SUNY-Upstate breaks ground on biotech center
The State University of New York Upstate Medical University is in the process of building a research center dedicated to biotechnology.
The facility is expected to bring research opportunities to Syracuse University and surrounding universities. It could also have an economic trickle-down effect regionally.
Biotechnology is genetically engineering organic products for commercial uses. Some of the common biotechnology products include vaccines, pest-resistant crops and new bacterial strains.
Construction on the Central New York Biotechnology Research Center began in July. Demolition and clearing efforts are now underway at the site of the former Kennedy Square Apartments. The center is expected to be completed in late 2009 or January 2010.
The facility is designed to accommodate different biotechnology companies in separate offices.
The center is expected to cost $80 million and will be owned by SUNY Upstate Medical University. Funding has come from state government sources and groups like the state Senate’s Gen*NY*sis biotechnology economic development program. The program has donated $5 million toward the research center, according to a news release issued Wednesday.
As the field of biotechnology grows, influx from partnering companies is expected to bring both jobs and renewed profit to Central New York, said John Fieschko, the center’s executive director.
Additionally, the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry is expected to work with the center as a research affiliate.
‘We are very pleased to be working with Upstate Medical University on this very important project,’ ESF President Cornelius Murphy said.
The Metropolitan Development Association of Syracuse and Central New York will work with Upstate Medical University and ESF to establish the center. The MDA is the primary private-sector force behind large projects in the city, according to its Web site.
Faculty members from SU and ESF will be able to create start-up companies and potentially employ students part-time for research endeavors related to the biotechnology field, said Steven Goodman, Upstate Medical University’s vice president of research and the center’s co-chair of the board.
The companies may be related to the commercialization of biotechnology, bioenergy, biodevices, stem-cell technologies and molecule therapeutics.
With possible occupants of the center coming from within the university, the center should strengthen SU’s urban relationship. The connection should bring ‘the university area to the city of Syracuse,’ Fieschko said.
Published on September 23, 2009 at 12:00 pm
