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Changes in the nature of medical research have created an opportunity for Austin to lead in biotech. If we have the vision to build a world-class biotech sector, we can protect existing semiconductor jobs and create new manufacturing and healthcare jobs throughout the region.
Success in biotech isn’t guaranteed – but it is achievable if we decide to lead. Here’s how we can do it.
When I grow up…
Like a lot of kids, I wanted to be a doctor when I grew up. A career in medicine struck me as one where the work had purpose. I looked up to my pediatrician, Dr. Flood.
That changed the summer before my junior year in high school.
During a trip to Tulsa to visit my mom’s family, my parents took me to the Johnson O’Connor Foundation for aptitude testing. The first day started pleasantly enough. An interviewer asked me what I was interested in. I told him that half of my courses in school were going to be math and science. And the testing commenced.
I had to use tweezers, then a needle and thread. Both were frustrating. A series of math drills and puzzles didn’t go much better.
At the end of the second day, it was time for my aptitude results and counseling session. My parents joined me in a windowless conference room.
“Brewster, I know you are interested in math and science, but…” the counselor began.
Whatever my interests, he said, my aptitudes were verbal and literary. And the sewing and tweezers skills I lacked - they were pretty important for doctors.
It was a moment that altered my life. When we returned to Corpus, I changed my course schedule. I added journalism and speech classes. My grades improved. And I discovered that I loved to write.
The convergence of opportunities and cures
The Milken Institute predicts that biotechnology has the promise to be “the dominant economic force of the 21st Century.”
A medical school is frequently cited as a prerequisite for creating a biotech economy in Austin. It’s true that a medical school would be an important asset. However, Austin is already stronger in biotech than many realize.
In fact, Austin is by far the strongest biotech region in Texas. We have over 100 biotech, life sciences and medical device companies in Austin. The Milken Institute ranks Austin as the nation’s 12th most significant biotech cluster. In the view of venture capitalist Rob Donnelly, “Of all the cities in the state of Texas, Austin has the best shot at being the life science start-up city.”
If we act now to build on our current strengths, Austin can create significant new jobs and opportunities and protect current jobs. If we fail to act, however, we could lose the very assets that give us the chance to lead in biotech.
Medicine is changing
M.D. Anderson’s Dr. Mauro Ferrari is considered one of the world’s top medical researchers. But when he wanted to start a cutting edge biotech company, he left Houston and came to Austin. Specifically, he came to Sematech.
Dr. Ferrari’s company, NanoMedical Systems, is developing a tiny implantable capsule that delivers drugs a few molecules at a time, with the dosage controlled precisely for each patient. To research and develop products like that, he couldn’t go to conventional medical labs. He needed a place that specialized in semiconductors.
His company isn’t alone. Other researchers are using semiconductor technologies to develop nanotech drug delivery systems to target diseases like cancer.
Still others are using microfluidics – a semiconductor technology that controls and manipulates fluids at the sub-millimeter scale. Consider this microfluidics technology: a computer chip-sized insulin pump. Or this: a “lab on a chip” that could simultaneously test for thousands of diseases by placing a small amount of blood or saliva on a computer chip containing hundreds of tiny channels that intersect to form thousands of nanoliter-scale reaction chambers.
There is a common thread in these technologies. They use the same technologies as the semiconductor industry.
That means cutting edge medical research is increasingly being performed not just at medical schools, but also in pharmacy schools and in engineering, biochemistry and biomedical engineering departments. The University of Texas at Austin is a world leader in all of these areas.
And it means biotech companies of the future will need access to semiconductor manufacturing facilities and people experienced in sophisticated nano-scale semiconductor production. Austin is global leader in this area – for now.
Building blocks for success
Here are the specific strategies that the Austin region needs to pursue to lead in biotech/life sciences:
- Expand Austin’s technology commercialization partnership with UT. The new Bioscience Incubator jointly created by U.T. and the City of Austin already has five innovative companies. San Diego has effectively used this model to create the nation’s top biotech cluster. Nationally, universities create more companies from their biotech and life sciences research than from any other type of technology.
- Repurpose existing semiconductor fabs and jobs for biotech. Opportunities include facilities for microfluidics and nanomedicine production. Converting closed semiconductor fabs into biotech manufacturing facilities is critical to creating new opportunities for existing semiconductor employees.
- Recruit major employers. The Milken Institute writes that recruiting large biotech anchor firms is necessary to add stability to a region’s biotech ecosystem.
- Create infrastructure for success. Sematech’s biotech success shows how superior semiconductor research and development facilities can attract researchers and innovators. But Austin lacks other critical infrastructure needed to establish a world-class biotech sector. For example, while Dr. Ferrari has traveled to Austin, local biotech companies are traveling outside of Austin to find wet lab space. To attract research, companies and jobs, Austin will need wet labs and clean rooms. Our region will also need research parks similar to Stanford Research Park and the facilities along Boston’s Route 128. The envisioned TXAN State Lab would be an important asset to achieve this vision.
- Commit to a 21st Century Careers job training initiative modeled on Temple, TX’s effort and on the SEMATECH-era’s technology job training program. Temple has partnered with Texas A&M and Scott & White to convert an abandoned semiconductor factory into a world class healthcare job training facility for high school and community college students.
- Pursue a regional vision. As with clean energy, a biotech partnership stretching from Fort Hood to San Antonio could capitalize on the complimentary strengths of each community and could leverage the significant medical research funding that flows through the military and through Tier 1 research universities.
- Promote Austin. Local firms report that a significant impediment to attracting talented biotech and life sciences employees is that many people in the industry are unaware of Austin’s biotech strength. Political and community leaders need to promote Austin around the country as a leading biotech, life sciences and medical devices hub.
The Milken Insitute writes, “In addition to the race for discovering biotechnology-derived therapeutics, there is a different kind of race underway: the one that will determine where the primary geographic locations of this industry reside. The economic outcomes of where these biotechnology clusters form and grow are likely to be immense.”
Austin can’t afford to wait. If we do not have a vision for moving into new sectors that build on our core strength in semiconductors, we could watch our current jobs move away – and our fellow Austinites who hold these good jobs could find few opportunities elsewhere.
If we have the vision to build a world-class biotech sector, we can repurpose our existing semiconductor jobs into biotech and life sciences jobs. We can create new manufacturing and healthcare jobs throughout the region. And we can create a future locally that alleviates suffering and improves peoples’ lives globally.
Success in biotech isn’t guaranteed – but it is achievable if we decide to lead.
We can do this. We have a responsibility to try.
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