NEWS

Clifton A. Baile

Lamar Dodd Award 2002

Clifton A. Baile, a Professor in the Departments of Animal and Dairy Science and Foods and Nutrition and the Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar of Agricultural Biotechnology, is a productive scientist who understands how to transfer research findings to industry. His many accomplishments demonstrate his ability to coordinate and advise University faculty on research findings that have economically viable applications. His leadership has helped advance biotechnology and its economic potential for Georgia.

Dr. Baile has helped recruit high-caliber faculty to UGA and has improved UGA biotechnology research facilities through collaborations and successful grant writing. Since coming to UGA in 1995, he has helped procure a $38 million investment for new facilities, laboratories, and equipment. Dr. Baile has served in management roles in several Athens-area biotechnology start-up companies including Abeome, Inc., Aureozyme, Inc., AviGenics, Inc., Oncose, Inc. and ProLinia, Inc. These companies, which have raised more than $75 million during the past four years, encompass a range of technologies from animal cloning and human cell therapies to the development of cancer diagnostics and the mass production of monoclonal antibodies.

Key to Dr. Baile’s success in promoting biotechnology and its economic potential is his 35 years in academia and industry. His research at universities such as Harvard, Penn State and UGA has resulted in more than 275 scientific papers on such topics as the control of feed intake and the regulation of energy balance, and the regulation of animal growth and lactation. During his tenure at the Monsanto Company, he led his department in the discovery of a biotechnology-based process to produce a dairy cattle somatotropin and developed its delivery formulations, manufacturing systems, and marketing programs. Somatotropin sales now yield more than $400 million annually. Dr. Baile’s “success in bringing university research to industry has been so great that it has been cited in Nature as a model for others to emulate,” wrote C. Michael Cassidy, president of the Georgia Research Alliance.