The Biotechnology Center, founded in 1985, is an interdisciplinary program that includes 127 faculty members from the Colleges of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, Veterinary Medicine, Engineering, Medicine, Applied Life Studies, and the Beckman Institute. The major research facilities are the W. M. Keck Center for Comparative and Functional Genomics, Flow Cytometry Facility, Immunological Resources Center, Protein Sciences Facility, and Transgenic Animal Facility. In addition, the Biotechnology Center Placement Office provides job placement for advanced-degree students in the biological and biomedical sciences. The facilities are located at four centrally located campus sites, close to major users. Research services are available to University of Illinois faculty members at subsidized on-campus rates.
Services are also available to off-campus users at nonsubsidized rates.
The Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology is an inter- and multidisciplinary research institute devoted to basic research in the physical sciences, computation, engineering, biology, behavior, and cognition. The institute's primary mission is to foster interdisciplinary work of the highest quality in an environment that transcends many of the limitations inherent in traditional university organizations and structures. The daily operating expenses are funded by the state, while its research programs are supported mainly by external funding from the federal government, corp-orations, and foundations. Nearly 1,000 researchers from 20 UIUC departments as far-ranging as psychology, computer science, and biochemistry, comprise 19 Beckman Institute groups, working within and across these overlapping areas. The Center for Advanced Cement-Based Materials is funded primarily by an industrial consortium through the Technological Institute of Northwestern University.