Tagged: Biotechnology

Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center is introducing a Bio Tech facility later today in Winston-Salem.

Jeff Tiberii: What used to be an RJ Reynolds tobacco manufacturing and storage facility will now serve as Wake Forest BioTech place. The 242-thousand square foot facility will house about 450 people by the end of this year. It’s part of the Piedmont triad Research Park. Medical Center V.P. Doug Edgeton says the new site will have research projects in bio-chemistry, pharmacology, physiology, biomedical engineering and micro-biology.

There is a major move underway to grow the state’s Biotechnology industry by diving for opportunities off the coast.

The North Carolina Biotechnology Center has approved a 2-point-5 million dollar grant to establish a Marine Biotechnology Center of Innovation.  Scientists have already been using marine life to develop commercial products, but the four year grant will likely accelerate the process.   Norris Tolson is the president and C-E-O of the Biotech Center.  He says the industry is excited by such a move.

Biotech giant Syngenta will be expanding it's footprint in Research Triangle Park.  Company officials announced they will be spending 71 million dollars to build a lab and greenhouse facility to do crop research next to their present building in RTP.  Syngenta spokesman Steven Goldsmith says the greenhouse will also be green. 

A major effort is underway to grow North Carolina’s Agricultural Technology Industry. Alexandria Real Estate Equities of California announced yesterday it is building a 50-thousand-square-foot Ag-Tech Center near Research Triangle Park.  More than one-third of the space will be a greenhouse. Amber Shirley is director of Biotechnology-Crops Development at the North Carolina Biotechnology Center.  She says Alexandria’s greenhouse space will be flexible and collaborative.

The Raleigh Convention Center will be packed today and tomorrow for the annual CED Biotech Life Science Conference.  .

The economy is showing signs of improvement – and organizers of the annual Biotech Conference say that’s good for the life sciences. More than one thousand people are expected to attend – emerging biotech companies, policymakers and venture capitalists – looking for the next big thing. Bill Wofford – a partner at Hutchinson Law Group is a conference co-chair.  He says in a promotional video, there will be a lot of partnering going on.