Overview

Excelling in the Biosciences, Engineering, and Commercialization

The Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) is one of the nation's premiere research universities, ranked 7th in U.S. News & World Report's listing of public universities. Georgia Tech conducts more than $400 million worth of research each year, and leverages its partnerships to contribute significantly to the life sciences in Atlanta and the Southeast. Georgia Tech provides a unique resource for bioscience companies through its comprehensive support of basic research — continuing on through translation of research discoveries, systems for supporting startup company development, and resources for delivering innovations to the marketplace.

Georgia ranks seventh in the nation in the Ernst & Young's ratings for its number of bioscience companies, with most of those companies centered in and around Atlanta. Underscoring the growth of the biotech industry in Georgia, BIO has selected Atlanta to host its 2009 international convention.

The Georgia Institute of Technology, located in the heart of Atlanta, Georgia, supports an environment for the convergence of bioscience and engineering research and innovation. The life sciences community at Georgia Tech is an interdisciplinary catalyst for companies supported by world-class research and unique partnerships. Research includes nanomedicine, systems biology, regenerative medicine, health systems engineering, drug delivery, cancer research, predictive health, stem cell and gene therapies and biofuel technologies. Research resources are designed to be cross-disciplinary encompassing the biosciences, information technology, and engineering.

Georgia Tech actively supports corporate relationships through the Strategic Partners Office. The Strategic Partners Office provides technical and business expertise to assist industry in finding innovative technologies, matching faculty research interests with industry initiatives, technology sensing for established or emerging markets, cross-trained talent, executive education programs, and other resources for partnering companies to remain competitive in a fast paced, global business environment.

The Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) is a nationally recognized science and technology incubator that has helped build successful companies for more than 25 years and has attracted over $1 billion in venture capital financing for ATDC companies. The ATDC Biosciences Center, located within Georgia Tech's Ford Environmental Science & Technology Building, has wet labs equipped with special ventilation and purified water systems ideal for bioscience startup companies. Start-up companies have access to clean rooms for micromachining, microscopy and histology services, core lab facilities, and other resources.

The newest component of the commercialization continuum is the 11-acre Technology Enterprise Park located across from Georgia Tech's research area. Technology Enterprise Park is a bioscience and technology research and development park affiliated with the Georgia Institute of Technology in the heart of Atlanta's biotech community for emerging and established companies. With nearly 600,000 square feet of lab and office space adjacent to Georgia Tech and access to the university's world-renowned research, bioscience and conference facilities, the park will offer significant collaborative research opportunities for tenants. The three current tenants are Altea Therapeutics, CardioMEMS, and the St. Joseph's Translational Research Institute. Expansion with a second building, TEP2, is planned for fall 2008.

Press Releases About Georgia Tech

Clough Honored by Council on Competitiveness

October 25, 2007 — Georgia Tech President Wayne Clough and IBM CEO Samuel Palmisano were honored by the Council on Competitiveness for their leadership on the National Innovation Initiative to bolster U.S. competitiveness and innovation. Their involvement provided the basis for the American COMPETES Act recently signed into law. This statute was recommended in the Council's NII report, "Innovate America," to increase math and science education funding, support increased research budgets and implement a national innovation agenda.

Georgia Tech Researchers Help Shut Down Drug Counterfeiters: New techniques developed to test suspected fake anti-malarials

February 13, 2008 — Georgia Institute of Technology researchers were part of a three-continent, multi-organizational effort known as "Operation Jupiter" that successfully identified and shut down manufacturers who were flooding Southeast Asia with counterfeit — and ineffective — anti-malarial drugs. Beyond the human health cost of failing to effectively treat hundreds of thousands of malaria cases, the fake drugs could be fueling development of malarial strains that may become resistant to the most sophisticated drug now available to treat the disease, notably artesunate.

Georgia Tech Creates New Ph.D. in Computational Science and Engineering

February 13, 2008 — The Colleges of Computing, Engineering, and Sciences at Georgia Tech today announced the creation of a new doctoral degree in Computational Science and Engineering (CSE), a cooperative, truly interdisciplinary effort between the three academic units. Georgia Tech is an established leader in the fields of engineering and sciences, and is quickly becoming recognized for defining the direction of the computing discipline. "Computation, through modeling, simulation, analysis and its other forms, is essential in creating new applications with great impact on the sustainable growth of cities, the design of power-efficient buildings, the creation of new biomedical devices, the eradication of life-threatening diseases and other issues of great social importance," said Richard Fujimoto, the Chair of CSE.

Tech Part of $31 M Translational Partnership

September 18, 2007 — The NIH has awarded more than $31 million over five years — one of the largest NIH grants in Georgia history — to a partnership of Atlanta academic, research and healthcare institutions focused on accelerating the translation of laboratory discoveries into healthcare innovations for patients. The partnership, named the Atlanta Clinical and Translational Science Institute (ACTSI), is led by Emory University, along with Morehouse School of Medicine, the Georgia Institute of Technology and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.

Georgia Tech Researchers Recognized as Top Young Innovators

August 22, 2007 — Technology Review magazine has recognized two Georgia Tech researchers, Karen Liu (simulating the complex phenomenon of natural human movement) and Xudong Wang (self-assembling aligned piezoelectric nanowires and developing their novel applications), among the world's top innovators under the age of 35. Selected from more than 300 nominees, the TR35 is an elite group of accomplished young innovators who exemplify the spirit of innovation in business, technology and the arts.

Georgia Tech's Biotechnology Complex was designed to facilitate interdisciplinary work

September 15, 2007 — When materials scientist Ken Sandhage needs to consult with a chemist, biologist or even an electrical engineer, he need only step up or down a few flights of stairs in Georgia Tech's Molecular Science & Engineering Building. "It's much easier to have productive conversations in the hallways if you are clustered in a building with people who have similar research interests, even if they aren't in the same department," he says. "I don't have to walk across campus to find someone to talk with about an issue outside of my own discipline."

Friedman's World Is Flat Praises Georgia Tech

April 18, 2006 -- Thomas L. Friedman, best-selling author and New York Times columnist, showcases Georgia Tech in the re-release of his most recent book, The World Is Flat, originally published in 2005. He has updated and expanded content with more than 100 pages of new reports and commentary, featuring Georgia Tech's approach to education in the 21st century in the chapter, "The Right Stuff."

Atlanta's bioscience community is experiencing growth

Atlanta may not be a hotbed for life-sciences companies on the scale of San Diego or Boston, but things are heating up here. Among recent milestones: (1) CardioMEMS, a company formed from Georgia Institute of Technology intellectual property, won a thumbs up from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market its first commercial product, the EndoSure™ sensor, an implantable device that monitors blood pressure in aneurysm patients, (2) Emory University received $525 million for selling its royalty interest in an AIDS drug developed by three Emory research scientists, and (3) AtheroGenics signed a licensing agreement with pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca for AGI-1067, a drug that AtheroGenics is developing to treat atherosclerosis.