This past week, Marshall University celebrated a major and historic milestone.

Marshall and the new startup biotechnology company, Vandalia Research Inc., announced an exclusive licensing agreement to commercialize a patent-pending DNA production system.

Vandalia Research Inc. is the first company to emerge from an incubator program initiated two years ago to foster economic growth through university-based scientific research. The system, called Triathlon DNA, provides advanced production capabilities, duplicating DNA 20 to 30 times faster than existing technology.

This remarkable achievement serves as a reminder about how important higher education is to the future of West Virginia. Those who doubt that idea must be prepared to pay the price of lost opportunity. Ignoring the importance of education leads to a decline in our standard of living. Universities like Marshall are the engines of economic development. To be sure, the future course of Marshall is directed toward improving our region's economy.

In many ways, Vandalia Research Inc. is showing us the way. As the first of what potentially will be more new biotech companies to emerge from the research conducted at Marshall, it proves that we can succeed at intellectual property development and commercialization in Huntington.

The launching of Vandalia is the result of the collaboration between alumni, faculty and students with strong support from the community.
An indebtedness is owed to all of the local investors who provided the initial startup capital of $500,000.

I am very proud of those who have made this venture possible. Vandalia's management team includes two Marshall professors, Elizabeth Murray and Michael Norton. They guided two of our brilliant young undergraduate students, Derek Gregg, a Philippi, W.Va., native, and Justin Swick of Chesapeake, Ohio, who co-founded Vandalia Research in March 2004.

Opportunities abound at Marshall for all students to discover and develop new career paths and build futures through initiative, imagination and hard work. Helped immensely by faculty and university resources, what seems impossible becomes possible.

What Derek and Justin have accomplished demonstrates that Marshall University is not only committed to preparing our students to compete in the global economy, but also has created pathways for dedicated, imaginative people to achieve high-level success.

More than ever before, the commerce of ideas will dominate our future. Just as Vandalia entrepreneurs have shown, opportunity will favor those who can integrate ideas and think critically. Imagination and innovation can create new economic enterprises. Preparing our graduates to compete and succeed globally will be an omnipresent challenge.

The future will belong to institutions of higher learning that can integrate thinking, action and function. Universities that are prepared for this reality will ensure future opportunities. To fulfill the promise of a better future will mean mapping a direction, our direction, amidst a seemingly infinite array of possibilities.

Students of today will be the leaders and captains of industry tomorrow. Their future is our future. Never was that more evident than this week during Vandalia's announcement.

The faculty and students involved in this endeavor truly are an inspiration to us all.