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Biotechnology
center marks new direction for central Maine
Maine Science and Technology Foundation
June 21, 2002
FAIRFIELD, MAINE - A vision conceived several years
ago to create a biotechnology business incubator in
central Maine came to fruition today in the grand opening
of the Thomas M. Teague Biotechnology Center of Maine.
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Fairfield
officials hang hopes on biotech center
Central
Maine Morning
Sentinel
June 22, 2002
FAIRFIELD,
Maine — A crowd of about 100 gathered Friday morning
for a closer look at the future.
They
came for the grand opening of the Thomas M. Teague
Biotechnology Center on Western Avenue — the result
of four years of work and a $4.5 million investment.
At
the ceremony, members of the Fairfield Economic
Development Corporation and the Teague Center
board said they are confident they will be able
to find enough tenants in the next year to warrant
the construction of a second center.
Corporation
members have already begun planning to build a
two-story laboratory building next door to the
first. Estimated costs for the planned building
are $2.5 million.
Peachey
Builders of Augusta has been contracted to build
the second center, sales manager Glenn Dumont
said.
The
newly opened center houses seven laboratories
and has plenty of office and communal space for
consultation. The second building will have 20
labs and few offices. Combined, both buildings
will be able to house 19-22 companies.
The
center is a business incubator intended to help
companies get started in the biotechnology field.
The companies will each spend two to five years
in the center doing viability research.
Clyde
E. Dyar, director of community and economic development
in Fairfield, said he is trying to make deals
with four or five companies. Although he would
not provide company names, Dyar said he plans
to sign an agreement with Montreal-based marketing
company Bio-Quebec in October. Dyar hopes BIO-Quebec,
which represents more than 200 biotechnology companies
across Quebec, will refer companies to the center.
"Eighty-seven
percent of the companies that go through incubators
are successful, while 90 percent of business startups
are not," Dyar said.
Based
on these figures, lending groups, the federal
government and the Maine Technology Institute
refer companies to incubators to increase their
chances of success, said Paul Tessier, a corporation
president, said.
The
center's only corporate tenant so far is Jackson
Laboratories, which expects to offer a 120-hour
training program concentrating on small laboratory
animal science practices for 10 to 12 students
starting this fall.
The
lab plans to train technicians who have experience
in biological sciences. Students who complete
the program will go to Jackson Laboratories in
Bar Harbor for job interviews.
"This
is a key training resource," Jackson Laboratories
Chief Executive Officer Warren Cook said. "It
will help with our continued expansion here, and
in California."
The
center has signed cooperative agreements with
Kennebec Valley Technical College, the University
of Maine at Farmington and Husson College, as
well as other biotech organizations throughout
New England and Quebec.
"There
will be a shift in Maine to biotechnology and
biomedical research, rather than send our students
to Texas or the Midwest to further their education,"
UMF biology professor and Teague Center President
Mary Schwanke said.
Dyar
said the center will offer jobs for less specialized
members of the community.
"Jobs
will reach a broad spectrum of people from the
high school level to the college level," Dyar
said. "This is not just for technicians and not
just for graduates."
There
will be few long-term jobs at the center because
company turnover will be high, but community members
will benefit from the center when biotech companies
that leave the center stay in Maine, Tessier said.
Copyright
© 2002 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
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Located
on 20 acres off Interstate 95 in the town of Fairfield,
the new center is a cause for celebration locally and
internationally. Three hundred people from Maine, Canada
and several states attended today's event.
"We
are celebrating more than the completion of a building,"
said Clyde Dyar, interim director of the Center. "We
are celebrating a dream come true, of bringing high-tech
business development and jobs to central Maine while
building cooperation and partnerships across borders."
State
Rep. Paul Tessier, D-Fairfield, was the master of ceremonies
for today's festivities. Tessier is president of both
the International Northeast Biotechnology Corridor and
the Fairfield Economic Development Corporation.
"Today
marks the end of four years of visioning, planning,
seeking funds, and making connections," said Rep. Tessier.
"It also marks a beginning, in which we repeat this
process."
"Opening
the doors of this Center has placed Fairfield in the
midst of a rapidly growing research and development
economy in Maine. We now have an opportunity to bring
21st century jobs to Central Maine and to expand our
research and development base," said Tessier.
The
Center's educational and training mission is reflected
in the participation and leadership of Dr. Mary Schwanke,
President, Thomas M. Teague Biotechnology Center; Dr.
Barbara Woodlee, President, Kennebec Valley Technical
College; and Dr. James Kenney, Dean of Science and Humanities,
Husson College.
"What
I am most excited about is that there will be a shift
in Maine to biotechnology and biomedical research,"
said Dr. Schwanke, who is a professor of biology at
the University of Maine of Farmington. "Rather than
send our students to Texas or the Midwest to further
their education and work in these fields, we will be
able to tell them that there will be opportunities for
them here in Maine."
Today's
speakers also included Francois Lebrun of the Quebec
Delegation and Mario Deslongchamps, director of BioMed
Développement - Sherbrooke Biomedical Park, a private,
nonprofit Quebec organization. Part of today's agenda
included signing a memorandum of agreement between BioMed
and the Teague Biotechnology Center.
The
mission of the Quebec Delegation, a government office,
is to set up economic, political, cultural, academic
and tourism exchanges between Quebec and the six New
England states of Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, New
Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode Island.
"The
economic relationship between Quebec and New England
is more and more dedicated to partnerships in the high
technology sectors. The agreement signed today moves
toward that goal, and is a step forward in the development
of a bi-national Biotechnology Corridor in the Northeast,"
said Lebrun.
The
agreement fosters cross-border cooperation in the commercialization
of biotechnology, and includes eight joint obligations,
ranging from information sharing, cooperation in business
and marketing development, and seeking of venture capital
to assisting students in discovering careers of service
in biotechnology and the health sciences. Discussions
to explore a cooperative relationship started a year
ago, according to Deslongchamps.
Other
speakers included Warren Cook, CEO, The Jackson Laboratory,
David Bragdon of the Maine Science and Technology Foundation
(MSTF) and representatives from Governor King, the Maine
Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD),
Sen. Olympia Snowe, Sen. Susan Collins and Congressman
Baldacci.
The
Center is named after the late Thomas Teague, a local
state senator, farmer and businessman who offered property
he owned as a building site for the Center. The Teague
family will donate the property to the nonprofit Fairfield
Economic Development Corporation, after certain conditions
are met, such as final paving of the road to the Center,
according to Dyar. Members of the Teague family were
present at the ceremony and expressed their support
for the Center and the value to humanity of the work
to be conducted there.
The
Center's first corporate tenant is The Jackson Laboratory,
the world's largest mammalian research facility, located
in Bar Harbor, Maine. The Jackson Laboratory will be
offering a 120-hour training program concentrating on
Small Laboratory Animal Science practices. With over
1,200 employees, the Laboratory is the largest employer
in Hancock County, and is growing at the rate of 15-10
percent per year, due to growth of the pharmaceutical
industry as well as the National Institutes of Health
(NIH) research budget, according to Cook. The Laboratory
hires about 100 people each year and promotes 100 each
year into more responsible jobs, he said. The Laboratory
recently expanded training opportunities for its employees.
In
a cooperative program between the Laboratory and Kennebec
Valley Technical College in Fairfield, the Laboratory's
new Fairfield Education Center at the Biotechnology
Center will train biological technicians who have a
two- or four-year degree in the biological sciences.
Upon successful completion of the program, students
will receive a certificate and an opportunity to be
considered for employment at The Jackson Laboratory.
The
Thomas M. Teague Biotechnology Center is one of seven
Applied Technology Development Centers established by
the Maine Legislature to encourage more research and
application of research results in key sectors of future
industry in the state. Each center focuses on a different
sector, including environmental enterprise (South Portland),
composite materials (Sanford, Greenville and Orono),
precision manufacturing and electronics (Rumford), (Orono),
advanced aquaculture (Eastport, Franklin and Walpole),
forestry and agriculture (Limestone), and biotechnology.
Alan
Brigham, director of Administration and Policy at Maine
DECD, praised the "ability and tenacity" of Tessier
and Dyar in moving the Center from a dream to a reality,
and said their networking and international approach
is a model for the other centers in Maine.
David
Bragdon of the Maine Science and Technology Foundation
said that biotechnology has "true star potential." It
is one of three sectors "with tremendous potential"
for Maine, he said, citing the results of a recent cluster
analysis study conducted by the MSTF.
The
term biotechnology first came into use in the late 1970s
and early 1980s, however the manipulation of biological
systems is neither novel nor revolutionary. Farmers
have been selectively breeding domestic animals for
thousands of years. Today, a very broad definition of
biotechnology is used to indicate the use of biological
organisms, cells, or processes to produce commercial
goods or services. Techniques and methodologies being
used today include genetic engineering, cell culture,
cell fusion, fermentation, immobilization and the use
of enzymes.
The
Jackson Laboratory, for example, uses the genetic code
of mice as a platform for biomedical research in five
areas: cancer, birth defects and aging, immune system
and blood disorders, neurological and sensory disorders,
and metabolic diseases.
For
more information about the Thomas M. Teague Biotechnology
Center, contact Clyde Dyar at (207) 453-4283 in Fairfield.
Additional
Contacts:
- Rep.
Paul Tessier, President, Fairfield Economic Development
Corporation and President, International Biotechnology
Corridor, (207) 453-4283
- Susan
Deacy, International Marketing Manager, Quebec Delegation,
(617) 482-1193
- Donald
Leblanc, Public Affairs, Quebec Delegation, (617)
482-1193
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