The Delaware Biotechnology Institute, or DBI, was organized as an academic unit of the University of Delaware in 1999 and moved into dedicated research facilities in 2001. DBI supports a statewide partnership of higher education, industry, medical, and government communities committed to the discovery and application of interdisciplinary knowledge in biotechnology and the life sciences. With some 180 people resident in the DBI facilities, including 20–25 faculty members representing 12 departments, 140 graduate and post-graduate students, and 20 professional staff members, DBI emphasizes a multi-disciplinary approach to life-science research. The core research areas pursued by DBI-affiliated faculty include agriculture, human health, marine environmental genomics, biomaterials, and computational biology/bioinformatics. Research in these and other areas is done in collaboration with faculty at Delaware State University, Delaware Technical and Community College, Wesley College, Christiana Hospital, and Nemours Hospital for Children. One of the primary objectives of the institute is to provide state-of-the-art research equipment to facilitate life science research and six core instrumentation centers and specialized facilities, each under the direction of an experienced researcher or administrator, is supported at DBI and made available to university researchers.