Santa Clara County Biotechnology Education Partnership (SCCBEP)

The Santa Clara County Biotechnology Education Partnership (SCCBEP) is a collaboration among secondary teachers and educators, Santa Clara University, the Santa Clara County Office of Education, other higher education partners, Life Technologies, LifeScan, Johnson & Johnson and private individuals. Our common goal is to bring cutting edge biotechnology and science education to students and teachers to link classroom learning with real world applications and ethics.

SCCBEP was founded by local teachers in 1992.  Administered and housed at San Jose State University’s Chemistry department until 2012.  It has been hosted by Santa Clara University’s Biology department since 2007.

SCCBEP provides laboratory equipment, consumables and reagents to public and private schools through mobile kits. Support is extended to schools, colleges and universities outside of Santa Clara County by request and arrangement. SCCBEP offers teacher workshops in biotechnology lab procedures and teaching methods, classroom and on-call technical support, DNA Day Contests, summer student internships, and public education events. SCCBEP has also arranged equipment and supply donations for Educator Giveaways since 1999. CCBEP currently supports biotechnology curricular lab kits in:

  • DNA Spooling
  • Pipet Art
  • DNA Fingerprinting with Fragile X (restriction digest analysis)
  • Bacterial transformation of green fluorescent protein (pGLO, pGFP and pMenlo)
  • GFP protein purification and PAGE analysis
  • Diabetes Technology (endocrinology, medical devices and nutrition)
  • Natural Products Drug Discovery (bioassays, TLCs)
  • GMO Farmer’s Dilemma (ELISA dipstick protein assay)
  • Forensic Science
  • 7 PCR labs (Alu PV92, Lambda, Optimization, D1S80 VNTR, GMO, mtDNA Sequencing and Wolbachia Project)
  • Science project support for science fairs and independent research classes

SCCBEP manages distribution of equipment, supplies, and reagents for these labs through mobile kits which circulate among participating schools and teachers.

SCCBEP is an exciting, growing volunteer organization providing a vital service of educating students and teachers using curricula reflecting current advances in science while providing STEM teachers with a collaborative network.