When Philadelphia bone-marrow transplant expert Dr. Suzanne Ildstad was considering moving her research team to Louisville in 1999, she got the kind of red carpet treatment that cities usually reserve for wooing a Fortune 500 corporation.

        Dr. Ildstad toured Louisville with the mayor, talked business opportunities with chamber of commerce officials and was promised all the latest lab space and equipment that the University of Louisville could muster.

        In fact, the deal was so important to city and state officials that they flew Dr. Ildstad by helicopter to Frankfort to have lunch with Kentucky's governor.

        The ultimately successful recruitment of Dr. Ildstad illustrates how competitive it has become for cities interested in biotech as an engine of economic development. It also illustrates how far Cincinnati still has to go to become a serious player in this multibillion-dollar business sector.

        Today, in his State of the State speech, Ohio Gov. Bob Taft is expected to outline a 10-year initiative to create jobs in high-tech industries, including biomedical research. A $300 million plan proposed by the state's colleges and universities last year withered along with the economy.

        University of Cincinnati officials say they are acutely aware of the successes reported by their counterparts in Louisville, where city, state, business and academic leaders are united behind biomedical research as a top economic development priority.

        “I've always had trouble understanding why the city doesn't focus on the (University of Cincinnati Medical Center) as an engine of economic growth,” said Dr. Donald Harrison, UC's senior vice president and provost for health affairs. “But we have not had their ear. Lord knows, I've tried.”

        Louisville has recorded successes:

        • At the University of Louisville, medical research funding has leaped 98 percent from 1993 through 2000. Endowed chairs for research professors have tripled.

        • Kentucky's “Bucks for Brains” program has pumped nearly $100 million into Louisville in six years, just to recruit scientists.

        • Tens of millions more have gone into six buildings built or started for university research and biotech business start-ups — all in or near downtown Louisville.

        • Louisville health leaders recently announced a $50 million plan to build a downtown cancer care and research center, to be headed and staffed largely by experts recruited by the Bucks for Brains program.

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