Augusta, Georgia: An Ideal Spot to Start or Expand a Life Sciences Company A ugusta is a mid-sized city that is nearly ideal for life sciences companies. The city, Georgia's second largest, has 200,000 residents and approximately 500,000 people live in the metropolitan statistical area. Medical care, medical education and medical research have been the city's core industries for decades, and now Augusta is expanding its bio-business industrial sector.    Augusta is home to the Medical College of Georgia, the state's health sciences university which includes Georgia's only public medical school and only dental school. MCG's annual sponsored research budget is approximately $80 million. This, coupled with other biological research at nearby Fort Gordon and the Savannah River National Laboratory, plus at industrial sites such as Monsanto, NutraSweet and NBTY, account for both research spin-offs and plenty of trained personnel.    Augusta also is home to Augusta State University, Paine College and Augusta Technical College. Right across the Savannah River is the University of South Carolina-Aiken and Aiken Technical College. The city hosts 11 different hospitals and major medical care facilities that provide about 1.8 million outpatient visits annually.    With this much activity in the life sciences, it is not surprising that MCG created a new Life Sciences Business Development Center or incubator. The incubator boasts 18,000 square feet of space subdivided into five separate wet-lab suites. Labs are equipped with all of the major equipment, including freezers, laminar flow hoods, CO2 incubators, water baths and centrifuges. The two offices per suite are fully furnished, and there is plenty of shared space and specialized resources, such as conference rooms, a walk-in cold room, dark room, break room and a glassware prep/autoclave room.    About a mile from campus, and in the center of the city, is the Augusta Bio-Business Center. The center offers space and programs run by the Georgia Medical Center Authority, a relatively new statewide agency that focuses on building up the infrastructure for the life sciences industry in Georgia. The GMCA has incubator space and equipment, and more importantly, has bonding authority for major bio projects.    Both MCG and the GMCA work closely with other key players interested in expanding the life sciences industry in the Augusta area, including: The Office of the Mayor of Augusta/Richmond County; the Augusta Metro Chamber of Commerce; the Development Authority of Richmond County; the Development Authority of Columbia County; the Downtown Development Authority; and the Augusta Convention and Visitors Bureau.    One of the most recent changes in the bio-landscape was the designation of the MCG Incubator as a statewide Center of Innovation. MCG is one of six Innovation Centers in Georgia and the only center in the biomedical sciences under a program created by Governor Sonny Perdue in 2003. By leveraging Georgia's strategic industries, the state is creating new jobs, increasing investment and ensuring long-term economic opportunity.    Augusta is historical, yet progressive…Southern, yet cosmopolitan … laid back, yet hard-working.    When it comes to the life sciences, it is simply a great place to work, live and play (did I mention golf?)