Mary Beth Thomas is the senior vice president, science, and business development at the North Carolina Biotechnology Center (NCBiotech). As senior vice president, she is responsible for the Center’s teams that accelerate translation and commercialization of life science technologies in NC. Thomas also co-leads NCBiotech’s Focused Initiatives Team (FIT). FIT works to identify and prioritize emerging opportunities that leverage assets and resources to deliver high impact solutions for NC. Thomas is also the primary lead for the Biodefense/Biosecurity initiative where she sees an opportunity for the broader NC life sciences community to bring their innovative technological expertise to bear on critical challenges faced by the military and national security agencies on behalf of our state and country.