DEVELOPER TOOLS

BUFFALO, NY -- Governor George E. Pataki was joined today by Bill Blake, Compaq's VP of Worldwide High Performance Technical Computing and business and academic leaders to announce up to $150 million in private sector support for a Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics in Buffalo - a key component of the Governor's $1 billion high-tech and biotech Centers of Excellence proposal. Industry partners in the endeavor include major computing, software and communications networking companies such as Compaq, Veridian, InforMax and Stryker and others such as Dell, Sun, SGI and Q-Chem. Academic and research partners include the University of Buffalo, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, and the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute. "The Buffalo Center of Excellence will help bring thousands of jobs and a new high-tech economy to Western New York - while also producing new drug discoveries, innovative medical treatments and specialized computer products," Governor Pataki said. "The fact that corporate leaders like Compaq, Veridian, InforMax, Stryker and others are making this generous commitment to the Buffalo Center, provides a clear indication of the tremendous economic benefits this initiative will deliver for the people of Western New York." The Center will be located in downtown Buffalo, near the medical campus. Plans call for a 150,000 square foot building to house drug design research space, computational and three dimensional visualization facilities, product commercialization space and workforce training facilities. Academic and industry researchers will work side-by-side in a collaborative effort to identify key research areas, and will translate that research into commercial realities and opportunities to attract high tech and biotech firms of all sizes to Western New York. Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno said, "The technology revolution is taking root in New York State, and this Centers of Excellence partnership, as well as the Senate's own Gen*NY*sis high-tech research initiative, will put Western New York at the forefront of new jobs to be created by this cutting-edge industry. I applaud Governor Pataki, my Senate colleagues from Western New York, and all the people of the region on this welcome announcement." The initiative announced today will be a comprehensive, seamless effort that takes basic and applied research, and with the direction of private sector industry, will translate this research into products and processes for commercialization. Partners in the Buffalo Center estimate that the Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics will generate thousands of jobs in Western New York. Bioinformatics is the emerging science field that uses high-performance computing to analyze biological data, and is seen as a major platform for drug discovery and modeling and other biotech research efforts in the 21st century. It has been estimated that the market for the information technology industry alone associated with the life sciences industry will exceed $40 billion by 2004, and that the bio-pharmaceutical and bio-device industries markets, projected to be huge growth areas and major beneficiaries of bioinformatics research, are anticipated to exceed $400 billion. Bioinformatics require a unique set of skills and competencies that cross traditional scientific disciplines, including broad knowledge in the life sciences, such as genetics and molecular biology, and in computer science. Scientists in this challenging new field have to be able to take immense amounts of data from genetic and biological research and manipulate that information using high performance computers and visualization techniques, which requires intensive training. The University of Buffalo will help to meet that critical workforce need in the new Bioinformatics industry, by providing a range of degree programs in Bioinformatics, from certificate programs through the Ph.D. level, and have recently established a School of Informatics. In addition to academic and research partners such as the University of Buffalo, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, and the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute, the Center of Excellence will also involve academic collaborations with the New York State Structural Biology Consortium, Cornell, Syracuse Health Science Center, the University of Rochester and Columbia University. Today's announcement builds on the $15.3 million for a Strategically Targeted Academic Research Center (STAR Center) the Governor announced in May for UB focusing on Disease Modeling and Therapy Discovery, $1 million a year for the new Center for Advanced Biomedical and Bioengineering Technology announced in April and nearly $870,000 for the Western New York Technology Development Center announced in November to help local small- and medium-sized manufacturing and technology-based businesses be more successful in the new economy.