ooh yeah, hilary is cool, this makes me a little more excited now, because i was sort of slipping on the appeal part of bionformatics, seemed like no one cared anymore...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bio-IT World:
link to report

(06/06/03)—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.

The Democratic senator for New York was receiving an award for helping “ignite” the process that has generated almost $300 million in potential funding for the new center. U.S. Representative Thomas M. Reynolds, chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, received the same award.

One after another, speakers noted that the project has united a key Republican and Democrat, as well as many members of the community and local government. “Anything that could bring together a kid from Springfield [New York] and a former First Lady is bound to succeed,” said Reynolds.

“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.

Jeffrey Skolnick directs the Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics. Norma J. Nowak recently joined as director of scientific planning, and more faculty are being recruited. The center aims to become a world leader in bioinformatics by merging supercomputing, genomics, bioimaging, and other disciplines.

While its supporters hope the center will play a big role in revitalizing the region’s economy, this initiative also targets some of the foremost problems faced in converting knowledge from the human genome into better, new medicines and diagnostic tests.

“For me, this is not just about what this will bring to the university and surrounding area,” Clinton said. “This will create new technologies that will improve healthcare.”

The two “Igniting Ideas” awards were presented at UB’s Business Partners Day 2003, which was held in conjunction with the first annual UB Frontiers in Bioinformatics Symposium.