Annual bioscience event approaches

Talk about it

WORTHINGTON — For the fifth annual Regional Bioscience Conference, Glenn Thuringer has recruited a significantly player in the realm.

G. Steven Burrill, who has been involved in the growth and prosperity of the biotech-nology industry for more than 40 years, will be the keynote speaker for the conference, which will take place April 2-3 at Minnesota West Commu-nity and Technical College, Worthington campus. Burrill will speak at 8 a.m. Friday, and will also appear with Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty on his 9 a.m. radio program live from the confer-ence, in the event the gover-nor accepts the invitation to broadcast live from the event for the second consecutive year.

Burrill is chief executive officer of Burrill & Company, a San Francisco-based life sciences firm focused exclu-sively on companies involved in human healthcare and “BioGreenTech,” which includes agricultural bio-technology, industrial bio-technology (biomate-rials/bioprocesses) and bio-fuels.

“This gentleman very much sets the direction of a lot of life sciences in the U.S.,” said Thuringer, manager of Wor-thington Regional Economic Development Corp., which coordinates the yearly conference.

Minnesota Public Radio last month reported that Burrill is part of an effort to convert a development in the small Minnesota community of Pine Island into “a biotech research powerhouse.” Tower Investments, a California real estate company, is working with Burrill in an effort to raise $1 billion for the site, where 1,700 acres of mixed-use residential and business development — centered on a biotech business campus — is being planned.

“There are a lot of people saying, ‘Wow, how did you get this guy to come to Worthington?’” Thuringer said. “He’s a pretty big deal.”

There’s much more to this year’s conference than just Burrill’s appearance, Thur-inger stressed. There will be two primary topics at this year’s event: renewable en-ergy and animal health.

“The conference will al-ways have an educational focus to it,” Thuringer said. “And then we have the side pieces. … We bring projects forward by bringing busi-nesses to the community and building a network-type atmosphere. It helps with the exchange of information.”

The conference will begin the morning of April 2 with area high school students participating in local labora-tories from 8 a.m. until noon. In addition to Worthington students who participate in science club, eleventh-grade students from around the region with interests in sci-ence are being invited. In one instance, Thuringer ex-plained, pigs will be dissected at a lab at Prairie Holdings Group, with students learning about animal health applica-tions.

“We want to give the kids a little bit of what’s going on, and what could go on, in this community,” Thuringer said.

The conference gets offi-cially under way at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, with renewable energy breakout sessions — topics include wind and solar energy, biofuels and biomass — scheduled to commence at 1 p.m. Sessions on animal health production and tech-nology is slated to begin at 2:45 p.m. and 4 p.m., respec-tively. As has been custom-ary, a reception is planned for 7 p.m. at the Historic Dayton House.

On Friday’s agenda are Burrill’s speech, Pawlenty’s possible radio show broad-cast, science club board pres-entations and feedback on breakout sessions. Another undetermined featured speaker is planned for 11:45 a.m.

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