Governor Charlie Crist will give the keynote address at "Florida's Future and the Biotech Vision," an innovative luncheon and panel discussion on Wednesday, December 2 at Jungle Island. Hosted by the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce (GMCC) and Gunster, Attorneys at Law, more than 500 business and community leaders are expected to attend. The primary focus is the future of the bioscience industry and the impact it will have on the economy, business sector and education in Florida, and within the Greater Miami area. The event will feature news and updates on scientific research by Barbara Noble of Scripps Florida; Dr. Claudia Hillinger of the Max Planck Florida Institute; Dr. Stephen J. Gardell of the Burnham Institute for Medical Research; and Dr. Bart Chernow of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. H. William Perry, chairman and managing partner of Gunster, will serve as moderator.  

"This milestone event unites four major research organizations from around the State to discuss an industry that is expected to change the platforms of opportunity in Florida," said Gunster technology attorney Kevin M. Levy, a member of the GMCC's technology committee. "Biotech, and technology as a whole, will impact so many aspects of both the business and academic communities, and this forum gives us direct access to the latest news and information."  

Sponsors of the luncheon include Gunster, Attorneys at Law; Compuquip Technologies; Check Point Software Technologies LTD; Darby & Darby; Novak Druce + Quigg LLP; IBM; Florida Trend; The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation; and BioFlorida. Tickets are $55 for Chamber members or $65 for nonmembers before November 27, and $65 for Chamber members or $75 for nonmembers after that date. Registration is at 11:30 a.m. and the luncheon presentation is from noon until 2:00 p.m. For more information, contact the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce at (305) 577-5421 or spevents@miamichamber.com.  

Scripps Florida  
Barbara Noble is the Director of External Affairs for Scripps Florida, a state-of-the-art nonprofit biomedical research facility located at Florida Atlantic University's MacArthur Campus in Jupiter. Using the latest technology, researchers at Scripps Florida -- a division of The Scripps Research Institute headquartered in La Jolla, Calif. -- focus on basic biomedical research and drug discovery. Nearly 300 faculty members and scientific, technical, and administrative staff work at the 350,000-square-foot complex.  

Currently, six academic departments of The Scripps Research Institute are represented at Scripps Florida: Cancer Biology, Chemistry, Infectology, Metabolism and Aging, Molecular Therapeutics, and Neurosciences, plus the Translational Research Institute, which consists of two primary departments, Advanced Technologies and Drug Discovery. Much of the work at Scripps Florida is dedicated to basic biomedical research, a vital segment of medical research that seeks to decipher the most fundamental processes of life. Additionally, researchers at Scripps Florida are developing advanced technologies, and applying these tools to the discovery of new therapeutic agents for a variety of devastating human diseases, including HIV/AIDS; Alzheimer's disease; cancer; depression; diabetes; hepatitis C; leishmaniasis (a tropical and sub-tropical parasitic disease); obesity; prion disease; Parkinson's disease; drug and alcohol addictions; and schizophrenia.

Barbara Noble was recruited to join Scripps Florida in January 2004, after spending over 15 years in consulting and executive leadership positions within the public, private and non-profit sectors throughout South Florida. Brought aboard for her experience in project development and planning, management, marketing and fundraising, she is a member of the inaugural team of Scripps Florida. Today, as Director of External Affairs, Barbara manages the Institute's reputation and impact of its science by facilitating special projects and working extensively with philanthropic leadership, and governmental, corporate, foundation and community stakeholders.

For more information, visit www.scripps.edu  

Max Planck Florida Institute  
Dr. Claudia Hillinger is Vice President for Institute Development for the Max Planck Florida Institute, the first U.S.-based research institute for Germany's internationally acclaimed Max Planck Society. The planned 100,000-square-foot research facility with laboratories will be a neighbor to Scripps Florida on six acres at Florida Atlantic University's MacArthur Campus in Jupiter. Its primary focus is to further global knowledge of bioimaging, by using the most advanced techniques to visualize molecular processes in living tissue. Bioimaging provides a critical opportunity to translate discoveries of basic research into clinical and patient-oriented applications, ultimately improving medical diagnostics and the quality of care. Nobel Laureate Dr. Bert Sakmann serves as the inaugural scientific director, and has begun work in a temporary facility studying the precise structural arrangement of nerves in the cerebral cortex - the structure within the brain that plays a key role in memory, attention, perceptual awareness, thought, language and consciousness. This work will lay the foundation for future studies on brain degenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's.  

Dr. Hillinger joined Max Planck Society more than 10 years ago and was responsible for Institute development before becoming the research coordinator and head of the Central Scientific Laboratories and Technical Facilities for the Max Planck Institute of Biogeochemistry in Jena, Germany, which focuses on climate change, earth system sciences and biodiversity. Previously, she held the position of research group leader at the Institute of Botany and Microbiology at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), and served as assistant to both the American Deputy Director and the German Program Director at the American Embassy in Bonn, Germany and Amerika Haus München.  

The Max Planck Florida Institute is due to open its permanent building in 2012. For more information, visit www.MaxPlanckFlorida.org.  

Burnham Institute for Medical Research
Dr. Stephen J. Gardell is Director of Translational Research Resources and Adjunct Associate Professor at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research at Lake Nona, a 178,000-square-foot campus that recently opened in Orlando, Fla. Burnham's research focus encompasses cancer; infectious and inflammatory diseases; neuroscience; aging and stem cell biology; diabetes and obesity; and childhood diseases. Burnham is headquartered in La Jolla, Calif. and maintains a research operation in Santa Barbara, Calif. The Lake Nona campus is home to the Diabetes and Obesity Research Center, and includes state-of-the-art analytical genomics, metabolomics, pharmacology, medicinal chemistry, cardiovascular and metabolic phenotyping core facilities. It is also the east coast site for the Conrad Prebys Center for Chemical Genomics, which is equipped with an ultra-high throughput chemical screening system capable of conducting more than one million experiments per day.

With more than 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Gardell oversees development and operation of several of Burnham's advanced technology platforms, including the Burnham-Stedman Center metabolomics laboratory (a collaboration between Burnham and Duke University) and the cardiometabolic phenotyping facility. He advises Burnham scientists on strategies to translate laboratory discoveries into clinical applications. He has held senior positions at several large pharmaceutical companies, most recently serving as Assistant Vice President of Cardiovascular Research at Wyeth. He previously directed obesity research at Bayer Research Center and biological chemistry at Merck Research Laboratories.

For more information, visit www.burnham.org.

University of Miami Miller School of Medicine  
Dr. Bart Chernow is Professor of Medicine and Anesthesiology, Vice- Provost for Technology Advancement and the Vice-President of Special Programs at the University of Miami (UM) and the Miller School of Medicine. Founded in 1952 as Florida's first accredited medical school, the Miller School of Medicine is the only academic medical center in South Florida. It has earned international acclaim for research, clinical care and biomedical innovations, and provides the medical staff for the nationally renowned UM/Jackson Memorial Medical Center and UM Hospital. Research is a top priority, with more than 1,500 ongoing projects funded by $238 million in external grants and contracts to UM faculty. The medical campus consists of nearly 68 acres within the 153-acre complex of the UM/Jackson Memorial Medical Center, including more than 500,000 square feet of research space with plans underway to build the UM Life Science Park, which will add up to an additional two million square feet of space adjacent to the medical campus. The UM Life Science Park will bring together academia and industry for collaboration in bioscience research innovation.  

Before joining UM, Dr. Chernow had a long history with the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He was formerly the Vice Dean of Research, Technology and Corporate Relations, and Professor of Medicine, Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at Hopkins. Prior to Johns Hopkins he was an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School, serving in clinical, research and educational roles at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Chernow is a Past-President of the American College of Chest Physicians and is Editor Emeritus of Critical Care Medicine, the official journal of the Society of Critical Care Medicine. Dr. Chernow is the author or co-author of numerous scientific publications, book chapters, editorials, review articles and abstracts. He has received many prestigious awards and has been honored as a master fellow of the American College of Physicians, as well as a master fellowship in the American College of Chest Physicians.  

For more information, visit www.med.miami.edu.  

About the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce
The Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce is an association of businesses and professions organized to create economic progress in Miami-Dade County. To carry out its mission, the Chamber serves as the voice of business enterprise and involves the private sector in community leadership. For more than 100 years, the Chamber has been widely recognized and respected for its extraordinary record of economic development and community improvement.  

The Greater Miami Chamber is an activist chamber. Its program of work is organized in five areas: Advocacy, Domestic Business Development, International Business Development, Leadership Programs and Marketing & Member Services. The Chamber has an award-winning website, www.MiamiChamber.com; holds the license to the Miami Free Trade Zone, Inc.; and has been recognized as one of the Top 10 Executive Speaking Forums in America.   

About Gunster
Established in 1925, Gunster is a full-service Florida law firm with eight offices around the state, providing counsel to leading businesses and individuals. Our statewide presence and culture reflect the firm's status as Florida's lawyers for business. Gunster services clients from its offices in Fort Lauderdale, Jacksonville, Miami, Palm Beach, Stuart, Tallahassee, Vero Beach and its headquarters in West Palm Beach, with 140 attorneys and 200 committed support staff.