Dyadic International, the gene research company in Jupiter, received a hefty chunk of venture capital, $13.6 million, last year. It also made an appearance at the Florida Venture Capital Conference two weeks ago in Miami, looking for $10 million more. Dot-com turned out to be a bad word for venture capitalists, and the conference sponsors swapped Internet companies for biotech, biopharmaceutical and medical device firms such as Dyadic.

"Unlike a lot of the other sectors -- the dot-coms for example -- a lot of these companies like Dyadic have products. The dot-com companies just had a concept," said Dyadic Vice President Ray Chandra. Dyadic's main product is an enzyme used to stonewash denim.

Some politicians might be fretting over the implications of human genetic research, but venture capitalists haven't minded cozying up the biotech crowd.

Biotech companies made the biggest jump in venture capital deals and money in the fourth quarter within the life sciences sector, which also includes drug makers and medical-product firms, according to a report released Monday by Deloitte & Touche.

The number of biotech deals in the United States jumped to 20, a 54 percent increase in the fourth quarter from the third.

Then there's this: The Enterprise Development Corp. of South Florida will hold its first biotech conference on March 7 at Florida Atlantic University. Scientists from each of the region's universities will speak.

The conference was supposed to coincide with the opening of FAU's new Molecular Biology and Biotechnology Building, but that's been bumped to April from March.

Interest is high.

"We were shooting for 75 to 100 people, and I have 100 now. We're now looking for about 150 people," said Chris Kennelly, the development group's director of programs. "VCs have been invited to see what's new in the pipeline, what's out there."

Executives from two Boca Raton-based companies will discuss the research their companies are doing. Senior Vice President Robert Naso of Nabi will talk about drug development at his company.

Last week, investors fled Nabi after the company said it won't seek U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for its staph infection vaccine until 2005. Its stock fell to $5.66 a share on Friday from $8.79 a share on Tuesday last week.

Chief Executive Ramaswamy Narayanan of Forseti Biosciences Inc. will outline his work at FAU on gene research aimed at finding a cure for cancer.

Biotech happens to fit nicely into another trend. The Deloitte & Touche report says venture capitalists are giving more money to more mature companies, and many biotechs seem to fall into that category. There are about 400 biotech products from new companies in different stages of clinical trials and review by the FDA, Chandra said.

"Investors have confidence that the biotech sector has finally arrived," Chandra said.

Gov. Jeb Bush told VCs two weeks ago that his personal favorites for increased focus of state university research are biotechnology and nanotechnology. He's pushing a plan to create centers of excellence at Florida's universities.

But Dyadic Chief Executive Mark Emalfarb says the centers shouldn't be limited to the University of Florida in Gainesville and Florida State University in Tallahassee.

He said FAU, with campuses in Boca Raton and Jupiter, University of South Florida in Tampa and University of Central Florida in Orlando should be given a chance to be designated excellence centers. If Bush gives UF and FSU the edge over these smaller campuses, Florida might lose entrepreneurs and researchers being wooed by other cities.

"More than likely, (you) are not going to choose Tallahassee or Gainesville over Palo Alto, Cambridge and San Diego," Emalfarb said.

Stephen Pounds writes about technology companies. He can reached at 820-4412 , or at stephen_pounds@pbpost.com.