On the offensive: with all the right pieces in place, North Carolina's biotechnology leaders look for ways to expand into the national biodefense sector.

• Position: BIOTECHNOLOGY ROUND TABLE

WITH MORE THAN 600 LIFE-SCIENCE COMPANIES, North Carolina is known for its biotechnology industry. Some see opportunity for expansion by pairing life science with national defense--known as biodefense. Business North Carolina gathered a panel of biotech and biodefense leaders to discuss ways to attract more projects and funding from the U.S. Department of Defense.

PARTICIPANTS:

Chris Brown, vice president for research and graduate education, UNC System Office of General Administration

Luke Burnett, chief science officer, KeraNetics LLC, a Winston-Salem-based medical-research company

Doug Edgeton, president and CEO, N.C. Biotechnology Center and moderator of this discussion

Corey Russ, founder, Combat Medical Systems LLC, a Harrisburg-based maker of battlefield medical supplies

David Saravitz, partner, Williams Mullen, a law firm with 10 offices in North Carolina, Virginia and the District of Columbia

Kathie Sidner, defense applications engineer, UNC System

Mary Beth Thomas, vice president, Centers of Innovation Program at N.C. Biotechnology Center

The North Carolina Biotechnology Center sponsored the discussion, which was held at its office in Durham. Williams Mullen provided additional support. The transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity.

How would you define biodefense?

Thomas: This is something that we thought a lot about when we started considering this issue: How do we match up the different resources and assets that we see in the life-sciences sector with the needs and demands that are clearly present within the Department of Defense and the military and homeland-security sectors? Because we weren't sure when we started this process exactly where North Carolina had its strengths, we left the definition of biodefense very broad.

We include in our definition three areas of opportunity. The first is what we consider critical countermeasures: things to protect soldiers, biohazard containment, detecting biohazardous materials. We also capture other medical and health-related things. So the biotech center also looks at how to foster more work with the DOD Defense Medical Research and Development Program. The third thing, which is hardly ever considered, is what's happening within the Veterans Affairs Department. North Carolina has a very large population of returning veterans, given our military installations. And the VA has a lot of research and development going on within their medical research institutes. That broader definition was very strategic, because it allowed us to be much more inclusive in what we brought into this sector and allowed us to explore more opportunities.

Brown: I would like to suggest that it be even broader: for example, the intersection of biotech and agriculture, or remote sensing or environmental issues. One of the big issues worldwide is scarcity of resources, like water or arable land, which can cause instability. That's a little bit farther afield. I think it's pretty important that we have the capacity here in the state to tackle those issues.

Saravitz: What Chris brought up touches on how biodefense really includes homeland defense too. I mean, protecting our livestock and plants--what we call our kill crop. Our industries face serious dangers that are very destructive. And so we need to protect these things. The military needs food and water to be successful as well.

What's the economic impact of the biodefense industry' in North Carolina?

Thomas: The military accounts for 10% of the state's economic activity, which makes it one of the largest economic sectors in North Carolina. It currently supports more than 540,000 jobs in the state. I think that's a substantial piece of not just economic...