usiness is the operative word these days at the University of Kentucky, where just last year, UK President Lee T. Todd Jr. presented his Top 20 Business Plan – the first of its kind for public universities in the United States – to the state legislature. Todd received $21 million to begin funding the plan, which will ultimately impact the university's leadership role as a catalyst for statewide economic growth.
   Recently the university has formed an innovative new partnership with the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government and Commerce Lexington to provide one-stop services for new businesses, company recruitment and business development.
   Now, Lee Todd, a former UK engineering professor, entrepreneur and businessman, has implemented another top priority by creating the Office for Commercialization & Economic Development. He chose Len Heller, an angel investor, entrepreneur, and state government cabinet secretary, to lead the new initiative to develop university-based technologies and invest in technology-based businesses and startups.
   Heller oversees the university's intellectual property, technology transfer, business development, including the Kentucky Small Business Development Center statewide network, and UK's two on-campus incubators. Thirty companies have "graduated" from the incubators in the past 12 years.
   The university owned-and-operated Coldstream Research Campus is a premier biotech and business location with integral access to the intellectual capital and resources at UK. Once a prominent Bluegrass horse farm, Coldstream is home to technology-based companies, university centers, startups, and businesses such as IBM and Embassy Suites Hotel. Currently, more than 700 people work at Coldstream, conveniently located at the intersection of I-75 and I-64, and only nine minutes to the UK campus. There are 400 acres available to build to suit or lease.
   The research campus is also home to Coldstream Laboratories Inc. (CLI), which offers full-service pharmaceutical development services, including analytical, microbiology and formulation development. CLI will begin sterile drug manufacturing for clinical trials and some niche commercial products at its new $17 million facility at Coldstream after completing validation and pending FDA approval this year. Coldstream Pharmaceuticals begins stability and clinical batch manufacturing of injectable products at UK's research campus later this year.
   Exstream Software, ranked among the world's fastest growing technology companies, will move to its new world headquarters at Coldstream this fall. Exstream Software provides enterprise document automation solutions for businesses worldwide.
   The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government has selected Coldstream as the site for its Regional Emergency Operations Center complex. Construction will begin on the 7th multi-tenant lab building in the Kentucky Technology Center by the end of the year. And the first of two buildings in the $50 million Lexhold Technology Center will open in 2008.    UK's dynamic research enterprise is the basis for its successful tech-transfer and commercialization program. Cross-disciplinary research at UK is sparked by the fact that it is one of the few universities in the country with a teaching and research campus, and a medical center located on one central campus. An emphasis on emerging technologies is reflected in the university's patent portfolio in the areas of pharmaceuticals and therapeutics, plant biotechnology, and environmental, energy and manufacturing technologies.
   The UK College of Agriculture conducts cutting-edge research for expanding high-tech agriculture and houses strong translational research programs in plant and animal sciences, food, nutrition, health surveillance and biosecurity, and environmental sciences. Plant science and equine programs have attained distinction and have generated multiple startups and commercialization opportunities. UK researchers are leaders in plant-made pharmaceuticals (focusing on PMP regulation), plant-based natural products, and plant production systems.
   Researchers in UK's College of Engineering take on different challenges, focusing on translational research in the areas of biomaterials, computational fluid dynamics, the environment, energy, transportation, and mining. Research-for-development teams include centers for aluminum technology, nanoscale engineering, micro-magnetic and electronic devices, and manufacturing. The Center for Visualization & Virtual Environments develops computer-generated immersive environments for a variety of applications. The Painting Technology Consortium, a leader in coating and surface technology, includes partners such as Toyota and Honda.
   The UK College of Pharmacy, year after year, is ranked among the top 10 in the nation. Ongoing research projects include treatments for nicotine addiction, neuropharmacology and toxicology, discovery of new anti-tumor agents, nanoengineering of drug delivery systems for vaccines and cancer diagnostics/therapeutics, and the evaluation of drugs for transdermal therapy. Many UK pharmaceutical scientists are involved in commercialization and startups.
   Biomedical research is advancing at UK because of a strong focus on some of our biggest health concerns, including cancer, heart disease, neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, as well as spinal cord injury and head trauma.
   Read more on UK President Lee T. Todd Jr. in The New York Times, "Getting a University to Aim Higher," August 1, 2007. For more information on working with the University of Kentucky and UK's Coldstream Research Campus, contact Len Heller, EconDev@uky.edu, www.EconDev.uky.edu. For more on other prime biotech business locations in Lexington, Kentucky, contact Gina Greathouse, Senior Vice President for Economic Development at Commerce Lexington, GGreatouse@CommerceLexington.com.