Grant helps tech plans: Three universities pursue center for nanobiotechnology

Nov. 2--The N.C. Biotechnology Center said yesterday that it gave $100,000 to the Piedmont Triad Partnership to help develop a statewide nanotechnology center.

The partnership is a regional economic-development group based in Greensboro. It will work with N.C. A&T State University, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and Wake Forest University to create a business plan by next year to develop the center, called the N.C. Center of Innovation in Nanobiotechnology.

"It's really about building regional capacity to statewide development," said Ken Tindall, the biotechnology center's senior vice-president of science and business development.

The plan is still in the early stages, Tindall said. He could not say where the center will be based. It will not be based in a brick-and-mortar office but will rather work as a collaboration between universities and business leaders, he said.

"It's an opportunity to develop activities across the state," Tindall said. "There will be a focus somewhere, but it's really a statewide development activity."

The N.C. Biotechnology Center is based in Research Triangle Park. Its goal is to support biotechnology research throughout the state.

Nanotechnology is the science of developing materials on the atomic and molecular level and then using those materials to develop products and devices.

This region has embraced nanotechnology to help drive its economy. N.C. A&T and UNCG plan to open a joint school for nanoscience and nanoengineering by 2011.

Wake Forest, Forsyth Technical Community College and Winston-Salem State University are also working on a plan to build a multi-million dollar nanomedicine institute at the Piedmont Triad Research Park.

The Piedmont Triad Entrepreneurial Network, an economic-development group, also will have a statewide conference on nanotechnology at Salem College in March.

The nanobiotechnology center could take about five years to complete. It will allow researchers and business leaders to work together to create companies and devices based on the science, said Mark Welker, Wake Forest's associate provost for research.

The center "should be a matchmaker, liaison and one-stop shop for businesses that are interested in intellectual property, facilities and expertise that is available in North Carolina in nanobiotechnology," he said.

-- M. Paul Jackson can be reached at 727-7473 or at mjackson@wsjournal.com

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