UB’s New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences, in collaboration with the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, Buffalo Niagara Enterprise, MedTech and National Grid, will co-sponsor 10 local biotech companies at the 2015 BIO International Convention, the world’s largest event for the biotechnology industry.

The convention, to be held June 15-18 in Philadelphia, attracts the biggest names in the biotech industry. It provides opportunities for participants to meet face-to-face with entrepreneurs, scientific businesses and the academic community, and to find partners, sustain projects and establish new funding opportunities with the more than 4,000 participating companies, 1,700 exhibiting companies and network of c-level executives attending the convention from 70 countries.

BIO also offers sessions covering the latest biotech trends, policy issues, licensing and important patent information.

Local companies that will be part of this year’s New York Pavilion include For-Robin, QuaDPharma, HarkerBIO, Zoetic Pharmaceuticals, HemoGenyx LLC, Asana Medical Inc., Ceno Technologies, TheraSyn Pharmaceuticals Inc., Efferent Labs and Global H.

“This is my fourth year attending BIO,” says Stephen Panaro, president and CEO QuaDPharma. “BIO is a valuable platform for me to connect with a wide spectrum of life sciences innovations and application areas that can contribute to the ongoing success of QuaDPharma.”

This year’s keynote speakers include journalist Tom Brokaw; Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute and a leading authority on digital medicine and its impact on health care; and internationally acclaimed musician Wynton Marsalis.