NuTec Sciences, a computer bioformatics firm that is considered a catalyst for Georgia’s genetic research and biotechnology initiative, is to open a new facility in Manchester, England, as part of an aggressive growth strategy.
“The marketplace for the life sciences is growing so quickly, we feel that we have to expand globally,” Michael Keehan, NuTec’s CEO, told GlobalFax last week in a telephone interview. “We are doing business from California to Massachusetts and Texas to Michigan. It is now time for us to have a presence in Europe.”
The company was attracted from Houston to Atlanta this year under a multimillion-dollar state initiative to bring industry leaders and scientists to Georgia in an effort to place the state on top of the emerging bioinformatics market.
NuTec Services develops software technology that assists scientists translate human genetic information into new treatments for disease.
Dr. Keehan said that Manchester “felt right” as the European base for the company because of its “drive and ambition” and the presence of the Darsbury Laboratories, a large pharmaceutical research center.
Kristen Hirst, vice president of the North of England Representative Office in Atlanta, said that more established biotech centers in the U.K. such Cambridge or Oxford were saturated with startups. NuTec, she added, would have more success attracting labor and find easier to make new business relationships in the Manchester area.
Ms. Hirst assisted the company along with officials from the British Consulate General and EmTech Biosciences, a new biotecnology incubator formed by Emory University and Georgia Tech in establishing its European headquarters.
For more information, Ms. Hirst may be reached by calling (404) 240-0434 or send an e-mail to kristen.hirst@northengland.com
NuTec’s Web site may be found at www.nutesciences.com