Birmingham’s biotech ecosystem is receiving national recognition from a senior U.S. government official for its artificial intelligence (AI) landscape.
Cristina Killingsworth of the U.S. Department of Commerce recently visited from Washington, D.C., see the Birmingham Biotechnology Hub, designated through the Economic Development Administration (EDA) and led by Southern Research.
Through Southern Research’s leadership, Birmingham was deemed a Regional Technology and Innovation Hub (Tech Hub) in October 2023.
Through this designation, the Tech Hubs program leadership will work with Southern Research and other biotech-focused entities to improve strategy and infrastructure to be a global hub for the interaction of drug, vaccine and diagnostics development with AI-driven tech.
“The Birmingham Biotechnology Hub embodies the spirit and potential of the Tech Hubs program to take centers of excellence and make them world-class tech ecosystems through targeted investments,” said Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “That’s precisely why I’ve asked Cristina Killingsworth to travel to Alabama with a team to meet with leadership and provide technical assistance on their strategy. The Tech Hubs Program is crucial to ensuring tech industries vital to U.S. economic and national security start, stay and grow in the U.S., and that’s why I’m committed to future rounds of funding and working with lawmakers to support additional federal resources to support all of our designees.”
As part of this designation, Southern Research and other local medical entities like UAB submitted an application to receive part of $500 million in federal funding allocated specifically for hotbeds of innovation and technology around the country. The Tech Hubs program was authorized for $10 billion in the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act.
Efforts to expand and increase biotech in Birmingham have increased noticeably since the Tech Hub designation. Josh Carpenter, CEO of Southern Research, believes Birmingham can be a world-class destination for cancer research and treatment.
“I think there’s a real opportunity to help continue to position Birmingham as an accessible precision medicine hub where we can really be that Southern nexus of biotech,” Carpenter said. “There's been a lot of conversation around genetic therapy ... if we positioned Birmingham well for that, we think it’s something that could be a generationally known investment.”
