Embrace science and changes in technology, says bioscience speaker

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WORTHINGTON — If there were two messages Steven Burrill hoped to leave with the audience Friday morning at the seventh annual Regional Bioscience Conference, it’s that young people today need to embrace science, and that we all will see more changes in technology in the next decade than we’ve seen in the last 2,010 years.

If our communities prepare for those changes it could lead to great accomplishment and, if we choose not to, it could set us spiraling toward failure.

In his second conference appearance in three years, Burrill delivered a two-part message to conference attendees, speaking first about the world around us and what it means to life science innovation, and then targeting his message on the bioscience industry as it has grown in the past 25 years.

“Much of the issues in the industry 25 years ago are still important issues today,” he said during his presentation in the gymnasium of the Minnesota West Community and Technical College campus in Worthington.

In 25 years, the bioscience industry has grown from 700 companies to 75,000 — including 300-plus public companies in the United States — that generate roughly $90 billion in sales.

“The future is going to be very different from the past. Science moved faster than we thought it would,” said Burrill, adding that we are approaching a genomic revolution as stem cell technology still has its uncertainties and capital is becoming more difficult to access for research.

For the rest of the story, read tomorrow's Daily Globe.

Tags: steven burrill, bioscience, news