New York State will invest up to 35 million dollars over the next five years to bring together two North Country institutions. The goal is to spur commercialization of biotech products.
Economic development announcements made this week by Governor Andrew Cuomo include more than 30 million dollars to facilitate a partnership between the Trudeau Institute in Saranac Lake and Clarkson University in Potsdam.
The Trudeau Institute is an internationally renowned biomedical research center. Clarkson University is a nationally ranked private college in engineering, science and business studies. The state is investing in the two because of the potential to “dramatically energize the research-to-commercialization” of biotech products. The funds will be used for operational costs and lab improvements at Trudeau and Clarkson and implementation of programs. Trudeau Institute President, Director and CEO Ronald Goldfarb says the funds also provide the impetus for faculty at each campus to work together on new projects.
Goldfarb notes that Trudeau and Clarkson are complimentary institutions with different disciplines and areas of expertise.
Clarkson University President Tony Collins says melding their expertise in engineering and the sciences with Trudeau’s biomedical research creates a new synergy in nano-science development.
New York 45th district state Senator Betty Little, a Republican, had been concerned about the future of the Trudeau Institute in the Adirondacks because it was being recruited for an out-of-state move. But she says the state’s seed money creating the new partnership will now lead to a biotech cluster in the North Country.
The formal agreement between the Trudeau Institute, Clarkson University and Empire State Development was signed Wednesday in Lake Placid.
