President Rick Myers, Mayor Tommy Battle and Vice President for Economic Development Carter Wells
Huntsville, Ala. — Mayor Tommy Battle joined HudsonAlpha President and Director Rick Myers today at the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology to proclaim Sept. 25 through Oct. 2, 2014, as Huntsville Life Sciences Week.
“It’s an exciting time for the city of Huntsville, and we are poised to grow into a life sciences hub,” said Mayor Battle. “With the powerful combination of HudsonAlpha, our schools and universities and the thriving private sector, Huntsville has a bright future in this exciting and growing field.”
Huntsville Life Sciences Week will include events and discussions about advancements in genomics, biotechnology and other areas focused on growing this sector in Huntsville. Central to Huntsville Life Sciences Week will be the HudsonAlpha/Science Conference on Immunogenomics. Hundreds of thought leaders from around the world will be in Huntsville for this conference, which is exploring the application of genomics to the study of the immune system.
“HudsonAlpha is definitely in the right city to grow and flourish,” said Myers. “I’m looking forward to having colleagues from the world’s top science and medical universities as well as industry leaders here for the Immunogenomics Conference. The city plays a prominent role in this conference and everything we are trying to accomplish.”
During Huntsville Life Sciences Week, Mayor Battle will debut the Biotech Initiative for the City of Huntsville. With similar purposes as the Mayor’s Space, Energy, Geospatial and Cyber initiatives, the Biotech Initiative will bring people together from industry, nonprofit, academia and government to shape the city’s strategy to grow in the area of technological applications that use biological systems.
Additional news and collaborations aimed at growing the life sciences in Huntsville will be announced throughout Life Sciences Week.
Media Contact
Heather Smith
256-327-9508
communications@hudsonalpha.org
About HudsonAlpha
HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology is a nonprofit institute dedicated to innovating in the field of genomic technology and sciences across a spectrum of biological problems. Its mission is three-fold: sparking scientific discoveries that can impact human health and well-being; fostering biotech entrepreneurship; and encouraging the creation of a genomics-literate workforce and society. The HudsonAlpha biotechnology campus consists of 152 acres nestled within Cummings Research Park, the nation’s second largest research park. Designed to be a hothouse of biotech economic development, HudsonAlpha’s state-of-the-art facilities co-locate scientific researchers with entrepreneurs and educators. The relationships formed on the HudsonAlpha campus allow serendipity to yield results in medicine and agriculture. Since opening in 2008, HudsonAlpha, under the leadership of Dr. Richard M. Myers, a key collaborator on the Human Genome Project, has built a name for itself in genetics and genomics research and biotech education, and boasts 27 biotech companies on campus.
