Trends in research, business and investment affecting the growing life sciences industry in the Sacramento region will be the topic of the 2004 Sacramento Regional Life Sciences Summit, to be held on Thursday, March 4, at the Hyatt Regency hotel, Sacramento.

The keynote plenary speaker is Waneta Tuttle, CEO of Exagen Diagnostics Inc., recently named "Queen of the Startups" by Techcomm, the National Journal of Technology Commercialization. Based in Albuquerque, N.M., Tuttle has created four startup companies in the past 14 years, including Exagen.

Tuttle will discuss the challenges and opportunities facing start-up companies in regions such as Sacramento and Albuquerque that are outside "traditional" biotech clusters.

A plenary panel on "Homegrown Success Stories" will include representatives from local biotech companies including Sagres Discovery, Davis; Bioluminate, Dublin; Novozymes Biotech, Davis; and Sialogen Therapeutics, Davis. The discussion will be chaired by Roger Salquist, chair of UC Davis CONNECT.

Topics covered in breakout sessions will include intellectual property issues; investment opportunities in new research areas; communicating controversial issues; an update on issues identified at the Governor's Life Science Summit in September 2003 and next steps for growth of the life sciences industry in the Sacramento region. There will be in-depth sessions on emerging technologies in biophotonics, nanotechnology and genomics.

The event runs from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Attendees must register in advance by Feb. 27.

The summit is organized by UC Davis CONNECT and the Center for Biophotonics Science and Technology. Major sponsors include Weintraub Genshlea Chediak Sproul; the UC Discovery Grant Program; the Sacramento Regional Technology Alliance; and the Sacramento Business Journal.