More than 80 West Virginia University researchers will meet with health-related private sector companies in what planners say is the largest bioscience/biomedical technology showcase ever held in West Virginia.
The bioscience showcase will be Feb. 21 at WVU's Erickson Alumni Center. Organizers say it will serve as a platform for university researchers and private industry experts to explore possibilities for collaboration and cooperation.
Bioscience and biomedical researchers at the university will informally present thoughts and ideas for new projects, products and services at the event to more than two dozen biotechnology company and pharmaceutical representatives who are planning to attend.
"Interaction and collaboration are what we are looking for in this effort," said Russ Lorince, WVU's director of economic development. "Our study of best practices indicated that we could forge some relationships that just might lead to the next big biomedical development. What we got was a response that shows us that there is a tremendous interest in the work of our WVU researchers and a real interest in seeing if that work can lead to new products that can make peoples' lives better."
Nineteen of the WVU researchers are set to display their work in poster presentations to industry representatives whose interests run across the spectrum of biomedical and bioscience technology.
The bioscience showcase is being spearheaded by WVU's Linking Innovation Industry and Commercialization, or LIINC, funded by the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation and operated by the Office of Economic Development. LIINC is designed to accelerate the commercialization of WVU research results and strengthen the University's regional economic impact by creating new and improving traditional ties to the private sector.
This is not the first time researchers at the university have had the opportunity to present their ideas and work to large biotech and bioscience companies. Last month, graduate students from WVU's Health Sciences Center met with representatives from ten private companies, including Pfizer, Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse and Protea Biosciences.
The Feb. 21 event is expected to cover a range of research topics from cancer cell biology, cellular and integrative physiology, exercise physiology, and neuroscience to pharmaceutical and pharmacological sciences, and biomedical sciences.
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