The projects are specialized and often high-tech, focusing on the biochemistry of bone growth; the molecular mechanisms involved in a common form of blood cancer; new uses of antibodies to facilitate tissue repair; human responses to a type of insecticide; even dietary formulas to maximize the beauty of tropical marine ornamental fish.
Some are being conducted in university labs, others in hospitals and in federally sponsored research facilities. Many involve basic science – the pursuit of new knowledge and insights – while others apply new science to create therapies and technologies.
Individually, they may or may not make a big impact. But collectively, as many in the state have come to see it, they could transform Rhode Island’s economy in the next few years, drawing millions of dollars in federal research funds and, even more important, seeding a slew of new life sciences-based business enterprises.
Already, Saul Kaplan, director of the R.I. Economic Development Corporation, told an audience last week, Rhode Island is home to about 1,400 life sciences-focused companies: from startups, to small but established firms such as EpiVax Inc., to the giant Amgen Inc. Together, they employ thousands – scientists, lab technicians, office staff and more.
To further encourage the growth of that sector, the R.I. Science & Technology Advisory Council (STAC) last week hosted a day-long “collaborative research symposium” at the R.I. Convention Center, bringing together researchers, policymakers and business leaders to learn about ongoing projects and available resources and network with one another.
The free event, entitled “Emerging Biomedical and Life Sciences Research in Rhode Island,” was the second of its kind; STAC sponsored the first one last year to support the launch of the Rhode Island Research Alliance, a STAC-led program to promote collaborations, try to attract more federal research dollars, and foster the growth of the “innovation economy.”
There were poster displays describing dozens of projects at academic and hospital-based labs, and 20-minute presentations highlighting specific projects in everything from cancer research, to tissue regeneration and perinatal biology.
The scientific keynote speaker, Dr. Robert Sackstein, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and director of translational research of the Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital, spoke about a new protein-based “GPS for stem cells” that could help deliver cell-based therapies exactly where they’re needed, a critical challenge in the field of regenerative therapeutics.
But the star of the day was a woman who oversees more than $1.1 billion in National Institutes of Health grants – Dr. Barbara Alving, director of the National Center for Research Resources.
Not only is that center an important funder of biomedical research, but it’s the home of the new Clinical and Translational Science Award program, which local leaders want to bring to the state to support the Research Alliance’s work.
The alliance’s charter members, Brown University and the University of Rhode Island, recently pumped $25,000 each into the group to support new work such as helping prepare collaborative proposals to major funders such as the NIH and the National Science Foundation and supporting the development and marketing of shared laboratory facilities.
Brown has led the way in pursuing a CTSA grant, and last week Dr. Timothy Flanigan, a professor of medicine, gave a brief presentation on the work being done with a planning grant obtained by Brown to support the development of a grant proposal. Alving, for her part, explained how the program works.
The CTSA was created, she said, as a “bold initiative” to speed up the translation of biomedical discoveries into prevention strategies and clinical treatments.
In practice, this has meant building a national biomedical research network, which since 2006 has grown to span 38 centers in 23 states; by 2012, Alving said, the goal is to have 60 centers with about $500 million in federal funding per year.
All the CTSA centers, Alving said, have committed themselves to making their information- technology systems be able to communicate with one another; to engage their communities; to promote public-private partnerships; to set uniform standards for academic programs; and to integrate their institutional review processes, among other things.
In an interview afterward, Kaplan, the RIEDC director, said local leaders “would love to be in a position to compete for a CTSA grant,” because they see it as a great fit with the approach the state is already taking to promoting collaboration.
Alving didn’t delve very much into whether Rhode Island would make a good candidate for the program, but she did note that the NIH is already funding several other high-profile initiatives here, including Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) – in perinatal biology, cancer research, tissue repair and skeletal health – and the IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence at URI.
But Alving also warned that advocating for continued support of biomedical research is key. “It’s going to be a constant battle for us to continue to insert research into the national agenda,” she said.
Despite challenges at the federal level and the state’s severe budget crisis, Jeffrey Seemann, dean of the College of Environmental and Life Sciences at URI and co-chairman of STAC, was optimistic about the future of the state’s fledgling life-sciences sector.
The state budget crisis, he told Providence Business News, “is short-term, and in the long term, the solutions are being built on events like this.”
As for federal funds – after years of rapid growth, NIH funding is now stagnant – Seemann said he’s confident that the state can bring in more dollars as it builds out its life-sciences sector.
“What is going on in here is building competitiveness. ... If we do good science, we’ll do our fair share,” he said. “And we do a lot of great science.” •
