CEO: Bioscience center could benefit region

hutchNews.com (Kansas)
Published online 10/20/2009 10:31 PM
By Mary Clarkin The Hutchinson News mclarkin@hutchnews.com

It could aid alternate energy businesses, agency chief says.

It makes sense that a future center for bioenergy innovation would be located somewhere in "the arc from Wichita to Hugoton," said Tom Thornton, president and chief executive officer of the Kansas Bioscience Authority, during a visit Tuesday to Hutchinson.

Northeast Kansas has provided the main stage in recent bioscience initiatives. But Thornton, addressing a lunch at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center attended by business and government leaders, indicated other regions could benefit, too.

The KBA was created as a result of legislative action about five years ago. Its goals include boosting the annual federal bioscience investment in research and development and increasing private venture capital investment in bioscience companies.

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