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The sky is dotted with construction cranes that mark the location of the “medical city” at Lake Nona where $2billion of development is under way.
This impressive site includes Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, the University of Central Florida medical school and Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center Orlando’s Cancer Research Institute, Nemours Children’s Hospital and the Orlando Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Soon it will include the University of Florida, the first major UF facility to be built outside of Gainesville.
Amid all this construction and at the heart of Orlando’s emerging biotech cluster and the economic development it promises is science. To translate the science into advanced clinical care will require the state-of-the-art facilities that are now being built, and the world-class researchers who are pioneering this new venture.
I suggest that there are three additional ingredients necessary for life sciences to flourish in Orlando: The accomplishments of the region must be recognized by peers within the national scientific community; a young, talented work force needs to be recruited; and we must create collaborative opportunities with commercial and nonprofit partners.
This month, Sanford- Burnham Institute hosted a milestone event that jump-started these crucial initiatives by linking Orlando to medical-research powerhouses across the U.S. The institute set the stage for the medical city’s national debut by hosting its inaugural scientific symposium featuring top-tier speakers and 250 scientists from across the U.S.
