BioTech Park in Richmond a haven for research

-- In a second-floor lab overlooking a parking lot and the side of a brick building, a more healthful America might be taking shape.

Researchers are trying to perfect a mass-market version of a test that can identify the presence of a virus believed to cause obesity.

If they can get the $300 blood test down to a more consumer-friendly $30 to $50 pinprick test, they can make a big splash financially and, just as important, they say, improve the general health of people worldwide.

Then again, they could fail.

That's the risk of medical research.

For every hit, there are countless misses.

For more than a decade, an increasing number of researchers have been swinging away at the Virginia BioTechnology Research Park in downtown Richmond.

"There are wonderful things happening here," said Richard Atkinson, who chose the park as the home for his obesity research firm, Obetech.

While the park originally was envisioned as a home for research on new medicines, the scope has expanded through the years. The work now ranges from the type of science that shows up in best-sellers to organ sharing to cigarette company research.

"If we only depended on companies making new drugs, it would take 50 years to build this park out," said Robert T. Skunda, the president and chief executive officer of the park. "We opted for a more inclusive approach. The mission became life sciences."

The mission included new life for Richmond.

When the park began taking shape in the early 1990s, that swath of the city included the Coliseum, the fringes of Virginia Commonwealth University's Medical College of Virginia and not much else. It wasn't even urban blight; it was just empty, decades after highway construction.

"What I see is a vibrant and growing science park where there wasn't anything here [before that] I'd call workable from an economic standpoint," Skunda said.

An $8 million investment by the state, Skunda said, has led to more than $500 million in development. The bulk of that came in a single project -- $350 million for the Philip Morris research center -- but all of the little pieces have added up, too.

The 34-acre park has nine buildings and more than 1.1 million square feet of space. It also has working agreements with the more space-friendly suburban White Oak Technology Park in Henrico County and the Meadowville Technology Park in Chesterfield County.

In the odd world of science, economic stimulus has been spurred by a project not typically associated with economic growth: human organs.

The ultimate life science -- organ transplantation -- has become the park's face from the interstate.

The United Network for Organ Sharing, which facilitates every organ transplant in the U.S., anchors the west side of the park. Its "Donate Life" logo is what visitors see as they exit Interstate 64/95 onto Third Street.

Walter K. Graham, the executive director of UNOS, said he made "the smartest decision I've ever made as director" six years ago. He accepted an offer to become the research park's first anchor tenant.

"There's great visibility for us," said Graham, who has served on the park's board for the past three years.

The organization also considered an offer from an office park south of the James River.

"We want to be part of a community," he said. "And a community exists in this park."

The community at the BioTech park comes courtesy of Skunda and his staff.

More than 50 companies and other entities call it home. They range from startups working out of cubicles in the park's business incubator to behemoths such as Philip Morris, with its 450,000-square-foot building.

"The most exciting thing is, we have 2,000 people at work," said Skunda, the chief at the park for 12 of its 13 years. "And they are all at work focused on the common mission of life sciences."
Contact Zachary Reid at (804) 775-8179 or .