Crist visits Roskamp, which hopes for more funding (with photo gallery)

MANATEE — Gov. Charlie Crist visited Roskamp Institute on Thursday as the Manatee County research facility has been pushing for more funding and development in the local biotechnology industry.

Roskamp officials held a private meeting with Crist to discuss the facility’s Alzheimer’s and cancer research programs and the financial commitment it would like to see from government.

The briefing was followed up with Crist taking a quick tour of the institute, stopping in several laboratories to get briefed on the institute’s drug screening and design, drug testing and cell screening.

“What an impressive visit,” Crist said in the lobby of the Roskamp Institute. “There’s been an awful lot of development in the life sciences arena in the last five years. If I win this (U.S.) Senate race, I might have an opportunity once getting to Washington to help a worthy institution such as this.”

The Roskamp Institute has been seeking local and state support of its research efforts and the biotechnology business sector.

Fiona Crawford, associate director of the Roskamp Institute, said it gets financial support from the National Institutes of Health and recently the Department of Defense as it extends research efforts to military conditions such as traumatic brain injury and post traumatic stress disorder.

“Of course you can always do more, but it’s a costly endeavor, what we do here,” Crawford said.

Crawford hopes Crist’s visit will result in him supporting future funding opportunities.

“Certainly having somebody pushing for more funding can help,” Crawford said. “There’s been a loss of funding for Alzheimer’s research, we hope when things take a turn for the better the funding will be there.”

Ernst & Young named Florida among the top 10 fastest growing states in the life sciences industry. The biotech industry has more than doubled since 2001 in Florida, and the state has nearly 11 percent of the 1,450 biotech firms in the United States.

Florida has at least 170 biotechnology research and development firms.

In 2008, the average annual salary for those in the biotech industry was $63,700, 57 percent higher than the state’s annual average of $40,500.

James Humphrey, chief operating officer for Roskamp, said growth of the industry locally is going to require more funding to establish biotech education programs in Manatee and Sarasota counties.

“We’re one of the best kept secrets,” Humphrey said. “The thing that limits us is funding, Hopefully we can reach out into the public domain and say, ‘Look at what we’ve got here.’ ”