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 [2] and the Colorado Office for Economic Development and International Trade [3] and featured Governor Bill Ritter [4]. 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 [5]
• HHMI President & Nobel Laureate Tom Cech [6] 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 [7] being lead by the premiere bio park developers in the world, Forest City Enterprises, [8] take a look at the following video: