12/8/2012 11:42:11 AM

Times Union: A model partnership

Times Union

ALBANY — With a public-private partnership that's publicly led, Albany has turned into a hub for nanotechnology, a magnet that attracts companies and their jobs.

Now, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is seeking to replicate the model in Buffalo, where Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus is teaming up with Albany Molecular Research Inc. to establish a drug discovery research and development center, said Alain Kaloyeros, CEO of University at Albany's College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering.

The state will spend $35 million on new equipment and $15 million to improve lab space, all of which will be publicly owned, Cuomo said earlier this week.

Pharmaceutical and biomedical companies will be able to use the equipment and lab resources, which will be owned by Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.

AMRI was chosen to be the anchor tenant because it previously has worked under contract with major pharmaceutical companies to conduct research and development.

"This is something we could never have done on our own," Thomas D'Ambra, AMRI's president and CEO, said of the new effort.

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