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Just what
is The Bioplex?
Where is The Bioplex?
What does The Bioplex
have to offer?
What will The Bioplex
look like in 20 years?
How will The Bioplex
be managed?
Just what is The Bioplex?
The
Bioplex is a place where industry,
academia, federal government, and state and local government will come
together to:
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Share
technology
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Facilitate technology's transfer into manufacturing
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Improve educational
resources
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Take responsibility
for contributing to a larger collaboration to bring the
biomedical sciences to bear on problems facing Americans, and to
do so with the utmost concern for consumer health and safety,
environmental protection, and public welfare.
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Where is The Bioplex?
Although
it is important to have a home base, The Bioplex is a philosophical
entity that extends beyond physical boundaries. Those who wish
to participate in the underlying philosophy regardless of physical
location are welcome.
Having
said that, the home base is on approximately 1,500 acres of Pine Bluff Arsenal land
that was deeded to The Economic Development Alliance of Jefferson
County by the Department of Defense in 2001. You can
view a map of its relative location on the maps
page.
Situated
adjacent to these 1,500 acres is the FDA's
National Center for Toxicological Research, the FDA's Arkansas
Regional Laboratory, and the Army's
Pine Bluff Arsenal.
Other important academic and biomedical science institutions are
located nearby in Little Rock and Pine Bluff.
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What does The Bioplex have to offer?
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The
knowledge of over 115 Ph.D. cutting-edge scientists conducting
fundamental research within the FDA system
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The
experience of working with drug approval and clinical
investigations processes
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The
Army's expertise remediating toxic chemical exposures and
training to protect against exposure to them
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A
university program with a nationally recognized Little Rock medical school that has a strong
program in toxicology
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A
strong and nationally respected Little Rock children's hospital with a research
capability
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Local
universities, one that is historically black, that are committed
to work positively with all participants
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A regional
population with a strong work ethic
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The
availability of reasonally-priced land
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A
unique desire of all of the above to work together, with
industry, to find more efficient and thus more profitable means
of addressing critical problems facing bioscience today.
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What will The Bioplex look like in 20 years?
The 1,500
acres will be fully developed because industry will have realized
there are opportunities to turn knowledge into significant profits.
The
cooperation between the entities is unusual by today's standards.
Privacy and trade secrets are still protected, but cooperative
agreements and licensing agreements will have created a symbiotic
relationship.
The
federal government is present, but many of the tasks previously
conducted by the government are now performed by industry. One
focus of government is to continuously search its activities as well
as those of others to find bits of knowledge that can be turned over
to private industry for commercialization.
Some of
the early work in developing the capability for protection of the
civilian population against terrorist attacks continues to be the
model for The Bioplex operation:
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Government pulls together the knowledge, often through its own
research, then turns that knowledge over to industry where
products are manufactured and distributed.
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Early
products included protective clothing, hazard identification
kits, medical fast-response kits, vaccines, and antidotes.
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Later
these were spin-offs into broader product lines in
pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and laboratory equipment.
Academicians are full partners in the effort, and each entity--via
both distance learning and on-site student employment, seminars, and
classes--participates in local education.
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How will The Bioplex be managed?
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The
Alliance will create a board elected
by participants to manage the effort.
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There
will be prescribed slots for industry, academia, federal government
and local government.
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Land
will be leased indefinitely to the tenant so long as the tenant shall
conform to the by-laws of The Bioplex.
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The
Bioplex by-laws will protect the founding philosophy of protection of
health, environment, and supporting education.
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