SubscribeRaleigh-Durham, North Carolina, home to Research Triangle Park, major universities and more than 300 bioscience companies, ranks among the top metropolitan areas for biotechnology in the United States, rubbing elbows with the likes of Boston, San Diego and San Francisco.
But from the mountains to the coast, other regions in the state of North Carolina are busily carving out niches of their own in biotechnology.
"Few states are so well able to incorporate biotechnology widely across their landscape as North Carolina," says Steven Burke, senior vice president of corporate affairs for the North Carolina Biotechnology Center in Research Triangle Park.
Helping all regions of the state develop, and gain from, biotechnology is a strategic thrust of the Biotechnology Center, a non-profit economic development organization established by the State in 1984 to support biotechnology research, business and education statewide.
To accelerate regional development, the Biotechnology Center has established small, two-person offices statewide as "places of partnership, assistance and catalysis." The Piedmont Triad Office in Winston-Salem was the first to open, in 2003. The Western Office in Asheville followed in 2004, and the Eastern and Southeastern Offices opened in Greenville and Wilmington, respectively, in 2005. A Greater Charlotte Office will open this year.
"All of these regions can be strengthened over time by targeted assistance, identification of niche areas, increased partnerships and focused leadership," Burke says.
A tour of North Carolina reveals a rich diversity of biotechnology research and product development under way at universities and companies in the five regions.
Southeastern North Carolina
Southeastern North Carolina has its movie and TV production studios, its beach tourism, its favorites in the battles over the best in barbecue and batter. But virtually everything here hearkens to the fact that it's a glorious convergence of surf and turf.
The Atlantic Ocean, the brackish wetlands, moderate climate and nearby inlands also present a unique opportunity for scientists interested in uncovering the vast possibilities of aquatic life and Down-East agriculture. Applying the tools of biotechnology, a growing number of researchers from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, colleagues associated with the Chapel Hill campus and marine scientists from Duke University are exploring important new ways to detect, treat and potentially even cure diseases.
"We're seeing a renaissance in marine biotechnology that's introducing us to a whole new set of untapped natural resources and commercial opportunities," says Randall Johnson, director of the Biotechnology Center's Southeastern Office. "And it's becoming obvious that this unfolding vein of potential is beginning to contribute mightily to the state's economic and social well-being - with special benefit to the people in this region."
He cites the work of Dr. Daniel Baden as an example.
Baden, director of the UNC-W Center for Marine Science and the William R. Kenan Distinguished Professor of Marine Sciences, is like an alchemist in a wetsuit. But rather than turning lead into gold, Baden and colleagues have found ways to turn more than 25 marine toxins into tests and treatments for human health. Their progress has yielded Ocean Solutions Inc., a fledgling startup company.
"If you understand how a molecule works, even in a toxin, you can sometimes devise ways to use it for therapeutic purposes," says Baden. "Take Botox, or botulinum toxin, as the most well-known example. It's one of the most lethal toxins known. Yet by examining its workings doctors were able to develop it as a cosmetic tool for clearing away wrinkles."
Perhaps the most exciting avenue being explored by Baden and colleagues is a new kind of therapy for the debilitating lung-clogging genetic disease cystic fibrosis. The potential treatment is extracted from organisms that cause Red Tide, algal toxins that can be deadly to fish, turtles, sea mammals and humans.
But with a patent near completion, Baden and colleagues, in collaboration with Wilmington-based AAIPharma Inc., are preparing to seek a development partner to take their discovery through clinical trials and into the marketplace.
"Who'd have thought a Red Tide organism, something that normally kills, could produce something useful to treat cystic fibrosis?" said Baden. "But it's classic molecular modeling. In this molecule, we found that it caused an increase in the rate and efficiency of mucus clearance.
From there we simply asked what kind of human conditions involve mucus that doesn't clear effectively. Cystic fibrosis was the first that came to mind. But we also may want to explore this phenomenon in other conditions, such as chronic pulmonary disease and chronic smoking."
MARBIONC, an acronym for Marine Biotechnology in North Carolina, is a program established by the General Assembly two years ago to help spawn new expertise in marine biology. Area scientists are probing new possibilities for improving food fish, aquarium fish, coral and oyster reproduction, as well as new targets in human health.
"This is bigger than marine science," Baden says. "We're talking about biotechnology markets that could include everything from the food and beverage and technology industries to life sciences and public health."
Biotechnology Center grants have spurred research in the region. A faculty recruitment grant enabled UNC-W to recruit Jeffrey Wright, whom Baden calls "an instrumental faculty member in the success of our biotechnology program." Other grants have funded a fluorescent microscope enabling organism identification for harmful algal bloom species, a high-resolution mass spectrometer for chemical analyses and a DNA sequencer.
"The North Carolina Biotechnology Center has been a big part of the reason that biotechnology here has become as good as it has," Baden says.
George Christ and Weixin Zhao apply their expertise in muscle-cell physiology to numerous projects at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The Institute, led by Dr. Tony Atala, has successfully implanted laboratory-grown bladders into children and teenagers, a medical first. Atala's lab is now working to grow 20 different tissues and organs, including blood vessels and hearts, using individual patients' own cells. Photo by Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
Eastern North Carolina
Dr. Anton-Lewis Usala came to Greenville in June 1990 to have access to a raw material that would allow his Cleveland, Ohio-based company to expand testing of beta cell transplants for diabetes in hopes of eliminating the need for insulin shots.
He not only found the raw material, pig pancreas, in large supply, but also a new home for his company Encelle, which aims to repair diseased or damaged tissue.
During the process, Usala accepted a position with East Carolina University's Brody School of Medicine. And the region dotted with tobacco fields and hog farms became his home.
Usala is now working on two new ventures. One is CTMG, Inc. (Clinical Trial Management Group), which seeks to accelerate the clinical testing phase, and Ectocelle, a tissue-regeneration company.
Usala's work is just one of several research activities developed in the region, says John Chaffee, director of the Biotechnology Center's Eastern Office in Greenville.
"Right now, the strength of this region is in the biomedical device field and in cardiovascular disease research," says Chaffee. "However, significant research activity is emerging in several other biotechnology-related areas such as plant-derived medicinals and the study of metabolic disorders."
ECU has long been a worldwide leader in minimally invasive robotic heart surgery. Doctors now commonly perform robotically assisted mitral-valve repairs.
In 2008, ECU will expand its heart treatment and research work with the opening of the $210 million East Carolina Cardiovascular Research Institute.
The Institute is a collaboration between Pitt County Memorial Hospital, University Health Systems of Eastern Carolina and the Brody School of Medicine. The facility and its programs should generate more than 500 jobs and ultimately add $34 million yearly to the economy.
"The combination of the University-based research and the companies present will pay great dividends for the future of the region," Chaffee says.
The Eastern Region's work in bioscience isn't focused solely on medicine and medical devices. Beaufort County will soon be the home of a $150 million ethanol plant that will produce 114 million gallons of ethanol per year from biomass.
The plant, to be built by Agri-Ethanol Products, will be the first on the East Coast. The company says the plant will consume more than 20 million bushels of grain per year and can use either corn or grain sorghum interchangeably.
Piedmont Triad
Inside the ivy-covered walls of Harvard University, Dr. Anthony Atala used a human tissue sample to create a bladder -- the first human organ ever developed using tissue engineering.
Atala's work, focusing on growing new human tissues and organs to repair those defective at birth or destroyed by disease, has since led to the construction of blood vessels, wombs and heart valves, in addition to bladders.
And thanks to a multimillion-dollar recruitment effort by Wake Forest University, coupled with plans to build an Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Atala is continuing his work in North Carolina at the Piedmont Triad Research Park in Winston-Salem.
As a result of Atala's move, Tengion, a company created in part to take advantage of the professor's research, has opened a Winston-Salem office with the potential of having 160 employees within three years.
"It's a great opportunity to be in an area with an emerging park," says Atala, one of the world's renowned tissue engineers. "Having the academic environment and the research park is a powerful combination."
Atala's work highlights the Piedmont Triad's industrial growth from an area steeped in tobacco and furniture manufacturing to one embracing technological advances.
For example, Targacept is developing treatments for central nervous system diseases by selectively targeting nicotinic receptors in the brain. The work stems from years of nicotine research by its parent company, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco.
In High Point, TransTech Pharma is developing technology to identify and test potential new drugs faster and more efficiently. The technology, called TTP Translational Technology, includes advanced robotics and high throughput testing.
At Wake Forest University, the School of Medicine has earmarked a $7.5 million grant from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine and the Office of Dietary Supplements to open a research center to study dietary supplements. And the Wake Forest and Harvard Center for Botanical Lipids is studying how flaxseed, echium and borage could treat and prevent atherosclerosis, asthma and other anti-inflammatory diseases.
"We are building a base of terrific intellectual property that will eventually find itself in the marketplace," says Gwyn Riddick, director of the Biotechnology Center's Piedmont Triad Office.
Greater Charlotte
Nanotechnology - the manipulation of matter on an ultra-small scale - just might be the next big thing in the Greater Charlotte region.
Researchers including Ken Gonsalves and Wade Sisk of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and Craig Halberstadt and Qi Lu, both of Carolinas Medical Center, are working to create new medical treatments using man-made materials about 1,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair.
In their gene therapy study, the researchers are creating "a kind of Trojan Horse" that can enter a cell and rectify what's wrong at the DNA level, explains Gonsalves, a distinguished professor of polymer materials and organic chemistry. "We're actually correcting the machinery of the cell to make it function the way it should." The application could be useful in treating muscular dystrophy and may play an important role in creating new tissues to replace ligaments, tendons, muscle, bone and even neurological tissue.
Another promising area of nanotechnology research at UNC Charlotte is photodynamic therapy for cancer treatment. An ultra-tiny "machine" goes to the tumorous cell site, enters it and generates energy inside the cell.
"The idea is a target bullet to go to the cell and create a burst of energy that destroys the cancerous cell but not the healthy cells surrounding it," says Gonsalves, who was recruited to UNC Charlotte with the help of a $96,000 grant from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center in 2000.
Nanotechnology isn't the only game in town and gown, however. Bioinformatics, the storage, retrieval and analysis of large amounts of biological data, is also a dynamic area of research, along with biomedical engineering, says Marjorie Benbow of UNC Charlotte's Office of Technology Transfer. "It's all very cross-disciplinary," Benbow says. "Our professors really work well across departments for interdisciplinary solutions."
In the last decade UNC Charlotte has spun off 26 start-up companies, received 53 patents and transferred 79 technologies to industry, with much of that activity in, or impacting, the biosciences.
"Many of our scientists come from industry," Benbow explains, "and they're used to solving real-world problems."
That tradition of applied science is expected to play an important role in the new North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis, north of Charlotte. The 350-acre campus, being developed by Dole Food Co. owner David Murdock in partnership with the UNC System, Duke University and the Community College System, is envisioned as a major national center for research, business and education in nutrition, agriculture, health and biotechnology, addressing vexing health problems such as cancer and obesity.
UNC Charlotte will support the new campus with expertise in bioinformatics, research in nutrition and health behavior, and education.
The same data-mining applications and logarithms used to handle financial transactions in Charlotte's large banking industry are also applicable to biological data, says Dr. Larry Mays, director of the university's new Bioinformatics Center.
UNC Charlotte, the City of Kannapolis and Rowan-Cabarrus Community College are already partnering to train workers for some of the 5,000 technology jobs projected to be created at the North Carolina Research Campus, now under construction on the site of the former Pillowtex textile plant.
Western North Carolina
Renowned for its exceptional geographic and cultural appeal, Western North Carolina is awakening to an important natural relationship with the life sciences.
The region's extraordinary biodiversity contributes to its rich history in the medicinal use of natural plants and herbs - though only a small fraction of the area's estimated 2,500 plant species have so far been examined for those uses. The region's potential in natural products, forestry and agriculture are "turning on the lights" in regional research labs, says Cheryl McMurry, director of the Western Office of the Biotechnology Center.
Broadaxes and dibbles have given way to new tools such as molecular biology, chemistry, bioinformatics and molecular modeling to provide commercialization opportunities and to infuse a new economic vitality, thanks to the area's universities and entrepreneurs.
The University of North Carolina at Asheville, Appalachian State University and Western Carolina University have expanded their research departments and are participating in technology transfer efforts to get their inventions to the marketplace. More than 30 regional scientists presented their work at a Biotechnology Center-sponsored "Science in the Mountains" symposium in early April.
N.C. State University experts are also contributing to the region's science base, through horticultural scientists at the Mountain Horticultural Crops Research and Extension Center in Fletcher, home of the N.C. Specialty Crops Program, a multi-agency, statewide program dedicated to the development of new crops for North Carolina farmers.
"From Christmas trees to chestnut trees, black cohosh to bloodroot, biotechnology's principles are seeding, protecting and improving Western North Carolina industries" says John F.A.V. Cecil, president of Biltmore Farms and chairman of the 24-member Advisory Committee for Biotechnology in Western North Carolina.
Increasingly, he notes, the tools of biotechnology hold the key to cultivation of rare medicinal herbs so those in the wild can repopulate, undisturbed. Improved biofuel production may result from installing genes leading to superior strains of rapeseed that can lower the cost of converting this "weed" into a powerful, domestically generated petroleum substitute.
The Enka campus of Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, a 37-acre park-like setting with 20 wet laboratories and more than 277,000 square feel of office, lab, warehouse and light manufacturing space, has become a hub of life-sciences entrepreneurial activity in the region. The Biotechnology Center's Western Office is housed in the facility along with other business and technical service providers whose mission is to encourage new enterprise.
"In short," says McMurry, "the Western Region is active, enthusiastic and progressing rapidly to establish biotechnology as a viable economic development engine."