Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 14, 1990 TAG: 9007140249
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PETER MATHEWS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The university has a couple of hurdles to overcome before it gets the money, however. The appropriation must survive the congressional budget process and the university must obtain matching funds from the state.
Tech failed to obtain money for the project at this year's General Assembly session.
Nonetheless, university officials welcomed the news Friday.
"It's a very significant step," said Ernest Stout, associate provost for research. "We would like to have more, of course, but somebody has to propose it in the budget."
Tech hopes to find nearly $8 million more - a total of $4.5 million each from the state and federal governments.
The center, which would be built near the university golf course, would apply advances in biotechnology to agriculture.
Biotechnology enables scientists to remove genetic information from one organism and insert it into another, so organisms can be "engineered" with desirable traits they did not previously possess.
Thus, drought- and pest-resistant crops can be created, and new treatments can be found for diseases.
One example is a "transgenic pig." Scientists hope the genetically altered-pig's milk will produce a blood protein needed by hemophiliacs and people who have suffered strokes, said Bill Newton, director of Tech's biotechnology center.
The university already has a substantial investment in biotechnology. President James McComas told a House Appropriations subcommittee in March that more than 60 faculty members and 150 graduate students are doing research. The center would bring teams of them together under one roof.
University spokesman Darrel Martin said Tech officials will get a better idea about potential state funding when Gov. Douglas Wilder speaks to legislative money committees in mid-August. Tech officials said Virginia's U.S. senators, John Warner and Charles Robb, appear to support the project.
Biotechnology is "an immensely important industry," said Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon. "In the decades ahead it will assist virtually every American family. It will put people to work. It will save people's lives."
by CNB