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Industry Outlook 2006 - Biotech
Moving Forward
Scripps hasn't let site concerns keep it from proceeding with research.
DEFENDING THE NATION
Florida's biotech industry continues to lag in private investment and venture capital funding. But the sector has had a welcome infusion of dollars from federal defense and health agencies working to protect the nation from bioterrorism. The University of South Florida's Center for Biological Defense is a clearinghouse for anti-terrorism research going on throughout the state. A look at some of the work:
- At USF's Advanced Biosensors Lab, Daniel Lim is working on a transportable fiber optic biosensor system that can rapidly detect biological toxins in food, water, even people.
- At the University of Florida, Carlos Romero and Steven Benner are working on projects to manage exotic outbreaks -- deliberate or natural -- on the nation's animal herds.
- At the University of North Florida, Stuart J. Chalk is developing an "Aquatic Real-time Monitoring System," or ARMS, that constantly monitors public water-supply systems for bioterrorism agents.
- At Florida International University, Kelsey Downum is investigating whether some of the state's invasive plants -- notorious for their ability to resist attack by native parasites and pathogens -- may have properties that also resist certain bioterrorism threats as well as other emerging infectious diseases.
 RUSSELL G. KERR |
Person to Watch
RUSSELL G. KERR
Director, Center of Excellence in
Biomedical and Marine Biotechnology
Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton
Chemistry professor Russell G. Kerr, director of FAU's Center of Excellence in Biomedical and Marine Biotechnology, has spun off a new company called Nautilus Biosciences. Drug discovery from marine organisms is a major focus of the pharmaceutical and biotech industries these days, as several marine-derived chemicals complete successful clinical trials. But supply is a problem: The corals and sponges of the sea are limited resources. Nautilus has a $100,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop a cell-culture method to produce in the lab a class of anti-inflammatory compounds now found only in marine organisms. If this Phase 1 grant is successful, Kerr hopes to land $750,000 more for Phase 2. To fathom the consequences of success, consider the cancer drug Taxol. When it was approved by the FDA, the only source of Taxol was to extract large quantities of bark from the Pacific yew tree. Florida State University chemist Robert Holton licensed a process to produce Taxol in the lab, making the cancer drug widely available -- and earning millions for himself and FSU.
