Umab

Biotechnology, the new branch of science that introduced gene cloning, breakthroughs in ways to develop drugs and bacteria that eat oil spills, is on its way to becoming a cornerstone of Maryland's economy in the 21st century.Since 1986, a collaboration between the University of Maryland system, private enterprise and the state has been positioning Maryland into the forefront of biotechnology research and development.One part of that effort is in medical biotechnology, centered at the University of Maryland's 32-acre downtown Baltimore campus.

A bus caravan on its way to Washington to lobby for universal health coverage stopped in Baltimore yesterday, drawing about 80 protesters and supporters to the University of Maryland School of Medicine.Five "Health Security Express" buses carrying about 160 people arrived at Davidge Hall shortly after 5 p.m. The caravan started out from Boston on Sunday and is due in Washington today, where it will join caravans from Portland, Ore., Dallas, New Orleans and Independence, Mo. First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton will meet with the bus riders at the White House today.

It is the institutions that Baltimoreans take for granted that will revive this city.Gov. William Donald Schaefer said as much to a gathering of Sun executives last month as he recounted how, in the years preceding the Inner Harbor triumphs, he had to remind residents that their city held gems like Fort McHenry.Vice President Al Gore repeated that theme in a meeting at The Sun yesterday to discuss the recently designated $100 million empowerment zone. Marylanders may take for granted Johns Hopkins Hospital, but the vice president speaks of the world-renowned institution with the reverence of a father whose child was saved there.

The task force studying the future of the state's system of higher education will recommend additional funding for the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and the University of Maryland, Baltimore.Those schools were overlooked in the flurry of activity as the task force wound up its work in the days before Christmas with calls for specific funding increases for the University of Maryland, College Park and Towson University.But in the draft of its final report, the task force suggests an additional $7 million for UMAB and $5 million for UMBC.

WASHINGTON -- The University of Maryland at Baltimore has been tapped by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to house one of five regional centers that will train workers in lead-contamination detection and removal.The selection was announced yesterday.The school has received a grant to run the center, which will open in July, in conjunction with the University of Cincinnati. Although specific figures are being negotiated, each center's grant for the first year will be $200,000 to $250,000, said Noah Brown, a spokesman for the National University Continuing Education Association (NUCEA)

Batter up. Class dismissed.That will be the cry on the Orioles' Opening Day, April 6, when the University of Maryland at Baltimore closes its doors to more than 4,000 students and faculty members rather than deal with the parking and traffic nightmare expected downtown."

THE UNIVERSITY of Maryland, Baltimore recently released details of a $38 million plan to double the size of its Law Library building at Baltimore and Paca streets. It was the latest expansion announcement at the downtown campus."The need for the building is critical and is caused by the dramatic changes in legal education over the past generation," law school Dean Donald G. Gifford explained in accepting a $2.5 million commitment toward the project from the France-Merrick Foundations. He said to day's law students and interns need more flexible clinic space.

WASHINGTON -- The University of Maryland at Baltimore has been tapped by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to house one of five regional centers that will train workers in lead contamination removal and detection.EPA officials announced UMAB's selection yesterday.The school has received a grant to run the center, which will open in July, in conjunction with the University of Cincinnati. Although specific figures are still being negotiated, each center's grant for the first year will be between $200,000 and $250,000, said Noah Brown, a spokesman for the National University Continuing Education Association (NUCEA)

A new brick tower looms over the University of Maryland's downtown Baltimore campus, but it doesn't contain a clock or bells the way most collegiate towers do.Concealed within this 10-story-tall tower are giant stacks that will be used to exhaust fumes from 80 laboratories inside the six-story research building to which it is attached.Visible from blocks around, this high-tech smokestack is the newest symbol of the University of Maryland's continuing efforts to turn its downtown campus into a center for the life sciences.

The University of Maryland System Board of Regents unanimously voted today to merge its Baltimore City and Baltimore County campuses.The resolution approved by 16 board members today also asks Gov. William Donald Schaefer and state legislators to give the necessary approvals, which would probably include a bill in the General Assembly.If approved, the combined school would be called University of Maryland Baltimore.The new school would focus on the health sciences, life sciences, technology, social work, law and public policy.