By
Linda Jarrett
When the BIO International Conference convenes this May in Boston,
Mass., the Missouri/Illinois contingent will be putting the
spotlight on our region’s burgeoning biotechnical capabilities.
“This conference is referred to as the ‘Olympics of Biotechnology,’”
says Kelly Gillespie, executive director of the Missouri Biotechnology
Association (MOBIO). “Over 20,000 attendees from around the
globe will convene in Boston. This conference brings in the
CEO’s, presidents, and chief scientific officers. It’s where
deals get done, and for those involved in the commercialization
of biotechnology and researching the products, this is where
you have to be during that week.”
Missouri and Illinois will host a reception at the Ritz-Carlton
Hotel in Boston where they will forward the biotechnological
agenda in the Bi-State Region.
“The goal is to associate the Midwest with excitement and fun,
and this is one way to do it,” says Dave Miller, president and
CEO of Illinois Biotechnology Industry Organization (IBIO).
“I can’t think of any place in the country outside of the Midwest
that has such a wide range of biotechnology applications.”
Gillespie says the region is in a unique position. “Not only
do we have an amazing amount of life science assets that bring
us a great deal of national credit, but we’re also in a building
boom and, for the most part, it’s a private sector-driven building
boom based on the fact that we’ve got great scientists and great
science happening in Missouri.”
As Miller says, the region is a “deep bench.” The following
are just some of the projects currently under construction in
Missouri and Illinois that will contribute to the depth of the
bi-state biotechnological contributions.
SHOW ME
“In St. Louis, you have the absolute Mecca for human health
and plant science,” Gillespie says. “There are more plant scientists
in St. Louis than perhaps anyplace in the nation, and with the
combination of the Danforth Center, Washington University, Monsanto,
Bunge, and a variety of others, we can legitimately plant that
flag.”
PFIZER ST. LOUIS
In late 2008, Pfizer St. Louis will open a 333,000-square-foot
research building in Chesterfield. This new facility will allow
the company to consolidate their four St. Louis-based research
functions to a single physical location.
The new facility, costing nearly $200 million, will be a state-of-the-art
pharmaceutical research building housing almost 250 researchers.
As the company’s global center for inflammation research, Pfizer
St. Louis’ work is largely focused on discovering new medicines
for diseases that cause inflammation, such as osteo and rheumatoid
arthritis.
In addition, “we’ve centered our company’s research in biologics,
also known as biotherapeutics, in St. Louis, with plans to make
these unique medicines an increasingly important part of our
research portfolio going forward,” says Ed Bryant, senior advisor
public affairs.
He added that Pfizer plans to make biologics 20 percent of its
research and development portfolio by 2009. Biologic therapies
totaled $1.5 billion in 2006 sales for Pfizer.
Pfizer being located in the center of the United States adds
to the distribution factor, and is an important addition to
the BioBelt/life sciences initiative.
THE SOLAE COMPANY
Another BioBelt player, The Solae Company, will be opening the
doors on its global headquarters in late 2008 at the Center
of Research Technology and Entrepreneurial Expertise (CORTEX)
where it will anchor the midtown campus near Boyle Avenue and
Forest Park Parkway.
Solae President and CEO Tony Arnold envisions CORTEX becoming
the “buckle of an emerging national BioBelt,” and looks forward
to other companies becoming part of the region’s ever widening
life science experience.
In February, Solae and developer Clayco, announced that they
would pursue the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED®, certification
at its new headquarters.
The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green
Building Rating System is the nationally accepted benchmark
for the design, construction and operation of high performance
“green” buildings. LEED certification is recognized worldwide
as proof that a building is environmentally responsible, profitable,
and a healthy place to live and work.
“To thrive, healthy businesses need healthy communities,” Arnold
says. “We’re excited to pursue such a prestigious certification,
and look forward to continuing to demonstrate responsible environmental
management.”
THE EDWARD J. DOISY RESEARCH CENTER
Another feather in the Bi-State Region’s BioBelt cap will open
its doors this fall when the $67 million Edward J. Doisy Research
Center is completed.
Started in the summer of 2005, the contemporary steel, brick
and glass building consists of a 10-story tower at the north
with the two lowest floors extending south and leading to a
covered walkway to the Saint Louis University School of Medicine.
The Center will house researchers focusing on cancer, liver
disease, heart/lung disease, aging and brain disease, and vaccine
development for a variety of infectious diseases.
“We are looking to recruit new research teams to come and work
in the building,” says Joe Muehlenkamp, director of medical
center media relations. “We already have some world class teams
working on projects, but the plan is to bring in additional
researchers.”
Clayco is the general contractor for the 206,000-square-foot
structure with Cannon Design as architects.
MONSANTO ENTERPRISE DATA CENTER
The Monsanto Company will open a new data center, its largest
at 38,000 square feet, this July.
The center is a self-contained back-up facility housing the
majority of Monsanto’s server technology and their data assets.
“So there will be an excess of a thousand servers in this room,
and greater than 700 terabytes of data,” says Bob Kugler, Monsanto
director of enterprise infrastructure.
“Now we’re building a centralized facility due to the age of
the existing facility which was about 40 years old and not designed
to take care of today’s technology,” Kugler says.
One of the unique factors of this facility it’s the amount of
electrical redundancy that has been built into the center.
“So, in the event of a power loss,” Kugler says, “this building
is capable of running itself on diesel generation. As a redundancy
to the diesel generator, the other thing that makes this building
unique is its resistance up to an F-3 tornado. On a scale of
one to 10, it is a Level 9.”
While Kugler did not have the total cost of the project, he
says, “Typically buildings like this rouse close to $500 per
square foot based on redundancy.”
Fox Architects designed the building, William Tao & Associates
did the mechanical/electrical and McCarthy Company was the general
contractor.
ABENGOA BIOENERGY
Headquartered in St. Louis, Abengoa Bioenergy is a company dedicated
to the development of biofuels for transport, including bioethanol
and biodiesel, to support sustainable development.
The company is planning to start construction on a $200 million
ethanol facility in the Tri-City Regional Port District at the
end of the year, with construction expected to take 18 to 24
months.
The dry mill ethanol facility will be capable of producing 88
million gallons of fuel ethanol per year, and will employ 50
to 60 workers.
Carl LaFoy, project development manager, says the facility design
will incorporate the latest technology to make it safe, energy
efficient and environmentally friendly.
A subsidiary of Abengoa S.A., a company headquartered in Sevilla,
Spain, Abengoa is one of the world’s largest ethanol producers.
With completion of a new facility in Ravenna, Nebraska, it is
projected to reduce over 200 million gallons of ethanol in the
U.S. each year.
OUR NEIGHBOR TO THE EAST
Miller says that Illinois is strong in nanotechnology. “It has
one of the premier centers at Northwestern University with hundreds
of researchers in nanotechnology which is the study of particles
a billionth of a meter, the size of an atom.”
Illinois, along with Indiana, he adds, have some of the “strongest
medical research in pharma companies outside of the Philadelphia/Delaware/New
Jersey area.”
UNIVERSITY PARK – SOUTHERN ILLINOIS
UNIVERSITY EDWARDSVILLE
As part of SIUE, the new $1.5 million Biotechnology Laboratory
Incubator located at the 330-acre University Park, holds 12
wet labs, each one at 850 square feet.
“Only one is built out at a time,” says James Pennekamp, special
assistant to the chancellor for regional economic development
and executive director of University Park.
“The idea was to build the shell, design it to have maximum
flexibility. Equipping one space and renting it will generate
cash flow income that allows you to keep building space to tenant
specification,” he says.
“We’re entertaining clients now, and we’ve had a number of inquiries
from companies throughout the metropolitan area,” Pennekamp
says. “The idea is to address an ongoing need, and that is the
physical plant.
“University Park is considered the eastern anchor to the St.
Louis BioBelt which is the branding that went on for the life
science initiative within the St. Louis metropolitan area,”
he added. “This project should be viewed as part of the life
science industry in the St. Louis area, and we’re creating the
space necessary. This project is a little unique because it
was designed to offer competitively priced wet lab space in
communities like Southwestern Illinois.
Basically, he says, the Park is a model for how to produce affordable
space so more communities can get involved in the life science
and economic development initiative.
NATIONAL CORN TO ETHANOL RESEARCH CENTER
Right next door to the University Park is the $20 million National
Corn to Ethanol Research Center which provides a one-of-its-kind
facility for testing of products.
A not-for-profit research center, the NCERC’s one building contains
an analytical laboratory, fermentation research laboratory,
full-scale ethanol pilot plant and a work force development
program.
Director John Caulpert says that what this means is that this
center provides the only place where a researcher or entrepreneur
can go and, “in one building, receive classroom instruction,
training center instruction and hands-on ethanol experience.”
“What we do,” Caulpert says, “is take-term industrial technology,
meaning within six months to a year, that someone wants to take
to market to commercialize.
The NCERC also displays itself as a classroom by providing training
on the corn-to-ethanol process for anyone interested in pursuing
a career in the industry.
CENTER ETHANOL COMPANY LLC
This December, The Center Ethanol Company in Sauget, Ill. will
open its doors as the closest ethanol plant to St. Louis.
Center Ethanol LLC broke ground last October on its $100 million
plant on 57 acres purchased from Solutia. The plant is expected
to produce 54 million gallons of ethanol per year with the use
of 19.2 billion bushels of corn. When it reaches its peak, approximately
108 million gallons will be coming out of this plant.
President Brian Frazier says the facility, which is expected
to produce an annual revenue of $125 million, is a “dry mill
ethanol plant which means it will take corn and convert it into
ethanol and a by product called distilled grain which is used
for livestock feed.”
The plant will employ approximately 35 employees who will operate
the plant 365 days-a-year once it is fully functional.
Besides Center Ethanol, Illinois has six ethanol facilities
operating with three more under construction.
OUTSTATE MISSOURI
REGIONAL BIOCONTAINMENT LABORATORY
– UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI – COLUMBIA CAMPUS
In the spring of 2008, one of 13 regional Biocontainment Laboratories
(RBL) will open on the University of Missouri-Columbia campus.
Constructed by K&S Associates of St. Louis with a $12.6 million
grant from the University and the National Institutes of Health,
the 9,768-square-foot facility will be a Biosafety Level 3 facility.
“Our company is honored to be a team member in the construction
of the new Regional Biocontainment Laboratory at the University
which complements our full-service track record of diverse construction
experience,” says Thomas J. Kraska, president of K&S.
“One of the purposes of this building,” says Project Manager
Greg Neuner “is to be able to respond to any new pathogen out
there making people sick. Basically, the researchers can go
in and find out what the problem is. It’s a self-contained lab
with negative pressure to everything else.”
ANALYTICAL BIO-CHEMISTRY (ABC) LABORATORY
Analytical Bio-Chemistry Laboratories broke ground on its new
$14.4 million laboratory facility in March on the University
of Missouri-Columbia campus. It will become the first tenant
of the University’s new Discovery Ridge Research Park.
The 90,000-square-foot facility will house the company’s rapidly
growing pharmaceutical development business. The facility is
expected to more that double ABC’s capacity to accommodate plans
to grow revenue to $50 million by 2010.
“This building is designed to be a model of efficiency,” says
Byron E. Hill, ABC president and CEO. “It will be modular and
scalable which will enable us to grow quickly without disrupting
business and to adapt to our customers’ needs.”
ARCO Construction Company, St. Louis, is the general contractor
on the design-build project. ARCO and ABC teamed with ACI Boland
Architects to complete the design of the facility.
THE FAR WEST
Kansas City, MO has shown its potential in this area, also,
by being “incredibly strong on the human health side,” Gillespie
says. “But, beyond that, they’ve also carved out a unique niche
in animal health. Research shows that over 35 percent of the
nation’s animal health companies are within 100 miles of Kansas
City and St. Joseph.”
Missouri and Illinois stand to make a good showing at this year’s
Bio Conference when Gillespie, Miller and the rest of the representatives
share this information with the rest of the world. We only have
to wait.
