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First big biotech conference set at Scripps, but legal fight looms

PALM BEACH - Biotech scientists from around the world gather this week for the first international scientific summit since the Scripps research center opened its Florida branch.

The first Scripps-Oxford International Biotechnology Conference was set to begin three days of discussions among more than 350 scientists on a range of topics, including stem cell research, biotech's economic implications and aging.

The conference, at the upscale Breakers resort, is jointly put on by Scripps and England's Oxford University.

With much fanfare, Gov. Jeb Bush lured Scripps in 2003 to build its research center in Palm Beach as part of a broad plan to diversify Florida's economy into high-tech research and bioscience. The center is the envisioned keystone of a proposed 2,000-acre biotechnology park.

But some scientists are worried that an ongoing fight over the site for the center, spurred by environmentalists who say the project isn't environmentally friendly, could overshadow any gains made in the fledgling center's scientific mission.

U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks has allowed Scripps to continue to erect some buildings on the site, but has ordered a study of the project's environmental impact that could endanger the center's long-term viability at its current site.

[Last modified November 14, 2005, 01:03:13]