A contingent of Missouri and Illinois experts will be in Atlanta, May 18-21st for the annual International Biotechnology Convention.
Kelly Gillespie, who administers Missouri BIO (MOBIO) from Jefferson City (he’s the non-profit organization’s executive director) is heading the Missouri delegation to
the southland.
“People in the industry refer to this annual meeting as the Olympics of Biotechnology,” claims Gillespie. Altogether, there will be more than 2,300 booths on the trade floor, representing up to 23 different countries. CEOs and laboratory directors worldwide gather for this annual confab. Some 20,000 individuals and more than 500 reporters
are expected to attend.
“The conference is mainly a networking activity. We are leveraging a number of conference events to find (bio) business for Missouri and Illinois and get conversations about the significance of the industry going,” he says.
Missouri and the Illinois Biotechnology Industry Organization (iBIO), along with the state associations from Michigan and Kansas are hosting a major social event during
the convention.
On opening night (May 18th), the consortium, including at least 150 businesspersons and scientists alone from Missouri will host a Blues’ Festival for more than a thousand partygoers. This gala is being staged at the plush $40 million World of Coke Reception Center, 8 p.m. to midnight. That follows the opening party earlier in the evening at Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park for all convention goers.
On May 20th, Missouri hosts a breakfast at a private downtown Atlanta club for
150 guests.
There’s more. The four-state group has built a 20-foot x 40-foot island exhibition pavilion to promote the values of biotechnology research and development throughout the entire Midwest.
Students from St. Louis Community Colleges will be ambassadors in the pavilion and staff members from the four states will answer questions. Seven electronic boards will tout all the latest research going on in the region.
“The pavilion has a construction-esque theme to it even featuring a crane at one end,” Gillespie reveals.
Gillespie says MOBIO has taken quantum leaps in recent years. “The fact is that we have major players (members of our organization) who have heavily reinvested in their own projects. We also have very strong public officials’ support and our organization has been a good marriage between public officials and members of the scientific and business community. Governmental leaders appreciate the momentum created by the growth of the biotech industry in Missouri and we are getting good support from the new biotech legislative caucus (now with 30 members) in Missouri,” he says.
Diversity is part of their mission. MOBIO has worked closely with African-American members of the legislature; mostly coming from
St. Louis and up to a dozen members will be in Atlanta as the organization’s guests. An invitation has been extended to Gov. Jay Nixon to attend the breakfast forum and in the past, Missouri governors have taken part.
“Missouri is very well suited to have collaboration between varied members of the industry and our projects are extended across many different fields. You could say we all play very well in the sandbox,”
says Gillespie.
“Other states have taken note of what we’ve done here (in Missouri). Many states would give their right arm to have the level of cooperation and research going on in
their own back yards,” says Gillespie.
Gillespie happily points to strong regional success. With Washington University and its annual $550 million research budget and the stem cell work being done at Saint Louis University, the pair continue to be two of the strongest institutions for Bio Research in America. As the National Institution for Health (NIH) budget continues to grow, (and the money flows to St. Louis educational institutions) the region continues to win,” he says.
Illinois Bio Part of the Equation
MOBIO’s strongest partner is the Illinois Biotechnology Industry Organization (iBIO) led by its President and CEO David Miller. From Chicago, Miller directs a seven full-time staff operation that has been functioning since 2001. Miller and his associates are looking forward to the world BIO convention returning to Chicago in May of 2010 at the McCormick Place Convention Center.
iBIO is a champion for life science activities and works closely with industry-related companies, the likes of Abbott, Astellas, Baxter, Takeda, Monsanto, Archer Daniel Midland (ADM), DuPont and others. “We work very closely with our agricultural partners in Illinois,” states Miller. “We are focused on the breakthrough side of the formula to find more nutritious plants and crops with higher yields. Our companies are developing new chemicals and herbicides for better performance yield. There is a world shortage of food and that’s where our current efforts are being made to solve those issues,” he says.
Additionally, Illinois is taking a laser-beam approach to finding new uses for ethanol and renewable fibers and fuels. “We have so much going on in our state. The University of Illinois alone is part of a $500 million project with British Petroleum to create the Energy Biosciences Institute. The institute will focus primarily on biotechnology and biofuel production to minimize the damaging effects of energy use on the environment.
Miller is particularly proud of the advances made locally in the field of medicine. “Northwestern University is one of the top research universities in the world. They are doing great work in stem cell research and the cure for spinal core injuries,” he says. “Biotech is not an industry per say. It is a tool kit that industries use to perform these great breakthroughs,” says Miller.
Miller says biotechnology research has been going on for about 35 years now. “In the world of science, that is a very, very short period of time,” he indicates.
Miller also points to the importance of NIH funding. “That’s a really good source of funds for the basic research going on in the many areas we deal with. We really need to keep the discoveries going.“
Miller feels strongly that it is important for the Midwest collaborators to work together and about Missouri and Kelly Gillespie
he states they are really great partners. “People in iBIO in particular have a really high regard for the leadership that Kelly Gillespie provides.”
Gillespie returned the favor calling it a “mutual admiration society.”
All kinds of scientists, business leaders and politicians will gather for this important scientific conference. Naturally both Missouri and Illinois’ biotechnology experts will be putting on their very best
showing. As Gillespie points out, there will be plenty of networking done to get the conversations going, the deals made and future projects on the drawing board and
in the pipeline.
