Go west, young biotech entrepreneur

BioWest, the first directory for the biotechnology industry in western Sydney, is being launched today by Kim Yeadon, NSW Minister for Western Sydney.

The BioWest directory establishes western Sydney as a major player in the biotechnology industry, according to sources from the NSW government's Office of Western Sydney, which initiated the directory working closely with the Westmead Research Hub.

"We were stunned to find the size of the industry in western Sydney," said Margaret Ryan, executive director of the Office of Western Sydney. The directory has a broad range of companies involved in bioinformatics, environment, human and animal health, engineering, agriculture, food and mining. "We haven't captured it all in the directory because some areas, like bioengineering, only came to light during the late development of BioWest," she said.

"We discovered some important bioengineering companies and manufacturing companies that are doing a lot of work for major for the big biotechnology companies like Resmed."

Prof Tony Cunningham, director of the Westmead Millennium Institute, said it was a huge advantage to know who was doing biotechnology in Western Sydney, and individuals' particular interests.

"You need to know who is doing what before you can collaborate on research and commercialise on discoveries," Cunningham said. He is one of the 600 medical researchers in the Westmead Research Hub who are expected to be keen to use the directory, which will be online.

The directory features one company per page. Over 132 biotechnology companies and 12 research centres in the western Sydney region are included. Its architects hope that BioWest will be a significant catalyst for developing and enhancing linkages between the Westmead hub and other research centres and industry.

"It's a very large mass of medical research and we're hoping some of the biotechnology companies will see a benefit in co-locating onto the campus," Cunningham said.

The Westmead Research Hub was formed recently between four major research institutes - the Millennium Institute, the Children's Medical Research Institute, and research divisions of the Children's Hospital at Westmead and Westmead Hospital.

"We are trying to improve the way in which we do research on the campus, for example by planning how to link us with information technology," Cunningham said.

Prof Peter Gunning, director of research at the Children's Hospital, at Westmead, said that campus researchers could collaborate with those in a planned technology park to commercialise their work.

In December last year a proposal for the technology park, Australian BioHub Westmead, was submitted to the NSW government with plans for its completion in 2003. It is still waiting for State government approval before it goes ahead.

"All researchers are within 10 minutes' walking distance, and the planned technology park will be minutes away," said Gunning, who is also head of the Westmead Research Hub consortium.

"It will be different because we want larger established companies in the park so we can interact with industry to enhance our potential to generate more IP," Gunning said.

"There is sufficient land for incubator, start-up companies to grow and synergise with small and medium-sized companies as well as researchers."

Cunningham said that a previous directory, for the IT industry, had proven popular and led to collaboration and formation of new clusters.

"We believe that the future of medical research links closely with IT and the science of bioinformatics," Cunningham said. "By meeting some of the IT industry in the west, some cross-fertilisation is already commencing."