Leadership, Opportunity and Partners
UCB is home to four Nobel Laureates, including Dr. Tom Cech (Chemistry), who is returning to lead the CIMB after serving as President of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) during the last 8 years. Dr. Cech was recruited back to Colorado based on the University’s commitment to building a new model for discovery, development, and commercialization of therapies to address world-wide health issues. In additional to his scholarly work, Dr. Cech founded Ribozyme Pharmaceuticals which was acquired by Merck for over $1 billion. Dr. Leslie Leinwand, who serves as the Chief Science Officer of CIMB, was named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor in 2006 and in 2007 she received a Marsico Endowed Chair of Excellence. She has co-founded two bioscience companies. One of them, Myogen was acquired in 2006 for 2.5 billion by Gilead and the Gilead Colorado site has expanded tremendously. Associate Directors of CIMB are Dr. Kristi Anseth, a Distinguished Professor and the first-ever HHMI engineering investigator and Natalie Ahn, also an HHMI Investigator. Kristi Anseth recently founded her first bioscience company 3QMatrix. This outstanding team is recruiting 20 new faculty investigators who are committed to an interdisciplinary and collaborative approach to discovery and applied science.
The core programs involved in CIMB from the campus include: biochemistry, molecular biology, biomedical engineering, and components of chemistry, physics, applied math, and computer science. The Leeds College of Business will be a critical partner in the CIMB program by helping to build new programs for entrepreneurs that are prepared to lead in the global, competitive, and complex bioscience industry. This comprehensive and integrated program will be housed in a new 300,000 s.f., $170M Systems Biotechnology Building. The laboratories of 60 senior investigators, with a total of 600 people will be housed in the new building, which will also serve 400 students. Faculty from Biochemistry and Chemical and Biological Engineering will relocate to the building along with CIMB faculty. Groundbreaking for the research and education building will occur in September 2009.
Historically, 75% of the State’s biotechnology companies are founded based upon technology from local research institutions. Today, this “home grown” industry employs over 18,000 people, with average salaries over $75,000. Venture capital investment in these companies has grown from $85 million in 2003 to over $350 million in 2007. Colorado’s bioscience cluster is growing at faster than national rates on every front: new company creation, employment increases, and financing. The new investments in CIMB, the experience and commitment of CIMB leadership to commercialize new discoveries, and the proven success of the business cluster in Colorado create a compelling mix of success factors.
In order to increase the pipeline of new bioscience products, UCB, UC-Denver, and CSU have created a new Colorado Consortium for Target Validation and Drug Discovery. This new $7M initiative is designed to build unique infrastructure at the three campuses, including equipment and people, that can take a promising discovery, validate it, screen the target for possible compounds, develop novel compounds, and ready them for commercialization in the private sector. This initiative is unique because of its regional and inter-institutional nature and it creates new tools that have been lacking in Colorado for both researchers and private bioscience companies in Colorado, that will be able to partner in the effort. The CUB component is a program within CIMB. Many, if not most, CIMB faculty have ongoing research relationships with these two campuses in the areas of oncology, cardiology, and bioengineering, just to name a few.
