From windshield wipers to bioinformatics:

Buffalo Niagara Transforms Itself

In June, Governor George E. Pataki was on hand at the University at Buffalo to celebrate a big step in the development of Buffalo Niagara's expanding biotech sector: the grand opening of the University at Buffalo's New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences and the Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) Center for Genetics and Pharmacology.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony included the likes of Sen. Hillary Rodhan Clinton, Sen. Charles E. Schumer, Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds, Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown, and many other important political figures in the region.

Such a groundbreaking event does not happen every day in a city that is still trying to shed its past life as an integral part of the northeastern United States' Rust Belt - for years the city and surrounding area were involved in steel and automobile production. But Buffalo has increasingly become a centre for bioinformatics and human genome research, and the new buildings on the growing Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus are helping to transform the town once best known as the birthplace of the windshield wiper, into a major North American biotech hub.

Greater Buffalo is currently home to 130 life sciences companies. The region's main focuses include oncology, neurology, proteomics, drug discovery, dental medicine and bioterrorism detection/prevention.

Manufacturers, suppliers and distributors are found in the same area, as are busines services with expertise in life science requirement and cross-border experience. The region also sees strong support from governmental programs and financial incentives such as tax credits for R&D, quasi-venture investments, and workforce training grants.

Buffalo Niagara is also armed with a ready workforce. In fact, in a recent national report, the region ranked 4th in the U.S. for the nuymber of science and engineering university graduates each year. About 1,000 life science graduates are turned out every year in the area.

Among the region's several attractive features as a biotech region - and otherwise, perhaps one of its greatest strategic advantages - is its location. It is uniquely situated geographically and touts something that few industry regions can: dual citizenship.

The city of Buffalo is a stone's throw from the Canadian border and the economic centres of southern Ontario. There are 650 medical industry companies and research institutions within a 90-mile radius of Buffalo (including AstraZencca Canada, MDS Proteomics, Amgen Canada, Baxter Corp. and Pfizer Global), and the city's prime location straddling the Canadian-American border gives it access to two significan international markets.

Proximity to Toronto's biotech hub encourages cross-border research collaboration. And, the relative affordability of real estate in Buffalo NIagara, coupled with a low cost of living, is attractive to young researchers and outside industry, including overseas businesses.

The Buffalo Niagara region also boasts strong industry and community participation and support. BuffLink, for instance, is a private, nonprofit corporation founded in 2001 to promote commercialization of life sciences technologies in the area, and support and spark Buffalo Niagara's biotech economy. One of its main functions is to implement the Buffalo NIagara Life Sciences Strategic Plan, completed in 2002 with participation from the business and research communities.

And other organizations are also hard at work facilitating the growth and promotion of the Buffalo Niagara biotech cluster, including the Entrepreneurial Services Network (ESN) and Buffalo Niagara Enterprise.

The Buffalo Niagara region has two major technology transfer offices. The University at Buffalo Office of Science, Technology Transfer and Economic Outreach promotes partnerships between the university and business community. While the Roswell Park Cancer Institute's Technology Transfer Office aids in patent, trademark and copyright applications for technologies produced at RCPI and provides information about licensing opportunities.

According to officials, the recent grand opening of the two new centres serves to reinforce the local community's efforts and further solidify the region's position as a biotech hub.

The four-story, 130,000-square-foot building housing the New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences will be home to more than 200 researchers and support staff. Meanwhile, the five-story, 170,000 sq. ft. building that houses the Center of Genetics and Pharmacology hosts two scientific teams, including world-renowned scientists in cancer-genetics research and new cancer-drug development. Over 200 employees work in the facitly, including 60 primary researchers.

Along with the new Hauptman Woodward Medical Research Institute (HWI), which opened in May 2005, the Center of Excellence and RPCI's Center for Genetics and Pharmacology constitute the new 400,000 square-foot Buffalo Life Sciences Complex (BLSC). More than US$225 million was invested in the construction, resources and programs for the three buildings, from state, federal, philanthropic and industry sources.

Governor Pataki proposed the creation of the Center of Excellence in 2001 as part of a plan to boost the New York State economy through creation of high technology centres of excellence across the state. An analysis of Buffalo Niagara indicated that the area contained the elements needed to create a viable
and competitive life sciences cluster. Since then, the three major research institutions in Buffalo have been working toward establishing a biotech hub. Scientists were recruited and businesses created or spun-off, cumulating in a current 6,000-persons-strong biotech and related workforce in the region.

"The Center of Excellence represents a concentrated effort to keep new medical breakthroughs and technologies in Buffalo Niagara. We want to develop a large pipeline of medical treatments and devices coming out of the region," says Bruce A. Holm, University at Buffalo senior vice-provost and executive director of the Center.

The center intends to quickly establish a record of success by spinning off start-ups and products while working toward highly lucrative discoveries and ventures, he continues. Several new companies already have been produced by the Center, including Holm's Pneuma Partners, which makes drugs for respiratory illness, and Empire Genomics, which provides testing for genetic abnormalities and was developed by Norma J. Nowak, director of science and technology at the Center.

Aside from the RPCI Center and the HWI, the university also boasts the Center of Computational Research (CCR), one of the largest academic supercomputing sites in the US. Also, the university houses the Jacobs Neurological Institute (JNI), where neurological diseases are studied.