Tour of CNY BRC Featured at Biotechnology Symposium

05/22/2012

The future home of biotechnology in Syracuse was on display during the Biotechnology Symposium 2012 hosted by the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) May 21 and 22 at the OnCenter Complex, Syracuse.

A highlight of the two-day conference was tours of the new CNY BRC bioincubator facility. The CNY BRC is a joint project between ESF and Upstate Medical University. The 40,000-square-foot building will accommodate companies involved in the commercialization of medical and biological technologies.

Structural steel and foundation work is complete, and when open at the end of 2012, the facility will include 18 independent laboratory-office modules that will house more than 100 scientists, technicians and entrepreneurs and a full complement of business support services.

The conference also featured presentations, more exhibitors than in previous years and an expanded student poster session.

Scheduled sessions were titled Bioenergy, Keys to Entrepreneurship and Innovation Success, Drug Delivery/Nanotechnology, Bioremediation, Fermentation: the Original Biotechnology, Biomaterials/Orthopedics, Agricultural Biotechnology, Biopharmeceuticals and Stem Cells/Tissue Engineering.

Symposium plenary sessions were presented by Dr. Milena Adamian, director of Life Sciences Angel Networks; Heather Briccetti, president and CEO of the Business Council for New York State; Dr. Steve Goodman, vice president for research at SUNY Upstate Medical University; Dr. Cornelius B. Murphy, Jr., president of ESF; Dr. Karin Pavese, vice president of Innovation and Sustainability for the New York Academy of Sciences; Nancy Rurkowski, vice president of process sciences in biologics development at Bristol-Myers Squibb; Dr. David Smith, president of SUNY Upstate Medical University; and Dr. Todd Zion, founder and CEO of SmartCells.