Bioscience in New Mexico

Central New Mexico ’s history in Bioscience development is lengthy, from early research in respiratory disease in the late 1800s to a modern command of computational biology.The local industry is greatly linked to the activities of local research institutions, as substantial Federal investment dominates the activity landscape.However, a number of innovative companies have developed their own intellectual property and cultivated niche markets in areas outside of Central New Mexico’s acknowledged institutional competencies.

Albuquerque boasts a seasoned bioscience cluster of more than 100 companies that produce everything from surgical supplies to non-invasive glucose testing devices for diabetics.

Major commercial players here are Johnson & Johnson’s Ethicon Endosurgery, which manufactures surgical products in a 230,000-square-foot plant, and Cardinal Health, which provides medication management systems to hospitals and acquired homegrown SP Pharmaceuticals in 2001. Many of the city’s bioscience companies are small and some are spin-offs from Sandia National Laboratories and the University of New Mexico.

Activities are concentrated in these areas:

• Manufacture of instruments, devices, and supplies

• Research and development of medical devices and equipment

• Bioinformatics

• Diagnostics
  

Sources of Funding
New Mexico has an active venture capital and angel investment community, please click here to learn more.

Bioscience Organizations in New Mexico

National Center for Genome Resources (NCGR)

The National Center for Genome Resources (NCGR) in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is a non-profit research institution dedicated to improving human health and nutrition through collaborative research at the intersection of Bioscience, computing and mathematics. Their vision is to pioneer the use of software and computation to improve treatment of diseases and nutrition. www.ncgr.org

Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)

Los Alamos National Laboratory a US Department of Energy laboratory, operated by Los Alamos National Security, LLC, located in Los Alamos, NM. A unique partnership — Bechtel National, University of California, BWX Technologies, and Washington Group International—is the new management and operating (M&O) contractor. LANL is focused on physical research and maintains an extensive pathogen database, as well as a myriad of other computationally intensive biology resources, with a focus upon DNA sequencing and proteomics.

Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute (LRRI)

Founded in 1947, the Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute is a private biomedical research institute dedicated to the reduction of the nation's substantial respiratory health burden. With a budget of $38 million, over 70 PhD level scientists, 330 technicians and support staff and 450,000 square feet of facilities, Lovelace is a premier respiratory research facility with extensive capabilities in a number of research areas: Asthma, emphysema, lung cancer, inhalation toxicology, aerosol inhalation drug delivery, bronchitis, and allergies.

The Institute brings a broad range of research capabilities and research alliances to bear on respiratory health issues of concern to government, industry, universities, health advocacy organizations, and the public. They are committed to the cure of respiratory diseases through research aimed at understanding their causes and biological mechanisms, eliminating exposures to causal agents, and developing improved treatments. See www.lrri.org

University of New Mexico (UNM)

The University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center includes a medical school, colleges of nursing and pharmacy, four hospitals and the Cancer Research and Treatment Center. The Health Sciences Center can gather data and understand impacts with relative ease because it has a repository of data on entire populations of patients and access to high-performance parallel computing. See hsc.unm.edu

Sandia National Laboratories (SNL)

Sandia has a wealth of programs within life sciences, including the Energy and Infrastructure Assurance program. Their goal is to enhance the surety (safety, security, and reliability) of energy and other critical infrastructures. Efforts are focused on the areas of energy research, earth sciences, transportation systems, risk management technologies, environmental stewardship, and nuclear waste management. Sandia is also actively working to improve the nation's critical infrastructure surety. They are focusing on infrastructure elements in the areas of transportation, electric power grid, oil and gas distribution, telecommunications, finance and banking, and vital human services. See www.sandia.gov

Santa Fe Institute (SFI)

The Santa Fe Institute is a private, not-for-profit, independent research and education center founded in 1984 focused upon a multi-disciplinary approach to research of physical, biological, computational, and social sciences. The Institute focuses on understanding complex adaptive systems is critical to addressing key environmental, technological, biological, economic, and political challenges.

Renowned scientists and researchers come to Santa Fe Institute from universities, government agencies, research institutes, and private industry to collaborate in attempts to uncover the mechanisms that underlie the deep simplicity present in our complex world. See www.santafe.edu

Biomedical Research Institute of New Mexico (BRINM)

Biomedical Research Institute of New Mexico is a full service institution that exists to support Veterans Administration research programs to promote advances in medical diagnosis and treatment through research. With a growing number of active research investigators, projects and staff, BRINM employs more than 76 full time and part time individuals and administering more than $5 million annually in funding. See www.brinm.org

Behavioral Health Research Center of the Southwest (BHRCS)

Behavioral Health Research Center of the Southwest was established in 1997 to conduct research on substance abuse and other behavioral health issues. A major research focus is the impact of cultural factors on substance use and abuse. See www.bhrcs.org