Will cancer or Alzheimer’s Disease be cured in Birmingham? UAB President Ray Watts thinks it could happen.

Southern Research Institute opened its new Station 41 biotech incubator on Tuesday, which Watts said will help medical researchers bring new drugs to market to battle diseases.

“We want those discoveries to be translated into commercial opportunities, through products, companies, processes, technology, that will be licensed and be the foundation of the future of new treatments for very serious diseases,” Watts said.

“We are about curing Alzheimer’s, cancers, other major serious diseases. We’re making progress, but we’ve got to translate those into treatments that can then be broadly used around the country and indeed around the world.”

Medical researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham do fundamental biotech research, including sequencing genomes, and clinical trials, then turn to Southern Research to develop drugs and treatments, he said.

“Southern Research is our commercialization partner,” said Watts, chairman of the board for SRI. “Southern Research takes these discoveries and turns them into potential products.”

SRI, founded in 1941, has developed 20 FDA-approved drugs, said Josh Carpenter, CEO of Southern Research Institute.

That is expected to increase dramatically with the new biotech incubator, which offers laboratory spaces to companies developing new drugs.

Labs are equipped with all the equipment needed to do fundamental medical research. Nine of 24 spaces are already leased and other companies are lining up to move in, said Erik Schwibert, director of the therapeutics accelerator at SRI.

“Innovation Depot has been a great source of incubation for start-up companies in Birmingham, but they only had a small percentage of their space as biotech, and it was full,” Watts said. “We knew we needed a place for our young companies to come and be nurtured.”

U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell noted that last year, Birmingham was named one of the country’s 31 regional incubation and technology hubs, a designation that will qualify the city for receiving even more money in research grants.

“Birmingham has been a leader in biotech,” Sewell said. “The partnership between powerhouses like Southern Research and UAB has continued to place our city at the forefront of cutting-edge research.”

Watts said the role of biotech in the state’s economy looms large.

“We believe that biotechnology economic development can be a tremendous part of the future of Alabama’s economy, as big or bigger than manufacturing,” Watts said. “This is another step in that direction.”