Tech Valley Overflows with Research, Innovation
Published Apr 15, 2006
Sami Hocine undertakes human genome research at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs.
Innovation reached critical mass in the Hudson Valley when economic developers sought a new brand image and educators scanned the horizon of high-tech research.
The 18-county region became branded as Tech Valley. Meanwhile, the State University of New York at Albany landed one of four $250 million Centers of Excellence in the state, this one focusing on computer technology in miniature, or nanotechnology.
In the late 1990s, at the dawn of a new millennium, the two trends converged.
That dovetail led to Tech Valley’s latest surge, and will lead to more growth in the future.
“These tech companies spend 20 percent of their revenue on research, so it’s important to them to have the facilities necessary to provide the innovation,” says Albany Nanotech director Alain Kaloyeros.
Tech Valley universities now are bustling with major research while high-tech firms are plowing billions of dollars into research and development. It’s the best sort of spontaneous combustion, a synergy by design.
At Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, Robert Palazzo leads the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies. The gleaming, glass-and-brick futuristic structure boasts 218,000 square feet, is loaded with lab space and represents an investment of more than $100 million.
Through it, Rensselaer recently recruited a Harvard post-doctorate researcher in left brain-right brain communications; a theoretical biologist from federal labs in Los Alamos, N.M.; and a chemical engineer from Scotland.
“We’re recruiting the best people from all over the world,” says Palazzo, citing leadership at the highest levels. “This all originated with the vision that (RPI president) Shirley Ann Jackson presented in her inauguration speech, which was in 1999. She laid out the vision for Rensselaer in the future, which included biotechnology and interdisciplinary studies as a major focal point.”
The center broke ground three years later and opened in late 2004.
“Since then, it’s been one heck of a ride,” says Palazzo, who’s approaching 200 researchers at the biotechnology center.
Vince Verdile, the dean of Albany Medical College, has talked frequently with Palazzo and others about joining forces on biomedical projects. The medical center includes Albany Medical College, where researchers are completing magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, research to isolate precursors of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.
“If we can identify those early and develop a drug to attack those biomarkers, that can be very attractive to biomedical companies to come to this area and match that,” Verdile says.
At Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, professor Pat Hilleren is a researcher in the prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute and recently gained a 5-year, $720,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to plumb how genetic code is passed along through permutations.
“I like the mix,” Hilleren says of teaching and research. “They feed each other in good ways.”
That’s also the premise behind a new Tech Valley High, which will open its doors in 2006 using temporary space loaned by MapInfo, a Troy company that helps global clients make better marketing, planning and customer service decisions.
MapInfo itself grew from a Rensselaer business park incubator. Now, it’s passing along its support to Tech Valley High, which will draw bright students from more than 40 high schools for project-based learning at local high-tech firms.
“I think that the response of the business community has been tremendously enthusiastic,” says James Baldwin, superintendent of one of the two district cooperative education boards helping launch Tech Valley High. “This school is designed to offer a program that will focus on projects that fall within those emerging technologies for Tech Valley.”
Story by Gary Perilloux
Photo by Stephen Cherry
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