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 be heading 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.
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.
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
the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
“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 since.”
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-Lincolns 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.
“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 pf these contacts were placed in a database, which was then made available
to all the members of the Nebraska delegation.
“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 can 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.
“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, will be coming to 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.
“This is a great illustration of how team work 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, joint ventures with existing firms and attracting new
firms to the area. 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 significant
technical expertise at UNMC. We don’t have the knowledge and experience
in biotech that UNMC does,” he said. “This partnership brings together
all the pieces. If we can attract new biotechnology companies to come to
Omaha, this allows us to sell energy we wouldnt normally sell and help
keep rates low, help the area grow and brings new jobs to our communities.”
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.
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.
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.
For more information on BIO 2004, go to the UNMC Web site at http://www.unmc.edu/bio2004/
or the national Web site at http://www.bio.org/events/2004/.