Friday, December 09, 2005

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Buffalo News Skolnick resigning UB biotech center post

"Jeffrey Skolnick, the prominent scientist hailed as the "rock star" of bioinformatics research when he arrived at the University at Buffalo in 2002, is leaving UB for a job at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Skolnick has submitted a resignation letter, effective Jan. 10, and will take a position as director of a center focusing on systems-biology research.

This brings an end to Skolnick's rocky term at the UB bioinformatics center, which received more than $200 million in financial support and generated high expectations as an economic engine. "His tenure's been disappointing in the sense that [he] was trumpeted as a rock star, and there weren't many concerts to attend," said Assembly Majority Leader Paul A. Tokasz, D-Cheektowaga."

redux [04.15.04]
The Buffalo News A biotech match gone wrong?

"Two years ago, Jeffrey Skolnick arrived as the leader of the University at Buffalo's new bioinformatics center and the next great hope for the region's struggling economy.

Last week, UB issued a three-page news release announcing a restructuring and expansion of the bioinformatics center that includes a new executive director.

Skolnick's name did not appear anywhere in that document."

redux [03.29.04]
The Miami Herald Bioinformatics 'Star' Criticizes Dell Computer at Buffalo, N.Y., College

"Bioinformatics star Jeffrey Skolnick has created a stir at the University at Buffalo by criticizing his Dell supercomputer -- announced with fanfare in 2002 -- and switching his allegiance to rival IBM Corp.

The highly public flap has prompted UB administrators to come to the defense of Dell, a deep-pocketed research partner."

redux [12.08.03]
Times Union A vision has yet to spark rebirth

""Unfortunately, I think there's unreal expectations," said Skolnick, the Buffalo center director. Still, he said, the center "can play a role, and perhaps a significant role" in an economic turnaround.

Even so, not everybody is on board. At Ulrich's Tavern, which calls itself Buffalo's oldest and is sandwiched between the center and an old windshield-wiper factory, an elderly man nursed a midafternoon beer and said he'd never even heard of bioinformatics.

The bar's proprietor, Jim Daley Jr., was plenty aware of it.

"I think it's the most underrated thing in Buffalo," he said. "Most people talk about the casino.""

redux [07.14.03]
UB Reporter Attendance at conference dispels any doubts about bioinformatics center

"If any doubts lingered among scientists, politicians or business executives about the future prospects for the University at Buffalo Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics, they were erased last Friday as nearly 200 scientists representing the U.S., Canada, India, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Italy and Japan gathered in the Adams Mark Hotel in Buffalo for the first annual "Frontiers in Bioinformatics" symposium."

"The day's events amounted to a grand show of support for the center of excellence, which was founded in 2001 by Gov. George E. Pataki"

redux [06.06.03]
Bio-IT World Senator Clinton supports bioinformatics initiative

"Despite the media barrage surrounding her new book, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton made a brief appearance in Buffalo on Friday, June 6, to praise the University of Buffalo (UB)'s ambitious Bioinformatics Center of Excellence initiative."

""It has taken a lot of work to make the case to fund bioinformatics," Clinton said. "When we started, the response was, 'What's that?' " Despite this, Clinton and Reynolds have helped to earmark more than $9 million in federal funding for the project."

redux [03.02.03]
The Buffalo News JEFFREY SKOLNICK SUPERSTAR

"Jeff Skolnick didn't sign up for all this hype.

He did not apply to the following posting:

Savior wanted: A wunderkind in cutting-edge technology who can help build a new economy and carry the hopes of a Rust Belt region of 1.2 million people.

He just took a job heading a new academic program, the University at Buffalo's Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics."

redux [07.26.02]
Buffalo Business First Senate committee approves $1 million for bioinformatics center

"New York's U.S. Senators Charles Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton jointly announced that the Senate Appropriations Committee has approved $1 million in funding for Buffalo's planned Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics.

The $1 million was included as part of a an appropriations measure for the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development."

redux [05.01.02]
digitalMass Bioinformatics center takes shape as Buffalo seeks to redefine self

"An optimistic Pataki declared the center "will transform western New York into a 21st Century economy."

The lofty predictions come as upstate's largest city struggles to reinvent itself from a past-its-peak industrial center losing not only jobs but people: U.S. Census figures show the population has dropped to under 300,000, down from a 1950s peak of 580,000."

redux [12.07.01]
Buffalo Business First Pataki announces $200 million Bioinformatics center for Buffalo

"Buffalo will be the site of a Center of Excellence for Bioinformatics thanks to a $200 million collaboration between the public and private sectors.

Gov. George Pataki announced during a swing through Buffalo on Dec. 6 that the state will contribute $50 million to help establish the 150,000 square-foot facility to be located adjacent to the emerging Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. It is part of Pataki's $1 billion high-tech and biotech Centers of Excellence planned for across the state."