HANNOVER, Germany - (Business Wire) The countdown has begun: in about 100 days from now, BIOTECHNICA, Europe’s leading trade fair for biotechnology and the life sciences, will be getting under way in Hannover. “We are looking forward with confidence to this year’s BIOTECHNICA, despite current events in world markets. With a host of innovations on display and many new featured themes, it will stimulate new interest and involvement right across the biotech industry”, says Stephan Ph. Kühne, who sits on the Board of Management at Deutsche Messe AG in Hannover. “Our unique combination of trade fair, congress, partnering event, award and careers platform caters very effectively to the needs of the biotechnology market. It offers exhibitors and visitors an ideal platform for developing new business leads, cultivating existing business relationships and sharing knowledge with fellow professionals.” BIOTECHNICA 2009 will be formally opened on 5 October by Lower Saxony’s Minister for Economic Affairs, Dr. Philipp Rösler, and Dr. Stefan Marcinowski, a board member at BASF and president of the German Biotech Industry Association (DIB). Also speaking at the opening ceremony will be the Australian Kary Mullis, winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1993 and inventor of PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction). The guest speakers will also be presenting the EUROPEAN BIOTECHNICA AWARD, now worth 100,000 euros in prize money, which Deutsche Messe is handing out for the seventh successive year to innovative European biotech companies.
New exhibition and conference for bioinformatics
Bioinformatics is one of the top themes at this year’s BIOTECHNICA. The analysis, safeguarding and dissemination of complex biological data on a large scale present major challenges for biotechnology, pharmaceutical research and medicine in the years ahead. For this reason BIOTECHNICA is mounting its first-ever exhibition on the subject of Bio IT. The special presentation in Hall 8 features solutions and applications designed to make lab work easier, facilitate specialized databases and simplify data analysis. Supplementing this exhibition is the conference “BIO-IT World Europe”, which is being organized for the first time in Europe by the Cambridge Healthtech Institute (CHI), the leading organizer of biomedical conferences in the USA. The conference program for the new “BIO-IT World Europe” offers more than 70 lectures grouped into four themed blocks: IT hardware and IT software for the life sciences, bioinformatics for genomics, and data integration and knowledge management.
Premiere: “Protein Engineering” exhibition and conference
The other growth segment in the pharmaceutical sector consists of so-called “biologicals”, and specifically monoclonal antibodies and recombinant proteins. In Hall 8 visitors will find this subject covered in the new exhibition “Protein Engineering”, which accompanies the first “Protein Engineering Summit Europe” (PEGS Europe). Likewise organized by the Cambridge Healthtech Institute, this conference explores a series of issues surrounding protein expression and antibodies.
In order to offer more specialized conferences on topical issues, this year’s conference program has been overhauled to make it more tightly focused and goal-oriented. “Apart from bio IT, the main emphases this year are on therapeutic agents and diagnostics/bioanalytics, bio-manufacturing, food analytics and financing”, notes Kühne.
Modern techniques for bone regeneration are featured at the new congress “bone-tec 2009”
Staged for the first time in association with BIOTECHNICA is the major international congress on modern techniques for bone regeneration “bone-tec 2009” (8 to 11 October). International scientists will explore various aspects of the regeneration of bone, cartilage, tendons and ligaments. The four-day congress is being organized by the Hannover-based scientific institute INDENTE, Centre for Tissue Engineering.
Focus on business development and technology transfer
BIOTECHNICA has an important role to play as a platform for developing new business leads. As well as the BIOTECHNICA partnering event, organized in association with top international partnering firm EBD Group, which brings together potential joint-venture partners from all areas of biotechnology and the life sciences, BIOTECHNICA also offers numerous modules aimed at fostering business development. The forum “Science to Market” is a gathering organized by the European Association of Pharma Biotechnology (EAPB), where European research establishments and the biopharmaceutical industry can come together to promote the commercial development of scientific innovations. The “Biotechnology Project Forum”, organized by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), will be showcasing biotech programs funded with central government money. The one-day symposium “Biomanufacturing” will explore ways of promoting cooperation between the developers and producers of active agents. At the forum “Life Science Spotlight”, organized by the Life Science Research (LSR) unit within the German Diagnostics Industry Association (VDGH), research topics of current interest will be presented by users for users. The lectures at this event will address areas such as PCR (polymerase chain reaction), stem cells, protein expression and molecular diagnostics. The possible applications of biotechnology processes in other sectors of industry will be discussed at the one-day conference “Bio-based Economy”. The economic and political conditions that affect the framing of biopolicy in Europe will be the subject of the European biopolicy conference “EU Biotech Business Environment”. Key topics here include technology transfer, protection of intellectual property and financing.
Financing under the spotlight: the first Bio@Venture Conference 2009
The financing of R&D projects has become increasingly problematic against the background of the global financial crisis. So for the first time BIOTECHNICA is hosting a conference on the theme of financing. The one-day “Bio@Venture Conference” is being staged in collaboration with the Lower Saxony life science network BioRegioN, the Lower Saxony investment and business development bank NBank and the Enterprise Europe Network in Lower Saxony. Here firms that are seeking finance can develop new contacts with important corporations and investors, present their plans and strategies, and conduct face-to-face discussions. A series of keynote addresses completes the program.
BIOTECHNICA matches skilled personnel with prospective employers
For companies working in the life sciences the recruitment of skilled personnel is becoming an ever-greater challenge. In association with “jobvector”, the leading careers platform for natural scientists, BIOTECHNICA offers numerous avenues for facilitating contacts between employers and job seekers.
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Your contact for further information at Deutsche Messe:
Katharina Siebert
Tel. +49 511 89-31028
E-mail: katharina.siebert@messe.de
