You'll find Dr. Randall L. Kincaid, a former National Institutes of Health research chief, in a converted Rockville warehouse toiling away on a scientific frontier called protein expression.
The erudite and affable Dr. Kincaid gave up his well-equipped high-tech laboratory at the federal government's National Institutes of Health in Bethesda -- not to mention the prestige and salary of working at the sprawling life sciences hub -- for these stripped-down quarters in an industrial park.
Why? He wanted to move into private industry and launch his own biotechnology company, Veritas Inc.
Today, the company's employee roster has all of two people -- Dr. Kincaid and another scientist he just hired. And Veritas' lab equipment is of the hand-me-down variety. But the scientist and the entrepreneur in Dr. Kincaid are ever hopeful.
He's not the first, nor likely the last, NIH scientist to start a biotechnology company in Maryland. And many, it turns out, have become success stories.
In fact, some experts say that without NIH's presence in Maryland, the industry, which is trying to unlock nature's secrets to treat and cure diseases, improve crop yields and control environmental contamination, might be a shadow of what it is today in the Free State.
"NIH is the engine that's driving biotechnology in Maryland -- indeed in the country," said Dr. Michael M. Gottesman, the deputy director for research at the NIH campus, who has studied NIH's effect on Maryland's biotechnology industry.
By launching Veritas, Dr. Kincaid joined a list of prestigious NIH scientists and high-level managers who have left the world-class institution to either start their own firm or join forces with others to launch a biotechnology company in Maryland.
And there are even more scientists and managers -- no one's sure how many exactly -- who have been hired from NIH by Maryland biotechnology companies.
Drs. Scott Koenig and Robert Hohman, for example.
Dr. Koenig was lured to Rockville-based MedImmune Inc. and is now director of research at the vaccine and drug developer.
Dr. Hohman, a former NIH scientist, is vice president for research and development at Oncor Inc., a Gaithersburg-based company developing genetic tests.
The experience of working at NIH before launching a biotechnology company can be pivotal, say some who have done so.
