CLU Receives $200,000 Challenge Grant from Keck Foundation

California Lutheran University has been awarded a $200,000 challenge grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation to enhance its burgeoning bioengineering program. The grant will provide funds for state–of–the–art equipment used in the new major’s mechanobiology concentration.

The bioengineering program at CLU was approved during the 2002–2003 academic year, and is centered on a mechanistic understanding of the life sciences. The rigorous curriculum builds on fundamental molecular, genomic and cellular principles to address challenges and opportunities involving wound healing, medical devices, biomedical sensors, tissue engineering, bioinformatics and biomedical imaging systems. Students accepted into the major choose from one of three focus areas – biomaterials/biomechanics; bioinformatics; and bioelectronics.

Based in Los Angeles, the W.M. Keck Foundation was established in 1954 by the late W.M. Keck, founder of the Superior Oil Company. The Foundation’s grant making is focused primarily on pioneering efforts in the areas of medical research, science and engineering. The Foundation also maintains a program to support undergraduate science and humanities education and a Southern California Grant Program that provides support in the areas of health care, civic and community services, education and the arts, with a special emphasis on children.

For more information about the grant, contact Dr. Michael Shaw, Director of the Center for Integrated Science and Bioengineering, at (805) 493–3296 or mcshaw@clunet.edu .