When an expected 20,000 biotechnology enthusiasts congregate in Chicago in two weeks, many will seek the kind of connection Bill Linton found with Michio Oishi.

Linton is chief executive of Promega Corp., a biotech company with a worldwide business selling gene expression technology. As director of the Kazusa DNA Research Institute in Japan's Chiba Prefecture, Oishi also is a bit off biotech's beaten path. But last year Promega and Kazusa made a deal whereby Promega commercializes libraries of human DNA produced by Kazusa.

Pieces of DNA can be inserted into cloning vectors to express genes, Linton said, so that Promega's focus and that of Kazusa complement each other splendidly. Academic scientists, researchers at pharmaceutical houses and plenty of others are eager to buy, he said.

"On their side, they help to bring a basic research project into real value on a global basis," said Linton. "They don't have a way to reach markets. We commercialize something and get it in front of 200,000 customers. We're their commercial window to the world, and they provide us with a new product line."

When BIO2006 opens at Chicago's McCormick Place on April 9, Oishi and Linton will participate in a panel discussion as part of the event's international seminars program.

The largest annual event staged for the biotechnology industry, BIO draws participants from around the world. For the past few decades, BIO has been held in cities on the East and West Coasts, where many of America's biotech firms are clustered. Coming to Chicago for the first time is the industry's acknowledgement that the Midwest also has an active life-sciences industry.

By bringing people from so many places together for a few days of intense biotech discussions, the organizers hope to spawn more collaborations like the Promega/Kazusa venture.

(www.truthabouttrade.org)