Virginia Leads the Way in Forensics

The cover story in the latest Virginia Business magazine is all about Virginia's leading role in the field of applied forensic technology. From the state's leadership in developing the DNA database to private firms such as Bode Technology and Commonwealth Biotechnologies.VaBIO board member Kevin McElfresh is on the cover, looking quite stern and unforgiving! The headline is "Sorting Out Murder, Madness and Mayhem." I guess they asked for a CSI pose? Click here for the article.

Congratulations to Paul Ferrara, Kevin McElfresh and Tom Reynolds on the excellent article. It is great to see the biosciences on the cover of the state's leading business magazine.

Mid-Atlantic Bio Exceeded Expectations

The 2005 Mid-Atlantic Bio Conference, the first industry-led regional bioscience conference for Maryland and Virginia, concluded successfully last week at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C.

The conference attracted more than 600 attendees (we are still counting registrations and walk-ins-- could be nearly 650) from approximately 250 companies, 15 states and 40 different venture capital investment funds. The 58 booth exhibit hall was sold out and more than 770 total registrations were sold.

Those in attendance heard more than 60 speakers on diverse topics such as raising investment capital, the future of personalized medicine, innovative treatments for obesity and aging, biodefense initiatives, nanotechnology and selecting the best tools for bioscience research. The keynote speaker on the opening day, Dr. George Poste, of the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University, spoke about the convergence of biotechnology, engineering, and computing in healthcare delivery.

The feedback from attendees regarding the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center was surprisingly positive. We were afraid that the site was just too big for our event. Based on the comments, we are seriously looking at the Reagan building again.