The Biotechnology Institute was created in 1998 as a 501(c)(3) organization by a group of leading biotechnology companies and centers, and the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), to be an independent, leading science-based national education organization. The Institute conducts a variety of programs that reach both young people and adults to foster sustained interest and careers in the life sciences and bridge the knowledge gap between the general public and the biotechnology community. Through these activities, the Institute fulfills its mission is to engage, excite, and educate young people about biotechnology and catalyze their innovative potential to “heal, feed and fuel the world.”