George Mason University's new biotechnology institute just outside Manassas was created to blur the lines between business and academia, an idea that even its proponents acknowledge presents delicate challenges.

The Institute for Biosciences, Bioinformatics and Biotechnology, dubbed IB3 for short, will open an 88,238-square-foot building next week where university faculty will work closely with scientists from the American Type Culture Collection, the institute's neighbor.

"Our faculty can be entirely successful, even if they achieve that success through collaboration with business," said IB3 director Clark Tibbetts. "It's sometimes very difficult for scientists who are trained in multiple areas to excel in an academic atmosphere that only focuses on one of those areas."

The IB3 opened in September on the fourth floor of a building adjacent to the new one on George Mason's campus on University Boulevard. About 50 staff members now work at the IB3; the new building will include expanded laboratory space and allow the institute to expand to 200 workers.

The institute will have as many as 40 scientists teaching classes, almost half of whom will come from ATCC, said Tibbetts and ATCC spokeswoman Nancy Wysocki.

Built for $20.4 million, the building was equipped by both George Mason and ATCC. So far, scientists from both organizations are working on projects that include deciphering the range of human DNA units, creating a special collection of microorganisms found in Yellowstone National Park and improving biology research equipment.

The institute has an annual budget of $1 million from George Mason and this year anticipates generating about $500,000 in outside grants and contracts. Tibbetts said outside revenue could increase to $5 million within three years.

"That's really a major commitment for one of these institutes," said John Schofield, market research director for Prince William's Department of Economic Development. "Most places around the country only have two or three faculty that they dedicate."

George Mason and ATCC, the world's largest repository of microorganisms, are touted by county officials as cornerstones of western Prince William's emerging technology corridor.

In particular, Prince William hopes the IB3 will help attract a tenant to an adjacent county-owned tract set aside for high-tech development.

The 529-acre parcel, dubbed Innovation@Prince William, has been vacant since the county bought it more than a year ago, assuming the unusual governmental role of land developer.

So far, the institute's limited activities in a building adjacent to the new one have focused on government contracting and partnerships with existing Prince William area companies, including Forensic Sciences Corp. and Pacel Corp., Tibbetts said.

Pacel, a Manassas software company, specializes in document archiving programs for highly regulated firms. The company is developing a variation of the software that will allow students to study college course work at their own pace online and with related Internet links.

"We got the idea because [IB3 professor] Jim Willett is on our board of directors and liked what we were doing," said Pacel President Dave Calkins. "He started asking if we could do that for the university; we said yes, and he hooked us up."

The idea of the institute originated as an enticement for ATCC to move to Prince William. George Mason was building a new Prince William campus in 1994 when the repository announced it was considering a move from Rockville, Tibbetts and Schofield said.

To compete with Maryland's Interstate 270 and Baltimore biotechnology hubs, the State of Virginia promised ATCC that it would include a shared research facility in George Mason's emerging campus, Tibbetts and Schofield said.

Miles Friedman, chairman of Prince William's Economic Development Council, said jurisdictions nationwide often find such use of universities as economic drawing cards to be difficult.

"It's sometimes hard to find common ground," said Friedman, who also is executive director of the National Association of State Development Agencies. "Businesses assume the university isn't into actually applying its research to anything practical, and universities think the private sector is only out to make money."

Local economic development officials have said the Innovation site could develop into a research hub similar to North Carolina's Research Triangle, an area defined by Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill where major universities helped attract biotechnology and environmental companies. But it could be as many as 15 years before Prince William shows comparable results, Friedman has said.

"The county and the state were smart to see this cooperation as an investment," he said. "A lot of places still haven't done that."