Center for Applied Biomedicine and Biotechnology (CABB)

Center for Applied Biomedicine and Biotechnology (CABB)

A Center of the Applied Science Coordinating Center (ASCI)
of The City University of New York (CUNY)

What is the Center for Applied Biomedicine and Biotechnology (CABB)?

The Applied Science Coordinating Institute (ASCI) was established at CUNY in conjunction with the university's participation in the Higher Education Applied Technology (HEAT) Program of the State of New York. Under the HEAT program $15,000,000 has been authorized to purchase research equipment for use in enhancing university-industry interaction, increasing technology transfer, and in promoting economic development in the State.

The ASCI serves as the University's vehicle for fulfilling its obligations under the HEAT Program, including agressively promoting applied science research at CUNY, encouraging intercampus and industry-academic cooperation, and organizing the scientific resources of the university to promote activities that enhance the economic competitiveness of New York State.

The Institution has three centers: The Center for Applied Biomedicine and Biotechnology (CABB), The Center for Ultrafast Photonic Materials and Applications, and The Center for Applied Studies of the Environment. The ASCI CABB Center has two overlapping subdivisions: a) The Division of Neuroscience and b) the Division of Molecular Engineering and Biomedicine.

The CABB Centerhas 24 faculty members, who generate over $8 million per year in research grant and contract support from government and industrial sources, and publish approximately 100 refereed articles per year. It also involves about 185 Ph.D. students, postdoctoral researchers, and clerical and technical support staff. The disciplines involved incude biochemistry, biology, biomedicine, biophysics, chemistry, computer and information science, immunology, experimental psychology, and speech and hearing. The research is conducted at the CUNY campuses of Brooklyn, City, Hunter, Lehman, Queens, Staten Island, the Graduate School and University Center, and Mt. Sinai School of Medicine.

The Division of Neuroscience

This division concentrates on four areas listed below with examples:

Molecular Neuroscience (including novel therapeutic agents for neurological disorders)
behavioral and physiological processes (including feeding and response to new food products)
diagnostic instrumentation for human vision problems and vertigo
computational neuroscience and computer applications (including speech recognition devices for hearing-impared employees)

The Division of Molecular Engineering and Biomedicine

This division also concentrates on four areas, which are listed below with examples:

rational drug design (including anti-tumor and antifungal drugs)
genetic engineering (including enzyme therapy for Fabry's disease)
structural biology (including protein and DNA conformation)
instrumentation and methodology (including design of instruments for study of drug-receptor binding)

The CABB is a member of the NYBA (New York Biotechnology Association), a non-profit membership association representing the biotechnology industry, the world class research institutes that spawn and collaborate with it, and the professional services which guide and support it.