
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, November 22, 1994                   TAG: 9411220111
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCU| STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

STATE GAINS BIOLOGICAL 'LIBRARY'

The world's largest collection of bacteria, viruses, fungi and other biological cultures will move to Prince William County from Maryland, state officials announced Monday.

American Type Culture Collection warehouses more than 65,000 different living things, said vice president for operations Frank Simione, from plant tissues and DNA sequences to yeasts used in beermaking and disease-causing viruses.

Often considered the "Library of Congress" for biological cultures, the company distributes the cultures to government and university researchers, as well as medical institutions and biotechnology professionals around the globe. It also conducts its own research, Simione said.

The company's 10 percent annual growth prompted the need for more space. ATCC looked only within a 50-mile radius of its operations at Rockville, Md., to maintain access to a major international airport, said David Gillece, who conducted the site search for the company. Most customers, some of whom are located halfway around the world, need certain cultures immediately.

For that reason, Virginia Tech, nearing completion of its own biotechnology center, was never a serious contender for the economic development prize, said Ernie Stoute, assistant provost for research.

"We're happy that they're even closer than they were before," Stout added, but the culture collection was "out of our reach."

A press release from Gov. George Allen's office said the company expects to employ 230 people. Gillece said that some, but not all, of its current 220 people will move or commute when the facility opens in 1997.

ATCC will spend $16.5 million to build a new facility next to the Prince William Institute.

The winning of ATCC was a collaborative effort among the state and county, George Mason University, the Center for Innovative Technology, Virginia Commonwealth University and Virginia Biotechnology Research Park Authority.

ATCC has worked with researchers at Tech, Stout said, and other universities in the state. He did not expect the company's move to have a direct influence on Tech programs, soon to be housed in the new $9 million biotechnology center on the Blacksburg campus.

"We're putting up the Hokie stone now," Stout said. The center is scheduled to open next summer.

by CNB