UB Supporters to Travel to Albany Tomorrow to Make the Case for Bioinformatics

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Local backers of the Buffalo Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics will travel to Albany tomorrow (Feb. 12, 2002) to ask legislators to support funding proposals for the center.

"Bioinformatics: Generating a New Economy" will be the theme of the day as more than 60 UB administrators, faculty and staff members, students and alumni, as well as bioinformatics corporate partners and members of the local business community, attending nearly 50 legislative appointments.

These bioinformatics backers are eager to report on the progress that's been made since plans for the center were announced in January 2001.

More importantly, they plan to emphasize how the center's work will create in Western New York a "new economy" through world-class research and discoveries, and how commercialization of these discoveries will lead to job creation and economic opportunity, said Janet Penksa, associate vice president for university services and director of government affairs.

"UB Day gives us the opportunity to bring UB's cutting-edge research to Albany," said Penksa. "Many important members of the legislature have never been to UB and rarely have opportunities to travel to Buffalo, so we're bringing UB to them."

Meetings are scheduled with Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Jeff Lovell, deputy secretary to Gov. George Pataki, and top officials from the New York State Office of Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR). The day will conclude with a reception at 5:15 p.m. expected to be attended by some 300 legislators and their staffs, and other state officials.

"Our goal is to make sure that when Albany decision makers think academic excellence and world-renowned research, they think UB, and when funding decisions are made on which universities get what in the state budget, they think UB then as well," said Penksa.

In addition to the legislative visits, several of UB's research centers will set up interactive displays in the Legislative Office Building, including the Center for Computational Research (CCR), the New York State Center for Engineering Design and Industrial Innovation (NYSCEDII) and the Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics.

Exhibits will focus on topics such as working with the human genome, high-performance visualization, molecular characterization, virtual reality, medical imaging and DNA microarray technology, all part of the research that will be conducted by the bioinformatics center.