Raising Oklahoma; Delegation to conference increases awareness of state's biotech industry

BOSTON - When Emergent Technologies was invited to make a presentation at Oklahoma's BIO 2007 convention booth here this week, John Hoopingarner rushed to the front of the line.

Never mind that Emergent is an Austin, Texas-based company.

Emergent owns four Oklahoma City-based companies in its portfolio of biotech-based startups, and the company was eager to tell its story at the convention, said Hoopingarner, the company's executive vice president for operations.

"We like to show off the depth and the breadth of our portfolio and this is an easy way to do it," Hoopingarner said. "Not to mention what it does for the Oklahoma booth. It's not static. There's people there; they're talking, they're demonstrating, they're pointing. That's active. People will slow down and look."

Which is not to say that Oklahoma filled all 24 of the seats available for each presentation, but that wasn't the point for Hoopingarner and Emergent.

The company brought its own audience to the Boston Convention and Exposition Center for Monday's presentation by Richard Timmons, a professor at the University of Texas at Arlington and chief scientific officer of a new nanotechnology company called Aeonclad.

"We have half a dozen chief scientists, none of whom get a chance to spend any quality time with each other because they are in different cities," Hoopingarner said. "To sit and watch a presentation by one of our other scientists, he will be thinking 'That's pretty interesting, I can see why they like that technology,' and hopefully they're thinking 'I wonder if this is anything I can use?' "

Other Oklahoma presenters included Dr. Joseph Ferretti, provost at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center; Jim Mason, executive director of the Oklahoma Nanotechnology Initiative; Oklahoma Commerce Secretary Natalie Shirley; Nancy Connally, Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education; Joe Parli, Tulsa Community College; and Marianne Clarke with the Battelle Technology Partnership Practice.

Like Emergent's Hoopingarner, Clarke is not an Oklahoman either.

But as a researcher with the company that conducted a defining study of Oklahoma's life sciences industry two years ago and drew up a "road map" for the state's bio initiative, she was more than willing to help spread the news of Oklahoma's ascendance in the biotechnology community.

"One of the things we like to do is continue to work with clients through implementation (of the plan)," Clarke said before taking the podium.

Her presentation centered on the strengths that Battelle found in Oklahoma when it looked at the life sciences arena in the state.

Those included the foundations, such as the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, the Noble Foundation in Ardmore, the OU Health Sciences Center, the Presbyterian Health Foundation Research Park and even the support offered by the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology.

"There is a strong infrastructure to support biosciences," Clarke said. "The state - both the public and the private sectors - have made a real commitment to support the biosciences."

Oklahoma's exhibition space buzzed with activity Monday, both from the dozens of Oklahomans staffing it to the scores of passers-by who paused for a moment to take in a presentation or take one of the portable, battery-powered fans that were given away.

In his third consecutive trip to the BIO conference with the Oklahoma group, Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett chatted up passers-by, caught a presentation at the booth and watched and listened to see if the state's message is getting across.

"The first year I came to this, and even some last year, you would get a lot of puzzled looks in their faces when Oklahoma and biotechnology was mentioned in the same breath.," Cornett said. "We have a great location (on the convention floor), and I think our message is raising awareness of Oklahoma."

And that message is?

"That Oklahoma is a player in the biotechnology industry," he said.

Jim Stafford: 475-3310, jstafford@oklahoman.com