The cluster or economic sector decided to focus its efforts on infrastructure, workforce development, venture capital, public policy and promotion. Although these five areas are broad, each has had movement and significant progress over the past year and a half.
The construction of the New Orleans BioInnovation Center, which will be located on the 1400 block of Canal Street, serves as one example. The facility will occupy 135,000 square feet and will contain three components relating to infrastructure. One of the BioInnovation Center's most important features is a state-sponsored wet lab incubator.
"There has never been a facility where a company can come here and do early stage testing," said James Hardy, Director of Technology Development at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center and co-chair of Greater New Orleans, Inc.'s Life Sciences Cluster. "A place literally that they can call home. Without an incubator they wouldn't be able to build and grow their technologies. Anything that has happened here without it, has been an accident or in spite of."
The New Orleans BioInnovation Center will also house a Good Manufacturing Practices laboratory, where the production of viral vectors and adult stem cells for academic clinical trials and sponsored research will take place.
Space will be leased at the new center to mature companies that want to maintain a gene therapy presence in the region. When the BioInnovation Center is fully renovated, it will represent an investment of over $30 million. The construction of this facility will be completed in early fall of 2004 and will be managed by the LSU and Tulane Health Sciences Centers.
In order to make the most of the region's bio-tech infrastructure, Greater New Orleans, Inc., the Louisiana Department of Labor, local universities and the State of Louisiana, are working at preparing our workforce for future challenges. Many programs are underway designed to teach the skills that are needed for a strong life sciences industry.
"I think we no longer have the luxury of relying on the Mississippi River and geography as our economic development driver," said Hardy. "We need to be more bold, strategic and determined than we've ever been. Creativity is important, too, because it is very competitive. This is a challenge for our leadership." In 2002, the Louisiana Legislature reinstituted the state's former CAPCO program with a special emphasis on technology-based businesses. CAPCO's formed within Louisiana must invest into technology-based businesses and companies located in university research parks.
Due to a regional effort from Greater New Orleans, Inc.'s Life Sciences Cluster and economic development staff, Louisiana Economic Development and The New Orleans Regional Chamber's public policy staff, the Research and Development Tax Credit Program and the Tech Commercialization Credit Program passed in the legislature.
The Research and Development Tax Credit allows companies to claim a Federal income tax credit for research activities claimed against state corporate income and corporate franchise taxes up to 8% of Louisiana's apportioned share.
Currently, the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center is working on cutting-edge research that is making headlines across the nation. Dr. Jack Strong of LSUHSC has proven that heart disease is not just an adult disease in his PDAY (Pathobiological Determinants of Atherosclerosis in Youth) Study. This landmark study has found evidence of dangerous hardening of the arteries in people as young as 15 years old. "These results help settle a longstanding controversy," said Dr. Claude Lenfant, National Institutes of Health. "It was known that the buildup of cholesterol in arteries leads to heart disease, but not when. PDAY is the first study of its kind to have the scale needed to give an answer."
In other studies, Dr. Michael Jazwinski is studying the genetics of aging. Jazwinski has developed a yeast model for the molecular analysis of the aging process and identified 14 genes that play a role in determining life span. The success of LSUHSC and Tulane University's Health Sciences Center is reflective of the booming life sciences industry in this country. Life science firms currently employ 179,000 people in the United States and spent an average of $101,000 per employee on research in 2000.