AR Post: Colorado @ BIO2008
Anchors away! An incredible party was had on the flight deck of the USS Midway, filled with a big 15 piece Big Band and World War II South Pacific theme complete with Polynesian dancers, palm trees, delightful island fare, marina breeze, plenty to drink and punctuated with a full moon and a tingling fireworks display, all I am left to say is wow, bravo BIO! At one point I was expecting Bob Hope, Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra to come saunter out on to the stage. It was another early start this morning for a 7:30am breakfast courtesy of the Colorado Bioscience Association and the Colorado Office for Economic Development and International Trade and featured Governor Bill Ritter. The breakfast discourse was inspiring as Governor Ritter emphasized the core value that the Colorado life science industry in pursuing; simply to improve the human condition. Briefly a few of his highlighted elements included:
- Colorado has over 430 life science companies and 16,000+ employees
- Colorado is #2 behind MA for highest concentration of higher education degrees
- Under the Ritter admin over $30M has been allocated to the life science industry
- $76M from the NIH has been allocated to establish the Colorado Clinical & Translational Institute
- HHMI President & Nobel Laureate Tom Cech is returning to CO to head the Colorado Initiative in Molecular Biotechnology.
For a more in-depth look and understanding of the new Colorado Science + Technology Park @ Fitzsimons being lead by the premiere bio park developers in the world, Forest City Enterprises, take a look at the following video: