Advancing Our Economy, One Tech Job at a Time

The University at Buffalo’s Buffalo Institute of Genomics and Data Analytics has had a significant impact on job creation in the region.

Zoom image: scientist with pipette scientist with pipette.

In 2014, the UB Buffalo Institute of Genomics and Data Analytics (BIG) was launched with a $47.5 million grant from the state. The goal: to create hundreds of high-tech jobs in Western New York.

A news conference this past summer revealed that BIG has exceeded expectations, not only boosting the regional economy with the creation of 530 local jobs, but also contributing to major advances in life sciences that benefit society as a whole.

Rock meets lever

The announcement was made outside the Amherst offices of KSL Biomedical, a medical diagnostics startup that has leveraged the resources of UB’s BIG to create approximately 100 jobs since the company’s founding three years ago.

“We had big ideas, and we needed resources like BIG to realize them,” said Kevin Lawson, CEO of KSL. “I look at it like the old physics lesson about potential energy. There’s the big rock on top of a hill. You need the lever to get it down the hill. BIG has provided that [lever].”

KSL is one of 16 companies that currently have agreements with the UB program, which provides state-of-the-art facilities, technical expertise, a world-class computing infrastructure, next-generation genetic sequencing and more. In total, these partners anticipate generating more than 600 new life sciences jobs by the end of this year.

A pandemic pivot

Christina Orsi, UB associate vice president for economic development, noted how companies working with BIG refocused their businesses to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. KSL, for example, developed diagnostic tests and worked on clinical validation of prognostic tools to improve patient care. Resources provided by BIG, said Lawson, allowed the company to make that pivot.

“We made strategic investments in critical research, state-of-the-art equipment and funding to support the discovery and development of new medical technologies in partnership with industry members throughout Western New York,” Orsi said.

In a statement, UB President Satish K. Tripathi praised the important role BIG plays in the regional economy as well as in helping to develop medical innovations that benefit society, especially those in need. “The success of BIG is another example of UB’s impact on the communities we serve,” he said.