BIOSCIENCES
 When you combine an aggressively pro-business economic climate with world-class research institutions, the yield is a group of industries called biosciences that includes production agriculture, value-added processing, pharmaceuticals, animal health products, and businesses involved in the application of biological and biochemical sciences to plants, animals, processed foods, and humans.
More than 1,100 companies are engaged in Iowa's biosciences industry, and they employ over 72,000 highly-skilled workers.
According to the Battelle Memorial Institute's Technology Partnership Practice Report, Iowa's strengths in animal and plant sciences at the Regents universities and in the private sector point toward large-scale market potential and development of industry clusters including bioeconomy, biomedical imaging, drug discovery, development piloting and production, advanced food products, biosecurity/biodefense, post-genomic medicine, and animal systems.
These "bio-proteins" are an area of focus. Iowa State University is building a $425 million Plant Sciences Institute to serve as a global center for the study and commercialization of new products from plants, including vaccines; new industrial uses for crops, bio-based fuels, and other innovations.
|
