Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 26, 1993 TAG: 9302260217
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: New River Valley bureau
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
BIOTECHNOLOGY CENTER NAMES NEW DIRECTOR
Tracy D. Wilkins had been named director of Virginia Tech's Biotechnology Center, effective immediately, E.R. Stout, acting vice provost for research, announced Thursday.William Newton, who has been head of the center, is now head of Virginia Tech's biochemistry department, which recently was merged with anaerobic microbiology.
Wilkins had headed the department of anaerobic microbiology since 1985.
The Biotechnology Center serves researchers and students in many disciplines, from understanding how cancer cells commit chemical sabotage on the immune system, to creating plants that resist disease and animals that produce human proteins in their milk. The center will be housed in a new $9 million facility at the university by 1995.
"My vision for the Biotechnology Center is that it should be a catalyst for interdisciplinary research and teaching, while at the same time communicating this new technology to the citizens and businesses of the state," Wilkins said in a Tech news release.
Wilkins joined Tech's faculty in 1972. He is author of more than 150 research papers in the area of human disease research and colon cancer, and has written many book chapters.
He has been awarded seven patents - all of which are assigned to Virginia Tech and several of which are licensed to American companies, resulting in products that are sold worldwide.
In 1989, Wilkins was awarded the J.B. Stroobants professorship of agricultural biotechnology, in part for his work in helping to organize a multidisciplinary resarch team at Tech to produce human proteins in the milk of farm animals. The process to produce one such protein in swine is the subject of a U.S. patent application licensed by the American Red Cross.
In 1992, Wilkins formed a new agribusiness in Virginia, TransPharm Inc., which will produce human proteins in the milk of swine and dairy animals for use in treatment of diseases.
He also ia president of the Blacksburg-based TechLab Inc., which produces diagnostic tests for human diseases.
Wilkins earned a bachelor of science degree from the University of Arkansas in 1965 and a doctorate in microbiology from the University of Texas in 1969.