Three leading Texas life-science organizations — BioHouston, the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship and the Texas Healthcare and BioScience Institute — today announced they will combine their annual conferences to form a single annual event. The Texas Life Science Venture Forum will be held March 8 on the Rice University campus in the BioScience Research Collaborative, 6500 Main St.

The Texas Life Science Venture Forum is designed to support life- science entrepreneurs by connecting them with potential investors and  strategic partners and provide an educational vehicle that showcases  the vibrancy of the state's life-science community. More than 40 new life-science startup companies and more than 50 life-science investors  will participate in the event.

“Our organizations share many of the same goals in supporting life-sciences entrepreneurs in our state,” said Brad Burke, managing director of the Rice Alliance. “We think we can reach more businesses and have a much bigger impact by combining our efforts.”

The meeting is expected to be the only event of its kind in the state and will bring the new Nature Publishing Group’s SciCafe to Texas March 7. The SciCafe has been running in Boston and San Francisco for more than three years and connects up-and-coming academic investigators with the venture/business community.

In addition to providing much-needed support to entrepreneurs, the  
conference is designed to acknowledge and build upon existing advances  
in the Texas life-science community. To register for the event or to  
view the conference agenda, visit www.txlifescienceventureforum.org.