For many North Carolina start-ups, biology is destiny: the Biotechnology Center has provided $14.5 million to 86 companies for product research and development.

• Position: N.C. Biotechnology Center - North Carolina

North Carolina has surpassed Maryland to become the nation's third leading state for commercial biotechnology, according to an Ernst & Young survey. The state's growing number of biotechnology start-up companies is largely to credit for its rise in the rankings. In fact, North Carolina led the nation in percentage growth of biotechnology start-ups between 1997 and 2001, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. And with good reason. The state has all the ingredients for encouraging biotech start-ups: research universities brimming with new technologies and a desire to commercialize them, a pool of experienced entrepreneurs and managers who can assemble and run new companies, a growing supply of resident venture capital, a highly trained work force and a strong infrastructure for supporting the success of biotechnology and life-science companies.

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Stirring this entrepreneurial caldron is the state-supported, nonprofit North Carolina Biotechnology Center. Its mission is to provide long-term economic and societal benefits to North Carolina by supporting biotechnology research, business and education. Supporting startups is high on the Biotechnology Center's agenda and is one of three priorities set forth in a new plan developed at Gov. Mike Easley's request, New Jobs Across North Carolina: A Strategic Plan for Growing the Economy Statewide through Biotechnology.

The Biotechnology Center provides small companies with networking opportunities, professional referrals, technical advice and low-interest loans for product research and development. The loans are given early in a company's life, often when other financing isn't yet available, and help the company demonstrate product feasibility. The rigorous technical and business reviews of company loan applications by Biotechnology Center staff and external reviewers also give the company a credibility boost with other investors. The Biotechnology Center has provided $14.5 million to 86 companies, which have gone on to raise more than $1 billion from other sources, such as angel investors, government agencies, venture-capital funds and public stock offerings.

One company that has leveraged Biotechnology Center funding is AlphaVax Inc. of Research Triangle Park. AlphaVax is developing new technology to improve vaccines and to create new ones against an array of infectious diseases and cancer. A Biotechnology Center grant funded research at the University of North Carolina at...