnology Seminar series. These events are described below.

Research in Progress Meetings

A central feature of the Biotechnology Training program is the Research in Progress Meetings. These meetings, in which all trainees and some faculty (at the rate of 3-4 per year) present their research, is held once a month. It is attended by all funded trainees and open to non-funded (a total of 10-12), the program director and co-director, and the faculty advisor of the presenting trainee. The trainees must present their research at least once a year. Attendance of this meeting by all Training Program preceptors are encouraged to attend, and email invitations are sent to the preceptors, with several reminders, as the date approaches. Additionally, faculty members that advise a trainee are strongly encouraged to present at these meetings. At the Research in Progress meetings, each trainee presents an overview of the literature relevant to their research and its connectedness to health and disease. Additionally, the present an progress report on their research and the group discusses a related article from the literature.

The Biotechnology Seminar Series

We have also introduced a series of seminars presented by distinguished researchers. The speakers are from internal to Northwester and also external-invited speakers. The internal speakers are primarily selected from the list of preceptors, who provide a presentation on a research project or an overview of the research in their laboratory. During the past year (2007-8), we have had presentations from the laboratories of Backman (BME), Ho (BME), Joester (MSE), Linsenmeier (BME), Meade (Chem), Miller (ChBE), Mirkin (Chem), Papoutsakis (ChBE), Shea (ChBE), and Woodruff (IBiS). The external speakers are nominated and invited by trainees to enhance trainee-faculty interactions. The speakers at these seminars are chosen, invited, and hosted by the trainees. After presenting the seminar, the visiting scientist meets with the trainees as group, tours selected laboratories, and converses with the program director and several of the preceptors. In addition, the visitors have lunch with the trainee groups.The list of featured speakers from the past year includes: Prof. Bob Kelly (NC State), Dr. Jeffrey Schloss (NIH National Human Genome Research Institute), Daniel Segre (Boston University), John Mayer (Eli Lilly, Inc.), Andre Palmer (Ohio State University). Dr. Norbert Riedel (Baxter International Inc.), and David Ostrow (Hospira Inc.).

Students are always encouraged to nominate external speakers.