With the goals of attracting government and industrial funding and enhancing national and international recognition in the broad field of biotechnology, the Biotechnology Working Group (BWG) seeks to develop strategies to capitalize on expertise at the U of A and the state. During the next year, planned activities will include the engagement of focus groups to map current and emerging strengths, hosting a poster session on biotechnology, and the conceptualization of projects that could be crafted into large federal proposals. Industry participation is planned and will include local and international biotech companies.

The group will be organized along three themes: upstream production, downstream purification and optimization and modeling as fueled by artificial intelligence.

Faculty, graduate students, industrial participants and postdoctoral associates can indicate their interest through the following link: https://forms.gle/nfXhzDrT59cCgsnn8. The first meeting is scheduled for Monday, Nov. 10, 2025, at 11:30 a.m., and lunch will be provided. More details will be sent to those who complete the interest form.  

 If you have any questions, contact a member of the working group core team: Robert Beitle, chemical engineering; Ranil Wickramasinghe, chemical engineering; Xianghong Qian, biomedical engineering; and Christopher Nelson, biomedical engineering.

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About the Biotechnology Working Group: The Biotechnology Working Group is an investment by the College of Engineering to foster community. Research working groups will bring together faculty from various departments across the campus to exchange ideas, refine concepts and form research teams in specific emerging and relevant research areas. It is expected that these collaborations will lead to the development of competitive, collaborative proposal submissions to external funding agencies.