Thanks to an expanding and thriving partnership involving the academic, business and governmental sectors, Nebraska is making significant strides in its efforts to become a player in the biotechnology field.
This weekend, a group of nearly 20 Nebraskans will travel to the BIO 2004 Annual International Convention, the world’s largest biotechnology event. The convention takes place June 6-9 at San Francisco’s Moscone Center with more than 16,000 biotech executives, investors, journalists, policymakers and scientists from more than 55 countries expected to attend.
Conference, delegation continues to grow
This year’s convention features seven plenary sessions, more than 150 panel sessions, 1,200 displays, a business forum with 200 company presentations, and a career fair.
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This marks the fifth consecutive year that Nebraska has sent people to the BIO convention, and each year the Nebraska delegation has grown, said Marsha Morien, administrator of advanced biomedical technology at UNMC.
“In 2000, only two people from UNMC and one person from the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce attended the convention in Boston,” Morien said. “They were so excited by what they saw that they signed up right on the spot for a booth at the next year’s convention. The momentum has continued to build each year.”
Sponsors, partners work together
UNMC and its technology transfer company, UNeMed, continue to be the primary sponsors of the Nebraska delegation, Morien said, but the list of partners is expanding. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Office of Research is now a sponsoring partner, joining with the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, Nebraska Department of Economic Development and the Omaha Public Power District (OPPD).
Also attending, but not as sponsors, will be representatives of the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce, the University of Nebraska Technology Park, LLC, and an area biotechnology company – Nature Technology Corp. of Lincoln.
Planning for success
“I’m confident this year’s convention will be the most successful one we’ve done yet,” said Don Leuenberger, UNMC vice chancellor for business and finance. “We have a corner location for our display, and that should generate lots of traffic.”
At last year’s BIO convention in Washington, D.C., Leuenberger said, the Nebraska delegation made contact with more than 1,000 convention attendees. All these contacts were placed in a database, which was then made available to all the members of the Nebraska delegation.
Robotic dog is attention-grabber
Making contacts at BIO 2004 is what it’s all about, Morien said. This year’s theme for the Nebraska delegation is “BIO’s Hot in Omaha…where UNMC is sizzlin’ with biotech opportunities.” To attract more attention to the Nebraska booth, Morien said there will be a robotic dog named “Sparky” on display. Visitors to the booth may leave their business cards and be eligible for a drawing for Sparky at the end of the convention.
“We’ll all be wearing bright red shirts, and Sparky is very active when he sees the color red,” Morien said. “This will be the fourth straight year we have given away a robotic dog, and it really does attract a lot of attention to our booth. The past three years the winners have come from LaJolla, Calif., Niagara Falls, N.Y. and Jerusalem.”
In addition, visitors to the Nebraska booth will receive information packets, which include a specially designed CD-ROM, which highlights featured companies and biotechnology going on in Nebraska.
Forming business relationships
“Don’s group has really been instrumental in leading this forward,” said Darrell Ullman, biotechnology development consultant for the Nebraska Department of Economic Development. “We’re glad to be a part of it. UNMC started this whole thing and has served as a catalyst to bring Nebraska companies and institutions together.
“By creating the partnership, we’ve all been able to benefit and it has allowed business relationships to develop. This is all about business relationships.”
Ullman cited strengthened ties with Japan that have resulted from past BIO conventions and noted that a group of business leaders from Shizouka, Japan, Omaha’s sister city, visited Omaha this week. Japan will have 50 booths at BIO 2004, Ullman said, and the Nebraska delegation has been invited to the Japan reception at the convention.
Morien said a small business contact from last year’s convention visited UNMC and developed a collaborative grant proposal for a small business innovative research project. In addition, a contact with the business development officer of the Canadian Consulate General made at the BIO 2000 convention has led to increased activity with Canada, she said.
Promoting Omaha, Nebraska
“This is a great illustration of how teamwork and partnerships have come together to promote Omaha and Nebraska in a key economic development area – biotechnology,” said Rod Moseman, vice president for economic development for the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce.
“The benefits of this can come in many forms – new research dollars, partnerships with research companies, commercialization of intellectual property by UNMC, and joint ventures with existing firms. The common denominator is new jobs and new payrolls in the community, which is certainly one of our bottom line objectives.”
Roger Christianson, manager of economic development for OPPD, echoed these sentiments. “What we gain from this partnership is the technical expertise at UNMC. We don’t do the biotechnology stuff that UNMC does,” he said. “This partnership brings together all the pieces. We are always looking to expand our energy business. If new biotechnology companies come to Omaha, this allows us to sell energy we wouldn’t normally sell. This helps the community grow and brings new jobs to our community.”
Increased collaboration
UNMC and UNL have been collaborating more on research endeavors, Morien said, and the addition of UNL as a sponsor of BIO 2004 is indicative of this collaboration.
“We are excited to tell the story of the world-class research happening at Nebraska,” said Kannan Grant, UNL’s associate vice chancellor for technology development.
Research initiatives
UNL has identified nine research initiatives that it will highlight at the convention, Grant said. These include:
- Using cornhusk fibers to produce a variety of textile products similar to cotton and linen at a significantly lower cost;
- Development of a food allergen test kit useful in detecting allergenic food residues in food processing equipment;
- A polymerase chain reaction (PCR) instrument that will allow for detection and synthesis of DNA very rapidly and with high fidelity to detect diseases and bioterrorism;
- Development of a compound made from plants that could provide a dietary, non-pharmaceutical method of lowering body cholesterol.
Start-up companies
UNMC will highlight the research of four start-up companies that have developed from UNMC technology. These include:
- Prommune, LLC is developing vaccines to drugs of addiction, such as nicotine and methamphetamine, and agents of chemical and biological warfare and environmental toxins.
- ProNutrient Technologies, Inc. has developed a new form of creatine, a nutritional supplement taken by athletes to boost performance. The product is more readily absorbed by the body and presented to cells in a higher concentration than the original form of creatine.
- TriMed Research, Inc. has discovered a protein that it hopes to use in a milk supplement that will prevent necrotizing enterocolitis, an intestinal disorder that is fatal for 30 percent of the low-birth-weight or premature babies who get it.
- Eleos, Inc. has developed an antisense oligonucleotide compound that blocks the production of p53, a disease-promoting protein known to play a key role in cancer.
Nebraska delegation
In addition to Leuenberger, Grant and Morien, other UNMC and UNL staff attending the convention include: Tom McDonald, Ph.D., president and CEO, UNeMed; Sam Sanderson, Ph.D., School of Allied Health Professions and president of Prommune, LLC.; Annika Weber, a researcher in pathology & microbiology; Sandy Goetzinger-Comer and Elizabeth Kumru, both public affairs; Kimberly Lamb, Ph.D., biotechnology marketing and management specialist, UNeMed; Rick Spellman, J.D., chairman of the board of directors, UneMed; and Dipanjan Nag, Ph.D., technology development associate with UNL’s Office of Technology Development.
For more information
For more information on BIO 2004, go to the UNMC Web site or the national Web site.