North Carolina and Scandinavian biotech leaders meet

Tor-Eddie Fossbakk The event will be hosted by the North Carolina Biotechnology Center. Sessions will target emerging business sectors such as natural biotechnology and native plants, biofuels and new energy, and marine biotechnology. They will also explore imaginative strategies for biotechnology community development, entrepreneurial thinking and biomanufacturing workforce development. In addition to the Biotechnology Center, sponsors of the event include: the North Carolina Department of Commerce; the Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce of the Carolinas; Novozymes; the Medicon Valley Alliance; Innovation Norway; the Norwegian Bioindustry Association; and SwedenBIO. Speakers from North Carolina include Commerce Secretary James T. Fain III and E. Norris Tolson, President and Chief Executive Officer of the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, as well as: Marcelo T. Anderson, assistant director of the Golden LEAF Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center in Raleigh; Daniel G. Baden, Ph.D., director of the Center for Marine Science at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington; William O. Bullock, vice president of Bioscience Industrial Development at the Biotechnology Center; W. Steven Burke, senior vice president of Corporate Affairs with the Biotechnology Center and chairman of the Board of Directors of the Biofuels Center of North Carolina in Oxford; J. Donald deBethizy, Ph.D., founder, president and CEO of Targacept in Winston-Salem; John T. Ganzi, president of the Biofuels Center of North Carolina; Stephen S. Kelley, Ph.D., professor and department head of the Wood Products Program at North Carolina State University in Raleigh; Cheryl S. McMurry, executive director of the Bent Creek Institute for Natural Biotechnology and Integrative Medicine in Asheville. Scandinavian speakers will represent Novozymes, the Norwegian Life Sciences University, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, the Nordic Council of Ministers, the Medicon Valley Alliance, the Sahlgrenska Science Park, MedCoast Scandinavia, the Copenhagen Business School, and the Oslo Cancer Cluster.