Winston-Salem

Research and Results

Winston-Salem is a community of big ideas – and even bigger impact.

In Winston-Salem , biotech researchers dream big. They are developing alternative energy sources, creating possible cures for diabetes and cancer, and making organ transplant a practical reality.

And, as a result, their community has become one of America 's most productive centers for biotech and life sciences work.

But researchers here are doing far more than just dreaming. They are focused on application – and you can't argue with the results.

Changing the world

In 2004, Dr. Anthony Atala, an internationally recognized leader in tissue science, relocated from Boston to Winston-Salem to head Wake Forest’s regenerative medicine institute. He brought his research team of 20 and also one of his spin-off companies to Winston-Salem.

When Dr. Anthony Atala announced earlier this year that he had found a new source of stem cells for biotech research, the news media went wild for the story. But, for Dr. Atala and the researchers at Wake Forest University 's Institute of Regenerative Medicine , it was just another in a startling series of breakthroughs. Atala, who ranked sixth on Fast Company magazine's “Fast 50” in 2006, has become a fixture on the research scene in Winston-Salem , North Carolina . He has successfully grown human organs in a laboratory, thus making it possible to provide transplant patients with organs grown from their own tissue. The potential applications are staggering. “It's an exciting area of science with endless possibilities,” said Dr. Richard H. Dean, president and chief executive officer of Wake Forest University Health Sciences. “Imagine being able to create replacement organs from a patient's own cells.”

But the Institute is far from the only biotechnology attraction in town. North Carolina 's 146 biotech companies (fourth nationally) make the state a hotbed for research, and Winston-Salem is an emerging leader in this field. Wake Forest (one of the city's seven colleges and universities) regularly ranks as one of the nation's most wired campuses in addition to its outstanding reputation as a research center.

Another reason for the university's continuing acclaim in the area of biotech research is its Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials. The Center, which was founded in 2003 with a $1 million investment by the university, focuses on “outcome-based relevance” in the fields of medicine and alternative energy.

A place to call home

Downtown Winston-Salem is home to Piedmont Triad Research Park, a highly interactive, master-planned innovation community developed to support life science and information technology research and development.

One of the main attractions for biotech researchers is the city's expansive campus-style development called Piedmont Triad Research Park . The park was created in 1998, and offers 300,000 square feet of lab and R&D buildings within what is labeled as an “advanced technology community.” In 2003, plans were announced to expand the park to 5.7 million square feet. “It's a great opportunity to be in an area with an emerging park,” said Dr. Atala. “Having the academic environment and the research park is a powerful combination.”

Piedmont Triad Research Park is home to a number of Wake Forest Medical School related enterprises, and also private sector companies like Targacept. Having recently hit the New York Stock Exchange, Targacept is a biopharmaceutical company “engaged in the design, discovery and development” of a new class of drugs to treat diseases and disorders of the central nervous system.

With so much support and infrastructure in place, the research community in Winston-Salem is ready to keep dreaming big – and finding ways to change all our lives.

For more information, contact Bob Leak, Jr., president of Winston-Salem Business Inc. at 336.761.1069 or rleak@wsbusinessinc.com. Or visit www.wsbusinessinc.com.