Hoeven Lauds ND's Growing Biotech Industry at BioND Annual Meeting

Press Release

Senator John Hoeven today lauded North Dakota's growing biotechnology sector at a large gathering of industry leaders and cited the success of Aldevron as a model of entrepreneurship in the field. Hoeven spoke today at the annual meeting of BioND, an organization that supports the biotechnology and life science industries in North Dakota. BioND members are involved in the development of innovative healthcare, agricultural, industrial and environmental biotechnology products and ventures.

"North Dakota continues to be a national leader in agriculture and bio-technology because we have companies like Aldevron that are doing research and commercialization on the forefront of medical innovation," Hoeven said. "Mike Chambers' story is pretty well known by now. He graduated from NDSU with a degree and an idea, but not much more. He and his partner John Ballantyne were helped by family and friends and maxed out their credit cards for financing. They launched a new company called Aldevron that developed the world's first DNA vaccine. Today, Aldevron is a world-class company with clients in countries around the globe. And Aldevron is just one story in the growing list of North Dakota successes. North Dakota now has companies and universities that are researching and making new treatments and therapies, lab equipment, biofuels and new and better agricultural products. Every year, we see that research and development multiply as new companies begin to cluster in the Red River Valley and other regions of our state."

Headquartered in Fargo, Chambers and partner John Ballantyne started Aldevron at North Dakota State University (NDSU) in 1998. Today, Aldevron is growing and expanding, with 140 employees. The company specializes in DNA and protein production technologies and is working on cancer gene editing, specifically reading DNA, writing DNA and editing DNA in an effort to help develop therapies to cure cancer and diseases with a genetic basis. Aldevron has also been contacted by various groups to develop a vaccine for the Zika virus.

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