"Hiya, Paul," Dr. Hopkins calls cheerfully to the man lying on the operating table. His aneurysm, the size of a large cherry tomato, has been reached by catheter and drained; he didn't even need general anesthesia. The patient has traveled from downstate.

Lots of people are choosing the hospital on Gates Circle for this kind of procedure. Which really

means -- though they may not know it -- that they are chosing

a program built by neurosurgeon Dr. Leo Nelson Hopkins III: chairman of the University at Buffalo's neurosurgery department, chairman of the board of physicians for Buffalo's incipient global vascular center and research institute, and -- for background's sake -- subject of a 144-page professional resume.

Inside a surgical suite in the hospital, Hopkins and the 12 doctors who work with him on the neurosurgery team perform procedures that are at the cutting edge of medicine.

According to the terms of the agreement, RUSNANO will invest up to $26 million over a four-year period, with an initial investment of $9 million financed upon closing of the agreement and three subsequent investments to be made upon achievement of development milestones and attraction of new investments to the project. Cleveland BioLabs and three other intellectual property owners, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation and Children's Cancer Institute Australia, will transfer intellectual property rights related to a specific portfolio of compounds to

CBLI's new subsidiary, Panacela Labs. 

I am leading the Life/Health Sciences Work Group along with the Buffalo Niagara Partnership President & CEO Andrew Rudnick, who is our group's chairperson.  We have a diverse group of leaders in healthcare and the life sciences and have been developing strategic areas of focus for this important sector of our region's economy.  Of particular note, the Work Group has identified several key projects and initiatives that we believe will help advance the growth and development of private biotech and life sciences companies.  

As part of his Regional Economic Development Councils initiative, Governor Andrew Cuomo has created a Consolidated Funding Application (CFA) process to streamline the economic development incentives process for companies.  The CFA is a single application that a company can fill out to potentially access program funding from nine different New York State agencies.  Utilizing the CFA serving as the single entry point for access to economic development funding, applicants will no longer have to slowly navigate multiple agencies. Now, economic development

projects will use the CFA as a support mechanism to access multiple state funding sources through one application, making the process quicker, easier, and more productive.

Buffalo Niagara Enterprise will continue to assist projects with their incentive process including the application. Contact me for free confidential assistance.

Buffalo Niagara Enterprise 

665 Main Street, Suite 200
Buffalo, New York 14203
(716) 541-1724 (phone)
1-800-916-9073 (toll-free)
(716) 842-1724 (fax)

arosenhoch@buffaloniagara.org