KGI Awarded $200,000 Grant from Parsons Foundation for Bioprocessing Center
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CLAREMONT, Calif., March 22, 2007 – Keck Graduate Institute (KGI) announced today that The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation has awarded $200,000 to KGI for expansion of its Amgen Bioprocessing Center, a critical educational laboratory for teaching tomorrow’s leaders of the biopharmaceutical industry.
“Bioprocessing holds the key to producing life-saving therapies for those suffering from cancer, diabetes, arthritis and heart disease,” said Sheldon Schuster, KGI’s president. “With the generous help of the Parsons Foundation, we will be able to expand the hands-on teaching capabilities of the Amgen Bioprocessing Center and provide our students with the scientific skills and business knowledge needed to become leaders in the industry.”
With the Parsons grant, KGI’s Amgen Bioprocessing Center will purchase equipment to expand its fermentation capacity so that more students can grow mammalian cells and microorganisms to high density in bioreactors. This laboratory training, along with the business curriculum provided in KGI’s Master of Bioscience program, will provide students with the most effective technical and management skills needed for therapeutic drug production.
The Amgen Bioprocessing Center at KGI was established in 2006 with a $2 million gift from the Amgen Foundation. The center is directed by Dr. Matthew Croughan, the George B. and Joy Rathmann Professor.
KGI Background
Educating tomorrow’s bioscience industry leaders, Keck Graduate Institute (KGI) offers an interdisciplinary graduate education through its professional Master of Bioscience (MBS) program and its PhD program in Applied Life Sciences. Utilizing team-based learning with real-world projects, KGI’s innovative curriculum seamlessly combines computational and systems biology, bioengineering, management as well as bioethics. KGI also has a robust and cutting-edge research program geared toward the application of bioscience discoveries. KGI is a member of The Claremont Colleges, located in Claremont, California.
Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences is dedicated to education and research aimed at translating into practice, for the benefit of society, the power and potential of the life sciences.
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