Value added - USG serves Georgia [Nov. 2008]

VALUE ADDED: USG Serves Georgia

November 2008

MCG Business Incubator Gains National Recognition

The Medical College of Georgia Life Sciences Innovation Center has been selected as one of five national recipients of Expansion Solution Magazine's 2008 Award of Excellence in Biotechnology.
The award recognizes development organizations that have shown exceptional progress and potential in development by recruiting, retaining and assisting start-up biotechnology businesses.
The center, a business incubator managed by the MCG Office of Technology Transfer and Economic Development, helps foster new biotech companies by providing space, equipment and mentoring services for its tenants, an outreach program to assist entrepreneurs, and matching grants when companies team with MCG faculty to work in translational research.
"When companies come here, they don't need much more than the idea," says Dr. Charles Nawrot, associate vice president for technology transfer and economic development. "But it's not enough to put bodies in the lab. The overall intent is to transfer technology out of a laboratory and into the commercial sector. We make

The Life Sciences Innovation Center, based in the Interdesciplinary Research Building at Medical College of Georgia, is currently incubating four businesses.
every effort to ensure that companies that use our facilities succeed. This award is a wonderful recognition of those efforts."
The MCG business incubator in 2004 became part of The Centers of Innovation, a statewide economic development program launched by Gov. Sonny Perdue in 2003 and managed by the Georgia Department of Economic Development. It is one of six innovation centers in Georgia and the only one devoted strictly to the life sciences.
See "INCUBATOR," p. 2...

NIH Grant has UGA Developing 3-D Science Lessons for High-School Students

After using 3-dimensional models and animation successfully for years to help veterinary students understand complicated biological processes, University of Georgia researchers are taking the user-friendly lessons to Georgia high-school students.
J. Steve Oliver, associate department head of science and math education in UGA's College of Education, and several other UGA researchers and state partners will use a 5-year $ 1.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Science Education Partnership Program

to create and evaluate the 3-D animated biology lessons. Their goal is to entice more high-school students to choose careers in science.
"We're deeply concerned about the general lack of interest in science among young people in our country," said Oliver. "We believe at least part of the reason is that many don't understand the relevance of science to their lives. The animated lessons will help them to see biology as `real,' and not just a list of facts and terms."
See "3-D SCIENCE LESSONS," p. 2...

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3-D SCIENCE LESSONS Continued from P. 1
Other partners in the project include faculty at Augusta State University, high-school science teachers and the Biological Science Curriculum Study Organization, a group in Colorado Springs, Colorado, that has been developing biology curricula for middle- and high-school students across the nation for more than 50 years. The BSCS will guide aspects of the biology curriculum and oversee national distribution upon completion of the project.
The 3-D animations will compare the function and structure of a healthy kidney to one affected by diabetes. Students will examine each of the biological processes in the normal kidney, and then investigate how they are altered in the diseased kidney, subconsciously learning the material while enjoying the experience.
"The typical student doesn't appreciate the potentially damaging effects on their cells and organs of lifestyle choices they make every day," said Jim Moore, who teaches UGA veterinary students. "For example, the incidence of diabetes is increasing in pet animals the same way it is in the human population--and perhaps for the same reasons: a lack of exercise and obesity. We believe that some high-school students will be better able to explore the consequences of the disease in a pet animal than might be possible with a disease they believe only affects humans."

High-school students will examine each of the biological processes in the normal kidney, and then discover how they are altered in the diseased kidney.
To introduce high-school students to the clinical reality of diabetes in humans and pet animals, the researchers will host visits to UGA's Colleges of Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy. During the visits, students will see animals with diabetes, learn how veterinarians and physicians evaluate kidney function in humans and animals, and see how clinical trials are performed to evaluate the effectiveness of new treatments.
"By coupling this unique learning method with on-site visits, we believe students will be far more receptive to choosing a science-based career path, be it as a scientist or a science teacher," said Oliver. Q

INCUBATOR Continued from P. 1
The incubator currently houses four businesses, with room for five, said Jonathan Goolsby, outreach development coordinator for the center. Current tenants include EMThrax, which focuses on developing new anthrax vaccine; Xytex Research, which specializes in cryopreservation of reproductive tissue and cord blood banking; Luminomics, a company that studies degenerative disease in zebrafish; and OrganiPharm, which studies the medicinal properties of herbal extracts.
Occupancy is reviewed annually, but is expected to last no more than seven years, at which point the companies move into the business community, Goolsby says.

"The innovation center is a major economic driver for Augusta and the surrounding area because many of the business that start there choose to remain in this area," adds Walter Sprouse, director of the Development Authority of Richmond County. "This award will help us boost the center's already first-rate national reputation."
Expansion Solutions Magazine is a national publication distributed bi-monthly to 20,000 people. It is designed to inform key site-selection consultants and corporate real-estate brokers about progressive communities and the benefits that are offered by each community. Q