BIO-Europe 2008: Mannheim/Heidelberg, Nov. 17 to 19
BIO-Europe 2008 in Mannheim presents an opportunity for the international pharma-biotech community to explore the deep strengths of what is arguably the vigorous heart of European biotechnology.
Set for Nov. 17 to 19, 2008 at the Congress Center Mannheim, the 14th edition of BIO-Europe will feature the powerful combination a pure-partnering event with a sophisticated Web-based partnering system. Participants will move seamlessly from virtual to in-person meetings, concentrating more new business face-to-face encounters in three days than many executives do in an entire year.
“We are very keen to welcome this event,” said Ernst-Dieter Jarasch, Managing Director, BioRegion Rhein-Neckar-Dreieck. “Our focus is not pure research but the application of research by supporting the start up companies that play such an essential role in this community.”
“BIO-Europe is bringing the world to our community of developing biotech companies,” he said. “The networking is essential because these companies very soon come up with a need to partner with pharmaceutical companies to move forward a drug discovery or a diagnostic agent. There is a gap, a giant leap, that these companies face and finding strong partners is the only way to close this gap.”
He said the Rhine-Neckar region holds a concentration unrivaled in all of Europe of both start ups companies applying technologies and the advanced research centers at the university and prestigious institutes.
The Rhine-Neckar triangle with its scientific centre around Heidelberg is home of a network of competence in cell-based and molecular biotechnology.
Three of the world’s leading institutions in molecular biology and molecular medicine are located here: The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ) and the Centre of Molecular Biology of the University of Heidelberg (ZMBH).
“We have a technology park that is unique in all of Europe for its intense focus on life sciences with fast-developing expertise in cell-based and molecular sciences,” he said, adding that BIO-Europe 2008 in Mannheim is the moment to connect with the heart of European biotechnology.
In addition, the Max-Planck Institute for Medical Research, the research institutes and University Hospitals in Heidelberg and Mannheim, the Mannheim University of Applied Science and the University of Kaiserslautern all contribute to the excellent science base with about 3,200 scientists working in the fields of gene technology and molecular biology.
Research is focused on functional genomics, proteomics and bioinformatics, particularly in the areas of cancer research, virology, immunology, neurobiology as well as the molecular biology of membranes, receptors and signal transduction.
Four big international pharmaceuticals, namely BASF and Knoll in Ludwigshafen, Roche Diagnostics in Mannheim and Merck in Darmstadt, and a host of small and medium-sized enterprises provide the facilities and infrastructure for further development of the region as a leading location for biotechnology in the 21st century.
With the BioRegion Rhein-Neckar-Dreieck e.V. association, the region has created an instrument of fast and efficient decision making, in which local and regional government, industry, investors and service companies combine efforts to support the transfer of outstanding scientific performance into internationally competitive products, processes and company foundations in the area of biotechnology and genetic engineering.
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