If those companies follow industry trends, state officials expect substantial spin-off activity down the road, Gunderson says. Maryland has also benefitted from the fast-growing wireless communications industry. Maryland also has a developing industry cluster of fiber-optic manufacturers. In December 2000, Bookham Technology, a manufacturer of telecommunications components, announced plans to establish its North American headquarters in Columbia, about 20 miles southwest of Baltimore. State officials say the company may eventually employ as many as 1,000 workers at the location.
Biosciences is another of Maryland s most promising industries.
In 1985, Congress passed the Federal Technology Transfer Act, allowing federal laboratories and research universities, such as Johns Hopkins, to take technology they had developed and introduce it to the private sector through spin-off companies. Today, the state is home to more than 244 bioscience companies. Most of the state s biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies are based in Montgomery and Howard counties, but the Baltimore area has been gaining ground. One Maryland biotech firm, Rockville-based Celera Genomics, made international news in 2000 when it announced the first successful, complete mapping of the human genome. Another area employer, Guilford Pharmaceuticals, has blazed new trails in the treatment of brain cancer, and Osiris Therapeutics is a world leader in stem-cell research.