The University of South Florida was awarded $8 million by state
officials to create the Florida Center of Excellence for Biomolecular
Identification and Targeted Therapeutics. The state award will be
combined with $39 million from the City of Tampa, Hillsborough County,
Florida High Tech Corridor Council, and USF for a total investment of
$47 million to create a center that will develop technologies to respond
to and treat biological threats and then translate these technologies
info commercial products which will benefit the environment and public
health. Also involved is Biovest International, a Worchester, MA,
biotech company that hopes to cooperate on research and development
efforts with the new USF center. USF projects that the return on
investment to the region includes creation of 400 new biotechnology
jobs, $84 million in direct wages and an estimated economic impact of
over $188 million.
Earlier detection, targeted cancer therapy focus of nanotechnology
collaboration between Moffitt, USF
By 2020 it is projected there will be 16.5 million new cancer cases, 3.8
million in the United States, according to the World Health
Organization. With such a global concern, researchers and the medical
society are turning to the littlest details, sweating the smallest stuff
and finding exceptional potential with nanotechnology. H. Lee Moffitt
Cancer Center & Research Institute, the University of South Florida
College of Medicine and the USF Nanomaterials and Nanomanufacturing
Research Center (NNRC) have been collaborating for several years to
develop and apply nanotechnology to treating cancer. On December 8, the
collaboration will host the region's first conference on nanotechnology
advances in disease detection and therapy. Open to the public, this
conference will feature local and national experts in the field,
including Dr. Robert Blumenthal from the National Cancer Institute and
Nanobiosym, Inc. Founder, Dr. Anita Goel. The program will begin at 8
a.m. at the Vincent A. Stabile Research building at Moffitt.
http://www.tampabay.org
Posted 30th November 2006
