Improving the quality of life in Arizona to benefit future generations.
On the second day of spring, Arizona leaders, renowned scientists, and members of the local press flocked to the grand opening of the Translational Genomics Research Institute building. Located east of the Arizona Center, the building is both the physical and symbolic anchor of a biosciences cluster cropping up in downtown Phoenix.
The Arizona Board of Regents approved a land trade last week that will allow University of Arizona officials to move ahead on plans for a biotechnology park on Tucson's South Side. Approval of the land exchange is the latest step in the construction of the Critical Path Institute (C-Path), the new FDA-affiliated drug development institute that will anchor the biotechnology park near the university.
The traditional 'topping-out' ceremony of the upcoming BIO5 building at UA was held in early March before a crowd of university officials, researchers and local press.
This past fall Vicki Chandler, the newly appointed director of the Institute for Biomedical Science and Biotechnology (IBSB) at the University of Arizona, rescued the up-and-coming research center from its own cumbersome name and rechristened it BIO5, a decidedly catchier moniker. But a name change isn't nearly all that Chandler has accomplished since officially taking the reins of BIO5 last July.
Through a new grant, the University of Arizona has paired up with IBM to look for innovative ways to store biosciences data collected in university laboratories.
The upcoming Arizona Bio Expo 2005 will recognize the contributions of intrepid biotech researchers and entrepreneurs when attendees gather at the inaugural Biotech Awards dinner and Excellence in Bioindustry ceremony.
One of Arizona's star medical devices got top billing last month when Bill Wohl, who owes his life to the CardioWest artificial heart in Tucson, was featured on the cover of LIFE magazine.
Arizona's efforts to become a regional force in biotechnology got national press coverage in a recent edition of the New York Times. The article, "Phoenix moves to put itself on biotechnology map," in the technology section of the national daily, highlighted the future Phoenix medical school and the Translational Genomics Research Institute, among other things.
Biomedical device manufacturer Ventana Medical Systems recently received nearly half a million dollars in grant money from the Arizona Job Training Program to train 400 of its Oro Valley employees. The program, run by the Arizona Department of Commerce, dispensed more than $1 million last year to help bioscience companies like Ventana train existing and incoming employees, according to the Arizona Daily Star.
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