The UMass Amherst Institute for Cellular Engineering (ICE) is a multidisciplinary, interdepartmental research initiative focused on coordinating and expanding cellular engineering educational and scholarly activities on campus and enabling translational research through strategic industry partnerships. Through ICE, engineering, life science, and information science departments collaborate to understand, and ultimately harness, cellular “machinery” in plants, animals, and microorganisms. Understanding cellular function and manipulating cells/tissues to perform in a particular manner is the basis for many ventures in the biomedical, biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, including drug production from cell culture, generation of artificial organs for replacement of diseased tissues, and microbial engineering for biofuel and bioremediation applications.

The Institute for Cellular Engineering is an ideal foundation for novel graduate and undergraduate training opportunities.

1. Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT):  Supported by a $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), ICE IGERT is the first UMass Amherst graduate training program specifically designed to exploit the synergistic interface between engineering and the life sciences. 

Competitive NSF-funded ICE IGERT fellowships provide:

• $30,000 annual stipend for two years
• full tuition and fees

2. Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU): The NSF-funded ICE REU program provides a nine-week summer research experience for undergraduates interested in pursuing bioengineering or biological sciences graduate study. NSF-funded REU stipends provide:

Strengthened by a powerful combination of interdisciplinary collaboration and world renowned researchers, ICE IGERT and REU initiatives strive to build an employment pipeline directly into some of the country’s most crucial biotechnological and biomedical industries.