From Arizona Sources
For TNAZ BioScience Special
The rising campus of the UA Medical School, with TGen and private sector bioscience firms like VisionGate, Inc. and Cancer Prevention Pharmaceuticals, makes a growing difference in bio-advancement in Arizona. Here, sunset at the Phoenix campus Medical Library is followed by bright mornings where integrated-practice medical teams study.
Credit: AHSC/UA
Arizona data points suggest that there is bioscience opportunity within the challenge - for breakthrough research and novel enterprise, despite economic clouds. The sun and photosynthesis also accrue to Arizona's benefit. With plenty of sunshine, there are growing opportunities to explore in bio-agriculture in the Grand Canyon State: Ethanol, solar, and algae are just three.
- $33 million -- In 2009, $33,450,308 in federal stimulus money flowed from the National Institutes of Health to researchers in Arizona. The 101 funded grants were spread among nine institutions statewide, led by the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, and the Translational Genomics Research Institute.
One $7.5 million grant that seems likely to pay long-term dividends will support collaboration between TGen and the UA College of Pharmacy to establish a drug discovery and development center. Such projects mean new high-paying jobs, infrastructure enhancements, and, potentially, the attraction of firms interested in the intellectual property that researchers generate. - 15,000 square miles -- Arizona's abundant sunshine is often cited as a reason for developing the state's solar-energy industry. Another abundant Arizona resource? Wide open space. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that devoting 15,000 square miles nationwide to algal-biomass production could produce enough biofuel to replace the entire petroleum fuel consumption in the U.S.
15,000 square miles is a huge area, but only 13 percent of Arizona's total land. Iowa, for comparison, devotes 38 percent of its land to corn production. And to be processed for conversion to biofuel, algae must be dried - easier to accomplish in a warm, sunny climate. - 13 -- In March, the Arizona BioIndustry Association held the first meeting of its Bio-Algae Workgroup, whose membership includes representatives of 13 biofuels companies from across the state, along with researchers from Arizona's universities, economic-development officials, and local intellectual-property and investment experts.
One upcoming task for the group: Representing Arizona well at the annual national conference of the Algal Biomass Organization, the Algal Biomass Summit, to be held September 28-30, 2010 at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort in Phoenix. 
EPA will measure the greenhouse gas impacts of algae-based biofuels. Algae is a particularly tempting feedstock choice because it can be engineered to sequester large amounts of carbon dioxide and because algae-based biofuel has a similar molecular structure to gasoline, allowing it to be used in the existing transportation infrastructure.
Credit: Algal Biomass Organization
- 4 -- A recession is a difficult period in which to begin a commercial enterprise, but making that plunge will become easier in metropolitan Phoenix with four new business incubators coming on line. How valuable are such projects? According to a 2008 report from the U.S. Commerce Department's Economic Development Administration (EDA), compared to all other infrastructure projects, "funds spent on business incubators appear to have the largest correlation with future economic growth." Each $10,000 of EDA investment, the study found, spurs the creation of between 46 and 69 jobs.
The cities of Chandler and Surprise are converting old facilities into state-of-the-art research and office units. The nascent firms they will recruit as tenants will have access to wet labs and modern telecommunications equipment, business mentoring, and perhaps most important, below-market lease rates, essential to cash-conscious startups.
Two educational institutions are expanding their economic development efforts as well. GateWay Community College in Phoenix is set to build a bioscience incubator from the ground up on its campus at 40th and Washington streets—thanks in part to a $3 million EDA grant. And the Biodesign Institute at ASU is launching the Impact Accelerator at SkySong, its Scottsdale innovation center, to translate Biodesign research discoveries into new companies. In Tucson, UA broke ground on site improvements for the 54-acre Arizona Bioscience Park, which will include incubator space, a bioscience high school, and other facilities. - $1.5 billion -- Late in 2008, Sequoia Capital, one of Silicon Valley's most respected venture-capital firms, distributed the presentation, "R.I.P. Good Times," to CEOs of companies in its investment portfolio. According to the MoneyTree Report from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC, venture-capital investment had already plunged, from a post-dot-com high of $8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2007 to $3.3 billion by the first quarter of 2009.
But while no single reporting period equals a trend, the second quarter of 2009 saw $4.1 billion in venture-capital investment, and in the third-quarter, the total rose to $4.8 billion, which some noted as a rebound. If so, biosciences could be leading the way. In the third quarter 2009, venture-capital investment in industrial and energy companies nearly doubled from the previous quarter, spurred by enthusiasm for "green-tech" firms. But that sector's $864 million was still dwarfed by the $1.4 billion venture-capital investment in the biosciences.
Those data suggest that while Arizona's younger bioscience firms are struggling to secure venture funding - 2009 was an exceptionally lean year - funders are looking seriously at bio firms. The recently initiated Arizona "fund of funds," which seeks to assemble $200 million for investment in Arizona firms, should provide additional investment capital. 
Translational Genomics Research Institute, TGen, on the UA Phoenix Medical Campus
Credit: The Smith Group
- 31% -- A substantial share of Arizona's economic growth over the past decade was driven by a ballooning population and the construction- and service-sector jobs that the new arrivals required. Now, though, Scottsdale economic consulting firm Elliot D. Pollack & Co. projects that final totals for 2009 will show Arizona's population growing 1.6 percent, compared to a decade high of 4 percent in 2005. The state's continuing budget crisis testifies to the consequences of that shift.
Employment statistics for Arizona's bioscience sector suggest a way forward as the current recession eases and the state works to foster a more resilient economic base. From 2002 to 2008 (the most recent year for which full data is available), Arizona's overall employment rose 15 percent, not enough to keep up with the state's population growth of 19 percent. During that time, according to Battelle, bioscience jobs far outpaced the population growth, rising 31 percent, among the fastest growth rates in the nation.
And bioscience jobs tend to be good ones. In 2008 in Arizona, compared to the total private-sector average of $42,000 in annual wages, Arizona bioscience jobs averaged close to $56,000. Excluding hospitals, wages for bioscience jobs were even higher—nearly $60,000. - 4 meters -- Researchers at the University of Arizona are hoping to make Arizona a player in the production of ethanol, the current top alternative to petroleum fuel. But they aren't studying corn; their choice is sweet sorghum, which can grow four meters in four months, tolerates harsh climates better than corn can, and yields twice as much sugar as corn. The scientists are working with Maricopa-based Pinal Energy LLC, on a process to directly ferment the sweet sorghum into ethanol.
- 7,500 tons -- Phoenix-based Phyco Biosciences Inc. has contracted with XL Renewables Inc. of Phoenix to develop a $10 million, 160-acre algal-biomass project, expected to produce 7,500 tons of algae biomass each year. At a regional mill, oils will be extracted for biofuels and nutritional oils, while pelletized algae meal will become food for aquaculture, pet foods, and animal feeds.