HudsonAlpha COO Danny Windham Visits Rotary

RCB President Brenda Hackney and Rotarian Kennon Walthall with HudsonAlpha COO Danny Windham.

The Rotary Club of Birmingham recently welcomed Hudson Alpha Institute for Biotechnology Chief Operating Officer Danny Windham. Windham shared the history of the Huntsville, AL nonprofit research institute focused on genetics, genomics and DNA started by entrepreneurs Jim Hudson and Lonnie McMillan following McMillan’s daughter’s cancer diagnosis.

“Both Jim and Lonnie recognized that understanding DNA was going to be a significant breakthrough and a key to understanding human disease, understanding human wellness, understanding all types of organisms and it would ultimately have a great application into sustainable agriculture as well,” Windham said.

Windham explained that the founders recognized the need to build a network to teach and train a workforce to support a biotechnology industry in north Alabama that would help diversify the area’s economy. He said the institute’s Center for Sustainable Agriculture, which works to build food crops better suited for growing in warmer and more specific climates, perfectly blends the institute’s three-pronged focus on education, research and economic development.

Windham described the research labs, DNA sequencing technology, data storage and processing centers, educational and conference facilities, and business incubator that currently houses 48 companies on the campus. Under construction are a greenhouse to support sustainable agriculture research as well as the worldwide headquarters for Discovery Life Sciences, which started on the Hudson Alpha campus.

Windham shared the intentionally collaborative layout of the institute. “Research, particularly done in academic institutions, is done by researchers who are typically driven by peer reputation. What they want to do is to make an amazing discovery, write papers about it, and then move on to the next discovery. Those discoveries might have merit and application in the real world, could maybe be used to help improve the human condition. So the concept of building an environment where entrepreneurs and researchers could bump into each other with lots of common spaces and a common café was part of the construct. It was designed with a purpose and an intent.”

Windham described the institute’s human health projects, including Alabama Genomic Health Initiative, SouthSeek, and Information is Power, that help determine the cause of problems without invasive testing and inform individuals about their risks for cancer and other diseases.

“If you look at what the original human genome sequencing project cost, it was hundreds of millions of dollars and it took 13 years. The concept that the technology has advanced to the spot where you can do this overnight for a thousand dollars is what has enabled genetics and genomics to become mainstream in the study of human health, human wellness and agriculture.”