11 March 2004
Biotech is the new dotcom
Across the United States, politicians are spending taxpayer dollars on research parks and other high-tech developments, hoping to recreate the 'San Diego effect' in their backyards. Job creation looks like being a major issue in the presidential campaign so the trend looks set to continue. But will most of that money be wasted? San Diego is a thriving biotech hub, and along Boston's Route 128 and in North Carolina's Research Triangle Park thousands of scientists and engineers are busily working on leafy corporate campuses. Yet nobody really knows how to start a cluster from scratch. Scott Wallsten takes a critical look at the current obsession with becoming the next biotech hub, and suggests how potential winning projects might be identified. Some high-tech development schemes may prove to be good investments, but many will leave little more trace than the dotcom failures of the past decade.
High-tech cluster bombs
SCOTT WALLSTEN
Why successful biotech hubs are the exception, not the rule.
Nature 428, 121–122 (2004); doi:10.1038/428121a
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