Just over a month ago, I published in Midwestbusiness.com as well as on this blog “The Future is Bright For Life Sciences in State of Illinois.”  Thanks to the leadership of so many people, this projection is coming to fruition in many concrete ways.  The iBIO organization led by David Miller has been instrumental in this developing renaissance and I came across an open letter of his that highlights the energy and reality of this movement.  His letter highlights the following which are just some of the initiatives gathering storm.

Political advances

• Formation of the Illinois House Bio-Technology Committee
• Numerous Illinois DCEO initiatives to support startups including partial grant matching programs
• Legislation introduced by State Senator Michael Bonds to increase state support of science based industry

Conferences

• The successful Ag-Bio Leadership Summit just this past spring engaged the public, private and academic sectors
• Several new biomedical science seminars sprouting up on campus state-wide
• Launching of the Chicago Biologue gatherings to facilitate networking among life sciences professionals in the area

Academic Advancement

• Northwestern’s recruitment of Dr. Doug Losordo and his team – one of the nation’s top regenerative medicine scientists

Entrepreneurial advances

• The Ag-bio company Chromatin, Inc. and its licensing agreement with Monsanto
• The launch of the PROPEL initiative for startup acceleration modeled on the successful San Diego CONNECT program
• Further development of the Catalyzing Collaboration Group (CGG) bringing together researchers and business development professionals

Incubators

• Opening up of IIT’s new University Research Park
• Continued advancement of the Forest City Illinois Science + Technology Park
• Development of Excellerant - a next-generation life sciences accelerator facility in the northern suburbs

Here’s the letter below (or download the PDF here).


  


Bottom Line: Like a venture capital financier who invests in a team, Illinois has, from all parts of the life sciences academic, business and political spectrum, a more than committed and able team to make things happen.  Reflecting back on the BIO2006 conference, it's pretty amazing what can be accomplished in a year-and-half.

Ogan Gurel, MD MPhil
gurel@aesisgroup.com
http://blog.aesisgroup.com/

Midwest biotechnology life sciences iBIO David E. Miller Aesis Research Group Ogan Gurel MD