Facing the 21st century, where advanced science and technology drives society at large, many countries competitively perform research on biotechnology, which is brain-intensive, energy-saving, high value-added, and non-polluting technology based on life science knowledge. The Korean government also selected biotechnology as one of the national core industries. In 1983, the Genetic Engineering Development Act was enacted, and since 1985, the government has provided research grants to genetic engineering laboratories of universities to create and expand the domestic research base. To meet such national demands, Chungbuk National University established the Gene Engineering Institute on Dec. 5, 1986, and tried to build an organic research system by bringing researchers in related fields together, maximize research efficiency and practicality, foster and produce expert researchers, and thus contribute to the balanced development of the regional community. It was upgraded to a statutory research institute on Mar. 6, 1990, by the Revised Regulations on the Establishment of National University. Recently, it was renamed Biotechnology Research Institute, and it is making great efforts to actively carry out various life science research in the post-genomic era.