The Amgen Foundation has announced a fresh $13.4 million commitment to the Amgen Biotech Experience (ABE), extending a programme that supplies schools with curriculum, teacher training and research‑grade laboratory materials at no cost until the 2027–28 school year. The new funding takes the foundation’s total support for ABE to more than $75 million.
Hands‑on biology in schools
ABE offers practical laboratory experiences in molecular biology techniques, enabling pupils to handle equipment and materials that many schools could not otherwise afford. The organisers say the scheme now reaches about 100,000 students each year and, since its launch in 1990, has engaged more than 1.25 million students across 17 countries. The programme also reports participation from 5,790 teachers and 2,940 schools.
Organised globally by the Education Development Center and managed locally by universities, colleges and STEM nonprofits, ABE is intended to remove barriers — such as the cost of specialised equipment and consumables — that prevent schools from delivering advanced biotechnology experiments.
Equity and workforce implications
The programme emphasises its climate of inclusion: more than 60% of participating public schools in the United States are designated as Title I, signalling a focus on schools serving higher proportions of pupils from low‑income families. Backers frame the renewed investment within a broader economic argument: as technological change reshapes jobs, science and technical skills are increasingly important.
- New commitment: $13.4m extending ABE through 2027–28
- Total Amgen Foundation support to date: over $75m
- Annual reach: about 100,000 students
- Cumulative reach since 1990: more than 1.25m students across 17 countries
Publicly available labour market research cited in the announcement underlines the point: many employment skills will shift by the end of the decade, increasing demand for technological literacy, analytical thinking and lifelong learning. In the United States, the STEM workforce expanded from 29 million in 2014 to 37 million in 2024, figures used in the announcement to stress the growing importance of science and technology pathways.
Classroom realities and professional development
For schools, the offer of equipment and consumables is only part of the equation. Teachers need targeted professional development and ongoing technical support to deliver laboratory‑based learning with confidence. ABE supplies teacher training alongside its curricular materials and laboratory kits, a combination designed to raise the likelihood that hands‑on work is sustained in classrooms rather than delivered as one‑off events.
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| New funding | $13.4m |
| Total foundation investment | Over $75m |
| Students reached annually | ~100,000 |
| Cumulative students since 1990 | 1.25m+ |
National and regional education systems considering how to broaden practical science provision will be watching schemes such as ABE for lessons. The initiative addresses a recurring problem in schools: the mismatch between curriculum ambitions for experimental science and the funding, equipment and teacher expertise needed to deliver them.
While the renewed grant secures the programme for a further two school years, it leaves open longer‑term questions about how such provision is embedded in mainstream funding and training routes. Philanthropic support can seed and scale practice, but sustaining widespread, equitable access to laboratory experiences will require co‑ordinated action by education authorities, teacher training providers and curriculum developers.
As employers demand more technologically fluent recruits and governments seek to boost national innovation capacity, programmes that combine equipment, curriculum and teacher development offer a pragmatic route to give more young people authentic experience of modern biology — provided they are paired with systemic investment and routes into further study and careers.
