C-BEF

The Chesapeake Bioscience Education Foundation (C-BEF), an initiative of the Virginia Biotechnology Association (VaBIO), is offering matching funds of $1,500 each for up to ten summer internships. The criteria are as follows: The biotechnology or medical device company must be planning to match or exceed the $1,500 award for the intern and the intern must be enrolled in or a recent graduate of a Virginia institution of higher education or be a resident of the Commonwealth.

Selection will be based upon the quality of the proposed internship experience. Applicants should outline the job description, the proposed salary for the position, the name, university affiliation and contact information for the intern and the likely start and end dates. Grants will be paid to the companies at the end of the internship experience once final documentation has been submitted to C-BEF. Recipients will also be required to fill out a short questionnaire at the end of the program.

Applications can be found here and must be completed and returned by May 8, 2009.

Students from the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology swept the top three awards for Biotechnology at the 2009 Virginia State Science and Engineering Fair on April 4 in the Patriot Center at George Mason University, in Fairfax, Virginia.

“TJ is an amazing school but it had never swept all of the awards before,” said Mark A. Herzog, executive director of the Virginia Biotechnology Association. “The judges make their decision on the merits of the projects and we only found out later that TJ students won all three awards.”

The Biotechnology awards were presented by judges from the Virginia Biotechnology Association (VaBIO) in partnership with the Chesapeake Bioscience Education Foundation (C-BEF).

First place went to Anirundh Mohan, a junior from the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. His project was entitled, “Synthesis and Characterization of Biomarker-Harvesting Hydrogel Nanoparticles.”

Second place went to LeeAnn Li, a senior from the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. Her project was “The Significant Role of p70 Ribosomal S6 Kinase in Regulating Mouse Embryonic Stem Cell Cardiomyogenesis.”

Third place also went to a student from TJ. Jessica Liu, a senior, rounded out the awards with her project entitled, “The Role of CREB in the Downregulation of Cyclin D1 by Tumor-Suppressor RASSF1A.”

In addition to winning the Biotech Award, LeeAnn Li won the over-all “Best in Show” award as well as first place in Cellular and Microbiology.

Images from the event can be viewed here.

Judges for the Biotechnology Awards for 2009 were Dan Roberts, Chris Farabaugh and Brendan Stitcher of Covance Laboratories. Also judging were Matt Latimer of Latimer, Mayberry & Matthews IP Law, LLP and Mark Herzog, executive director of VaBIO.