Courtesy of http://www.franklin.ma.us/auto/upload/schools/horace/902-bio-tech.jpg

UMBC’s research capabilities are just about to get bigger. UMBC was recently assigned the resources of University of Maryland’s Biotech Institute’s (UMBI’s), Institute of Fluorescence (IOF). Many UMBC faculty members already have strong connections with the IOF. In addition, UMBC will be further developing research programs in the environmental and genomic sciences by establishing a joint University System of Maryland research center at the Center of Marine Biotechnology (COMB) in Baltimore.

These opportunities come to UMBC after the University System of Maryland (USM) Board of Regents Friday decision to restructure UMBI. The fragmented institute was dispersed across the state. This structure created administrative inefficiencies, a lack of graduate and undergraduate participants in the institute, poor communication between different institute branches and the institute’s inability to take part in large-scale projects. For these reasons, several changes founded upon inter disciplinary and inter institutional cooperation were made to better organize the state’s biotech resources and best showcase the strengths of the UMBI community.

In a piece discussing the full extent of the restructuring, USM Chancellor William E. Kirwan spoke about the recently adopted systemic changes, “This restructuring has the potential to double the research productivity of UMBI’s current assets within five years. [UMBI currently generates some $25 million in research activity annually] Once these assets are joined with activities system-wide, USM will play an even greater role in positioning the State of Maryland as a national and international leader in the biosciences.”