Utah's life sciences businesses began to build a bridge this week to the third-largest biotechnology center in North America.

Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. said Tuesday that a trade mission he was leading to Canada was designed to help Utah's "rich and fertile" life sciences sector connect with the same sector in Toronto.

"One-third of all research and development spending in Canada takes place right here in the Toronto area," Huntsman said in a phone interview.

Leaders from eight Utah businesses accompanied the governor on the three-day mission, which concludes today. The trade mission was coordinated with the Canadian Consulate in Denver, with a specific focus on the life sciences sector.

Huntsman said he was struck by the analogous relationship he saw between Canada's MaRS organization and Utah's USTAR initiative, which was passed by the Utah Legislature in 2006 and provides $200 million for research personnel and facilities at Utah universities in the hopes that it will foster the development of new technologies, companies and jobs.

MaRS, a not-for-profit corporation, was founded in 2000 by Canadian business and public sector leaders to "improve commercial outcomes from Canada's foundation of science and technology innovation," according to the corporation's Web site. It helps emerging companies with risk capital and management resources, develops promising Canadian business talent and facilitates net- working.

"We spent some time with the MaRS people," Huntsman said. "Basically, they're a couple of years ahead of us. ... We've learned a whole lot in terms of what our USTAR undertaking can do to improve its forward trajectory. It's encouraging to see someone who's a couple of steps ahead, and how they've made their way forward."

MaRS offered both a peek forward and a few lessons about the way ahead, Huntsman said.

"They warned of a level of skepticism that they discovered within the general public and the scientific community" of the MaRS vision, Huntsman said. "It's a skepticism that needs to be overcome, but it can be done once you've built the infrastructure.

"They've created a culture that did not exist before, a fertile culture of innovation. Where before you might have had bits and pieces, on a campus, at a research park or on Main Street, they took this initiative to bring these pieces together. And this is in many ways the intent of USTAR also: to bring together all of these good ideas and run them through to commercialization."

In addition to the MaRS meetings, Huntsman said he saw some natural partnerships between Utah and Canada, particularly in the areas of human genome and gene targeting, medical imaging and personalized medicine.

"We're not only getting a broad overview of the environment here," Huntsman said. "We're getting very, very specific."

Participating companies in this week's trade mission included TechniScan Inc., a medical device company; Daw Technologies, which makes cleanrooms for the life sciences and microelectronic industries; and InnovaBio, a nonprofit contract research organization that uses Utah science and technology students to conduct high-level biotechnology research while training interns for work in the industry upon graduation.

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