The doors of the new Louisiana Emerging Technology Center on West Lakeshore Drive are open as of Tuesday, and the laboratories are ready for its tenants. Entrepreneurial biotechnology companies will occupy the labs, attempting to form a foundation for the biotechnology industry in Louisiana. Biotechnology companies are drifting down to Louisiana and other areas of the Southeast, bringing the promise of a new economy with them. Biotechnology research uses living things, such as cells and genes, to make or modify products, such as developing crops resistant to drought and cold. Louisiana jumped into the game in 2002 when legislation passed a $30 million grant – $10 million each to Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Shreveport – to build an incubator for fledgling biotechnology companies that work with gene therapeutics, environmental and food sciences, nutrition and other life sciences areas of research. It is a new industry for Louisiana, said Dr. Gus Kousoulas, director of the Pathobiological Science Department at the School of Veterinary Medicine. When the silicone industry declined in San Francisco, the booming biotechnology industry, an industry mostly located in the Northeast and on the West Coast, saved the city from an economic slump, Kousoulas said. Arthur Cooper, director of the center, said companies are beginning to move into the building and start their research. A board of directors chooses the companies, which go through a screening process to make sure they abide by rules set by the National Institutes of Health, Federal Drug Administration and other regulators. With such huge return in the billion dollar industry, there is a safety risk involved. Kousoulas said the NIH and the FDA give guidelines to companies regarding gene, DNA and other types of experiments. The board of directors makes sure all companies can work together and that their research will not adversely affect other companies. “[Companies] can’t handle animals here because of clinical manufacturing,” Cooper said. “There’s not any conflict.” Cooper said 15 to 20 companies will eventually reside in the center, but it will start with five tenants. The center has extra undeveloped areas that can be designed as the building fills with tenants, but now available space is full, Cooper said. “Baton Rouge has a fantastic opportunity to build,” Kousoulas said. “By having this incubator, it creates a necessary infrastructure and high paying jobs.” It is possible for Louisiana manufacturers to take what the state is developing elsewhere and develop it in-state, Cooper said. “We have to find out what we’re good at,” Cooper said. “Louisiana traditionally relied on natural resources, but we’re looking for ways to diversify the economy.” Kousoulas said this new industry could halt some of the brain drain problem the state has been having, drawing Louisiana’s best minds to promising companies outside the state.
“Here in Louisiana, we have a unique opportunity – especially in affected areas – to create drugs against cancer, obesity, as well as vaccines,” Kousoulas said. “We have resources and talent. We need to convert Louisiana to the 21st century. Biotechnology is the future – one of the biggest aspects of economic development.”
 
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