COLUMBUS, Ohio, Nov. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Edison BioTechnology Center, one of
the original Edison Centers created in the mid-1980s by the State of Ohio to
assure the competitiveness and growth of Ohio's economy, has changed its name
and updated its mission.  The organization's new direction, announced today at
the annual BioOhio conference by EBTC (now Omeris) President Anthony Dennis,
Ph.D., culminates a nearly yearlong review of EBTC's structure and activities.
    The mission of Omeris: "Accelerating bioscience discovery, innovation, and
commercialization of global value, driving economic growth, and improving
quality of life in Ohio."
    "Our mission reflects our focus on networking the distributed and
outstanding Bioscience assets of Ohio to create not just the best of class in
Ohio but the best of class globally," noted Omeris President Anthony Dennis,
Ph.D.  "We believe that by focusing our efforts on being globally competitive
we will import more dollars, jobs and companies to the state and the people of
Ohio will better recognize that the Biosciences are not just a pillar industry
for Ohio but also directly enhance the quality of life of Ohioans.
    "Ohio's Bioscience industry can flourish if we focus on building on the
strengths of Ohio, which are numerous but distributed, rather than to try to
follow models set in other regions," he continued.  "Ohio's clinical assets
for example, rank among the top in the nation, some of our universities are
among the top nationally in conversion of reports of invention to commercial
businesses and we have a very strong base of major companies with Bioscience
as the core of their growth, to name a few of Ohio's assets.  Omeris was
restructured to help focus our distributed resources into powerful teams of
industry, academia and government as a way to more rapidly build our
entrepreneurial Bioscience industry and to bring a renewed sense of
entrepreneurism to our state."
    Organizationally, the formation of Omeris concludes a process that began
organically nearly a decade ago, when Edison BioTechnology Center began
establishing regional offices in the major research communities around the
state.  Over time, those regional entities have diversified naturally to
tailor their tactics in pursuit of the best formulas for growing the state's
bioscience industry in their own regions.  The reorganization establishes
Omeris as the statewide umbrella organization that will pursue large-scale
initiatives that build bridges between the regions' separate assets as a way
to leverage federal and private investment dollars from out-of-state.
    Omeris will also work to boost the profile of Ohio's bioscience industry
sector, both within the state and externally and will act as the focal point
for the statewide industry through networking events like the annual BioOhio
meeting and a comprehensive web site with database information spanning the
state.  Omeris will retain its identification as an Edison Center of Ohio
because of the strong and positive image the Edison program enjoys outside the
state.
    "The new relationship enables our regional affiliates -- BioEnterprise in
Cleveland, Edison Biotechnology Institute in Athens, BIO/START in Cincinnati,
and the Central Ohio regional office -- to tailor their mix of activities,
staff and programs to most effectively accelerate Bioscience commercialization
in their specific regions.  In fact, the successes of Omeris at recruiting of
new companies, leveraging large federal projects, etc. will all be implemented
by the regional affiliates," said Dennis.
    "Each regional affiliate shares the basic economic development imperatives
at the core of EBTC's mission, which are to nurture and commercialize
biosciences technologies through the formation of new companies, and the
attraction of companies from out of state. Our new organizational structure is
designed to increase efficiency as well as significantly building local energy
and involvement. I am highly confident that, given the leadership and plans
that are in place, the regional entities will continue to have a major impact
in responding to the particular opportunities in their own markets over the
long term."
    Since its inception in 1986, Edison Biotechnology Center has been
headquartered in Cleveland, with regional offices added over the years in
Cincinnati, Columbus, and most recently, Athens.  As a part of the
reorganization process, the statewide EBTC office has been relocated to
Columbus. The offices are at 1275 Kinnear Road, in the Business Technology
Center.

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