Alsace BioValley to construct €11M life sciences centre

Alsace BioValley, France, is to launch a €11 million project to construct a building dedicated to the life sciences. It will house a Centre for Integrative Biology led by Dino Mofras, head of the Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire (IGBMC), and a Platform Centre for research and industry.

The project, part of the 2007–2013 national regional project contracts, aims, with the support of local political leaders, to bring together researchers, the IGBMC and the life science industry at an early stage to create industry partnerships. The organisations involved will share costs and human resources. The 2795 square metre building will be constructed in the Illkirch Innovation Park close to the IGBMC.

This initiative is designed to provide the Alsace region with a wide range of services, research and high value added expertise for the academic and industry community, and will strengthen the role of Strasbourg as an international cluster in biology and healthcare.

Nicolas Carboni, of Alsace BioValley, said: “What's new about this project is the way it will build in Alsace a center of excellence combining services and very high level scientific expertise, thus helping to standardise, professionalise and organise the services required, which hitherto have existed only in academic labs.”

Pascal Neuville, president of Alsace BioValley, said: “The new building brings together all the advantages of Alsace – high level scientific research, strong political backing and a cluster whose role is to make individual initiatives work together to make the region more attractive. Our goal in implementing this project is to encourage the creation of industry partnerships, in our region, with international players who are impressed with the go-getting Alsace attitude."