The
Bio Hybrid
April
8, 2002
Current
advancement in bioscience research has created an unprecedented
crossover of disciplines and industries. "What's happening
now with the new technologies being created could eventually
replace existing technology, and thus replace it with a
new market," says Dr. Chih-Ming Ho, the Associate Vice
Chancellor for Research at UCLA. Dr. Ho's keynote at the
upcoming
SCTVF conference, The
Bioscience X Factor: A Crossover of Industry, Application
and Opportunity, will discuss how the hybridization
between bioscience and other fields will impact research
and development, and determine the outcome of future business
growth.
During
the 1990s, as it struggled for VC funding amidst Internet
mania, bioscience turned out to be a dark horse, ushering
in real innovation and progress--revolutionary drugs, therapeutics,
products and services--while many sectors that had been
lavished with hype proved to be abysmal business failures.
One aspect of this progress which garnered signficant attention
was the mapping of the human genome, announced to the world
with much fanfare in the summer of 2000 as the technology
industry endured widespread bad news. Since then, investors
have been considering the commercial possibilities of companies
that focus on the processing of biological information,
and now bioscience is becoming the new--and challenging--sector
for many people to learn about.
Bioscience
has always been a multidimensional sector, and cross disciplining
is the nature of its development, as many types of research
and innovation falls under the bio umbrella. Pharmaceuticals,
biologics, medical devices, bio-agriculture, environmental
biotechnology, manufacturing and material design are the
disciplines that are generally agreed upon as existing under
the definition of bioscience. As advancement is being made
in other areas such as microengineering and nano, the perimeters
of bioscience may become broadened. Dr. Ho, a leading researcher
on microfluidics, feels that new technologies in MEMs and
nanotechnology could be a major catalyst for a wave of disruptive
advancement in bioscience.
"When
you talk about bio and nano, you're talking about DNA, and
how to process gene engineering and handling protein,"
says Ho. "DNA and protein are both large molecules
which are both nanometer in scale. When we start to understand
and process the molecules, that's how the nanotechnology
will help the progress of this area."
Ho
feels that nanotechnology's ability to facilitate diagnosis
and genes could lead to the development of new devices for
the biomedical market, thus replacing already-existing markets
with more advanced products. This would set it apart from
other industries which have the obstacle of making production
and distribution channels adapt to new products. The introduction
of DNA chips, for example, created a very unique and new
niche which also enabled a new areas of research and drug
screening.
Despite
the opportunities that these emerging areas could give way
to, bioscience venture capital is still a high risk game
and is in current jeopardy of being caught in the throes
of investment misinformation. Other technology sectors tend
to have shorter time frames to generate revenue, whereas
bioscience, despite the groundbreaking work being done in
the field, is generally made up of slow-growth companies.
Serious bioscience VCs have to partake in education and
due diligence, and understand the leap of faith factor involved
in putting capital towards the sector.
"Nobody
can predict in the long term. But one thing that is important
is the persistence and the trust," Ho says. "For
one example, in MEMs, the digital chip for Texas Instruments
took more than ten years and a lot of money and faith. Now
because of that persistence, there's no other company in
the world that can compete with that product. So that's
a very long range project with a lot of trust put into it.
With continued trust, there is no scientific barrier, which
is what allows these things to happen."
by
Wendy Hall
Larta Staff Writer
April
18th: Southern California Technology Venture Forum
Knowledge and Investment Conference
Come
to SCTVF 2002 to learn about emerging markets--including
nanotechnology, security technologies, and bioscience. Renowned
keynote speakers will present industry analyses on these
emerging markets, followed by a select group of companies
representing the best technologies in Southern California.
SCTVF is the meeting point for anyone who needs to know
about the state of cutting-edge technology--venture capitalists,
corporate investors, private investors, analysts, corporate
executives, and entrepreneurs. 7:30 am-2:30 pm, Regent Beverly
Wilshire, Beverly Hills, California.
more information
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