BTI HISTORY
1983-84
1985-86
1987-88
1989-90
1991-92
1993-94
1995-96
1997-99
2000-01
2002-03
2004-05
2006-07
Touchstone research
Prof. Arnie Fredrickson was one of the founding faculty of BPTI. In his early collaborative work with Prof. H.M. Tsuchiya, who was a microbiologist, he experienced the benefits of interdisciplinary research between engineers and biologists. This was the touchstone of the BPTI - to conduct research at the interface of engineering and biology. Prof. Fredrickson's early work in mathematical modeling of cell populations was seminal for much of today's work in cell population dynamics.
As director in the start-up years, Michael Flickinger had to develop curriculum, hire faculty, raise funds to purchase equipment and lobby the state legislature every two years for a budget. He also initiated the National Institute of Health (NIH) Biotechnology Training Grant which has supported over 100 Ph.D. students since 1990 in their studies at the BioTechnology Institute.
The Masters program in Microbial Engineering was conceived at this time by professors Arnie Fredrickson, Marty Dworkin and Palmer Rogers.
MAKING SPACE
BPTI labs were located on the second and third floors of Snyder Hall, eventually displacing the teaching laboratories of the Chemistry Department. The central laboratories of the BPTI were developed in the basement of Gortner Laboratory in space which included two undeveloped areas known as the" sand rooms". The offices of BPTI were located in the area that had at one time been occupied by the biochemistry library before its move to the fourth floor of the Biological Sciences Center.
Considerable effort and resources were dedicated to convert the sub-standard space in the basement of Gortner Lab and develop what eventually became known as the Biotechnology Resource Center (BRC), the cornerstone of Biodale. Construction began in 1985, and equipment was gathered and donated in anticipation of this completed central research facility. By 1986, it had become a state-of-the-art laboratory for trying out and scaling up new technologies for bioprocessing.
DCI, Inc., of St. Cloud was one of the first major contributors, donating a 300-liter fermenter to the BPTI pilot plant. Over the years, there have been significant contributions from companies such as ABEC, Inc., Fisher Rosemount, Hosakawa-Bepex and others.
