(PIEDMONT TRIAD, N.C.) March 3: The Piedmont Triad Partnership (PTP) has taken a leadership role in furthering biotechnology in the Piedmont Triad by helping to establish the N.C. Center of Innovation in Nanobiotechnology (COIN). The Center will initially be housed at the Partnership offices and is part of a statewide initiative to promote the commercial development of products derived from this particularly promising field of science.
COIN's location in the Piedmont Triad capitalizes on collaboration among Wake Forest University, N.C. Agricultural and Technical State University and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, which includes the new $60 million Joint School for Nanoscience and Nanoengineering. Additionally, university and industry partners from across North Carolina will also participate in COIN. The N.C. Center of Innovation in Nanobiotechnology is now in an initial planning phase, funded by a $100,000 grant from the N.C. Biotechnology Center; this grant is being administered by the PTP.
"With the Center of Innovation in Nanobiotechnology, we have an exciting opportunity in the Piedmont Triad to translate research into concrete realities that will lead to jobs for the region and state," says Don Kirkman, President and CEO, Piedmont Triad Partnership. This planning phase is expected to lead to another round of funding prior to official launch. Brooks Adams, who has 14 years of experience in biotechnology, specialty pharmaceuticals/drug delivery and genomics, has been named as the Center's executive director and is guiding the planning process.
Wake Forest University also offers significant resources to the COIN initiative, including proximity to its Center for Nano-Technology and Molecular Materials. "We will work closely with the technology transfer offices of regional universities and others around the state and provide them with an added resource, specifically for nanobiotech," Adams said. Gwyn Riddick, Piedmont Triad Regional Director, N. C. Biotechnology Center, says "This grant is facilitating historic regional collaboration among three of the largest Piedmont Triad research universities to create the region's first coordinated science brand, which will be Nanobiotechnology. We expect it to bring benefits to all of North Carolina as it evolves across the state with additional research universities and targets commercialization of the technology into the marketplace."
According to Adams, the Center of Innovation in Nanobiotechnology will connect the Piedmont Triad and the North Carolina university research community with industry and funding sources to enable new technology-based products to be developed and commercialized - and create the basis for new companies and job growth statewide. "Our function will be to bring together the right people and organizations to put our universities' research to good use, and to take their work to the market in ways that will directly improve medicine and the life sciences and enhance the quality of life," Adams said.
The Piedmont Triad Partnership (PTP), one of seven regional economic development partnerships in North Carolina, is the economic development organization representing the 12-county Piedmont Triad region. The PTP is the lead organization for the U.S. Department of Labor-funded Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED) initiative, which supports the development of an integrated regional economic development and workforce development strategy for the Piedmont Triad. The Piedmont Triad, the nation's 37th-largest metro region with more than 1.5 million residents, includes the counties of Alamance, Caswell, Davidson, Davie, Forsyth, Guilford, Montgomery, Randolph, Rockingham, Stokes, Surry, and Yadkin.
Source: Piedmont Triad Partnership