Home-Grown Commodities
Fuel a Renaissance in Iowa

Newer efforts to become known as emerging cluster locations are finding comparable success to Atlanta's, despite being smaller, provided the right foundation is in place. That means, at the least, a major university with strong research credentials and an industry base linked to one or more sectors in the life sciences universe. Such is the case in eastern Iowa, particularly in the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City Technology Corridor, where new and expanded facilities are under way in the plastics, biotechnology, food production and distribution and financial service industries, among others. For this region, the University of Iowa (UI), with research strengths in biocatalysis, nutraceuticals, human health and pharmaceuticals, provides the needed academic and R&D components. And Kirkwood Community College works closely with UI and local companies to support work-force development and technical training.
        "The University of Iowa brings in some $340 million annually in research funding, which is quite a boon to our economy here," says Joe Raso, president of the Iowa City Area Development Group. "We're working with them and local industry constantly to find ways such that when that technology is developed and spun off, is there a way for that spin-off to take place within the region?"
        The Iowa City area works collaboratively with nearby Cedar Rapids economic developers to make the entire region a destination for companies within the Technology Corridor's targeted clusters: food research; development and production; personal care products; biotechnology; research, testing and educational services; insurance and financial services; and advanced manufacturing.

Tripling its production and office space in Coralville, Iowa, will help Integrated DNA Technologies pursue its strategy of being one of the primary manufacturers of oligonucleotides in the U.S.

        One recent project in the area is the tripling of production and office space at Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT), in Coralville, which employs more than 300 people; the expansion will enable 200 more workers to be hired. IDT's specialty is nucleic acid synthesis technology and the development of new applications in the areas of DNA- and RNA-based research.
        "The expansion of IDT follows two previous expansions in the area that have allowed IDT to become the largest oligonucleotide – or 'oligo' – manufacturer in the United States," says Roman Terrill, IDT's vice president of legal and regulatory affairs. "Oligos are something of a commodity item in genetic research, and as such, we need economies of scale. We need to be able to manufacture several thousand oligos a day, so our expansion fits into our goal of being, if not the dominant, then one of the primary oligo manufacturers in the U.S."
        The University of Iowa is IDT's primary source of employees, which is supplemented by Kirkwood, the University of Northern Iowa and other institutions. But it is the region's growing industrial base that keeps cluster development both possible and on track.
        "Clusters often provide employment opportunities for the spouse of an applicant, which is a common problem with high-tech industries," says Terrill. "When you're trying to recruit one individual, you often have to recruit his or her spouse as well. Having multiple employers in the same general high-tech area is extremely important. And from a technological viewpoint, IDT supplies its products to a number of companies in our immediate vicinity."
        Among the life science companies located in the Corridor are animal feed ingredient supplier Diamond V Mills, which employs 100 people; Penwest Pharmaceuticals, which manufactures inactive ingredients for use in medicinal tablets; and Genencor International, a developer and manufacturer of industrial enzymes. Cargill is investing $34 million in two of its three facilities in the area that produce food ingredients, and Archer Daniels Midland, a major agriscience company, continues to expand in the region.
        "For existing companies to continue to grow and prosper, we need to bring additional biotech companies to the area," says Mark Seckman, president of Priority One, the Cedar Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce. "It's only going to be easier for them to attract the talent that is necessary to make them prosperous." The fact that the area is emerging as a life sciences cluster is not necessarily by design, says Seckman. "Companies have located here for a lot of reasons, but we feel now that the pace will pick up."
        Today, many states claim to have biotechnology initiatives, but when Genencor International was looking, that was not the case. Genencor has operated a plant in Cedar Rapids since 1991; it's one of two U.S. facilities out of eight internationally. The Iowa location has mainly to do with proximity to raw materials, explains Georg Anderl, plant manager. "The raw materials that we convert into final product are corn and soy-based materials, which we're pretty close to here," he says. Also, the leadership here in Iowa back in the late 1980s, during the farm crisis, saw that in order to get the most value out of the agricultural commodity they have here, they would need to bring in industry that uses it and converts it into products that are much more valuable than the original commodity," Anderl points out. "When Genencor was looking, the state put its money where its mouth was and provided quite a few incentives for us to locate here."