Big Plans for Kansas City

The Stowers Institute for Medical Research Predictions and plans abound these days concerning Kansas City--that border town straddling Missouri and Kansas known for its jazz, barbecue, and riverboat gambling--as a future leader in biomedical research. But perhaps the most eloquent recent argument that such an ambitious goal might be achieved was a standing ovation given on Nov. 8 by 1,200 of the city's business and scientific community leaders to James E. Stowers Jr. and his wife, Virginia G. St

Written bySteve Bunk
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The Stowers Institute for Medical Research
Predictions and plans abound these days concerning Kansas City--that border town straddling Missouri and Kansas known for its jazz, barbecue, and riverboat gambling--as a future leader in biomedical research. But perhaps the most eloquent recent argument that such an ambitious goal might be achieved was a standing ovation given on Nov. 8 by 1,200 of the city's business and scientific community leaders to James E. Stowers Jr. and his wife, Virginia G. Stowers.

The setting was the Downtown Marriott Hotel, and the occasion was the annual meeting of the Kansas City Area Development Council (KCADC), a business group that has played a key role in forming a nascent Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute. This not-for-profit organization, which doesn't have its own building and is yet to hire an executive officer, is intended as overseer of a strategy to foster collaborations and resource sharing ...

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