Biotechnology academic-industrial collaboration

A rich library of tracers exists for the dopamine Systran and perhaps also the serotonin system however, little or nothing currently exists for the assessment of many other neurotransmitter systems in the brain, some of whose receptors have been identified only recently. Pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries are major sources not only of new compounds that target these sites as candidate therapeutics but also of compounds that may serve as radiotracers to evaluate these sites and the effects of disease and treatment. The incentive and raw materials for continued development of functional imaging of the human bram will depend on the establishment of sustained collaborations between academic and government research centers and the pharmaceutical industry. 

Collaborations with academic scientists have historically been an important component of the drug industry s R D efforts and continue to be so today. Of all U.S. industries, innovation within the pharmaceutical industry is the most dependent on academic research and the Federal funds that support it. In recent years, advances in biotechnology that occurred within academic research laboratories added to the task of transferring basic scientific knowledge from academia and government to industrial applications. 

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