The NIU Plant Molecular Biology Center is planning a “Biotechnology Day at Northern” for March 15, University Research Professor Arnold Hampel said.

“The day is still in the planning stages,” Hampel said.

The Illinois Board of Regents established the center in 1985 as an autonomous unit within the Departments of Biological Sciences and Chemistry at NIU.

The center provides a place for the promotion, coordination and facilitation of research activities in plant molecular cellular biology.

The program is an opportunity for the PMBC to show industrial and higher education representatives possible benefits the center might provide. The center will use the program to determine the needs of industry and try to meet those needs.

Funding for the center comes primarily from private industry, although the state government is responsible for 25 percent of the center’s budget. This funding is conditional to the effectiveness of the program and is reviewed every five years.

“The PMBC is a member of the Midwest Biotechnology Consortium, based at Purdue University, which includes all major universities and industries,” Hampel said. The center is also a member of the Illinois Biotechnology Consortium, assembled by the Governor’s Commission on Science and Technology.

The consortium seeks funding from both the federal government and private industry and distributes those funds competitively to member institutions. “The center has not received any money from either group (consortium) as of yet,” he said.

The center hopes to seek more visibility this year through research and meeting the needs of industry. Soliciting industry affiliation while still maintaining “academic independence” is also one of the center’s major goals.

“We have a broad focus right now until we complete our hiring process, which should be in 1989,” Hampel said. “Quality has always been a focus.”

Arthur Hooker, who is coordinating the day’s events, is researching pollination and plant regeneration in winter greenhouses located in Hawaii. The project is funded by the state through NIU’s Technology Commercialization Center.

In other projects, Josef Bujarski is studying the way in which plant viruses replicate and undergo a recombination with the host genetic material. “We hope to recognize the ways viruses infect various kinds of plants and ultimately determine how we may protect agriculture from them,” he said.

Mitrick Johns, assistant professor of biological sciences, is researching movable genes found in plants. This might be related to the rearrangement of genes and how certain types of DNA changes can alter plants, he said.

Even though the center is working on plant molecular biology, Hampel believes the state is not supporting this field of education as much as they should. “Illinois is a wealthy state. We should be a leader in this field considering how important agriculture is to the state and the Midwest,” he said.