URI seeks prominence in neuroscience research

EQUIPPED TO LEAD: Paula Grammas is the incoming director of the George & Anne Ryan Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Rhode Island. Grammas is surrounded by laboratory equipment in the institute, which has offices in the College of Pharmacy on URI's South Kingstown campus. / COURTESY  NORA LEWIS
EQUIPPED TO LEAD: Paula Grammas is the incoming director of the George & Anne Ryan Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Rhode Island. Grammas is surrounded by laboratory equipment in the institute, which has offices in the College of Pharmacy on URI's South Kingstown campus. / COURTESY NORA LEWIS

Paula Grammas, an international research pioneer in the study of Alzheimer’s disease, takes the helm as the director of the George & Anne Ryan Institute for Neuroscience on Dec. 13.

The institute was established in 2013 with a $15 million gift from former CVS Health Chairman and CEO Thomas M. Ryan and his wife, Cathy.

Grammas, a former executive director of the Garrison Institute on Aging at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock, Texas, will also become the Thomas M. Ryan Professor of Neuroscience at URI.

She discusses her role and the institute’s potential impact on research and the treatment of degenerative neurological diseases.

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What drew you to Alzheimer’s research as an area of focus?

I was trained as a vascular biologist and I worked in a laboratory interested in hypertensive cardiovascular disease, but I was most interested in blood vessels in the brain and how they behave in health and disease. Brain blood vessels have a lot of specialized properties and we developed a technique in the lab I was working in, first as a student and then as faculty, on how to isolate blood vessels in the brain, at Wayne State University in Detroit. … When we developed this technique, it enabled us to look at blood vessels in depth. So I started thinking in terms of disease in the nervous system and the brain, and the idea that blood vessels play a role in the disease was not a common idea.

Why did you seek out the role of director at the Ryan Institute at URI?

Essentially, what [the Ryan Institute] wanted me to do was really what I did in Lubbock, [Texas], but on a bigger scale. I was recruited to Texas Tech in 2004 to build the Garrison Institute on Aging, [which] had been identified as a priority area. I had experience in starting something from the ground up and getting it to the next level, which I thought would be useful for URI.

At URI, they want neuroscience. At URI everybody’s all in. … There is an understanding among Care New England, Brown [University], Lifespan and the VA to collaborate in the area of neuroscience. That’s huge.

What is the biggest challenge today in fostering progressive treatments for neurodegenerative diseases?

The problem with devising treatments is fundamentally [determining] the cause, the factors that contribute. We know much more than we did years ago, but we still don’t know all the pieces that contribute [to these diseases] to develop effective therapies.

What has URI’s Ryan Institute been doing since it was first established about two years ago?

What has launched at URI is the interdisciplinary neuroscience program, so far, and the commitment of the university to develop this program. What has gone on until now is graduate education and fostering of collaboration. But, structurally, the institute is just starting now.

Do you plan to hire more staff and, if so, at what pace?

We’ll have to hire staff. I’m not sure about the pace yet. … We have three faculty positions committed under the institute but my understanding is the institute will also look, [along] with deans and faculty, at other hires. There’s going to be an overall increase in research infrastructure [across the university].

What are your long-term objectives for the Ryan Institute – five to 10 years from now?

We have colleagues at Brown from the clinical end. One of the things we can do together is build the translational part – taking discoveries into the clinics. It’s that missing piece in research – [applying] evidence to develop therapies and effect patient outcomes.

And that has the potential to be game changing?

We can come up with some new therapies, use our collective knowledge and that would be the Holy Grail. Ultimately, if you want to make a difference in people’s lives, that’s what you have to do. You need people with complementary skills, but also the willingness to put it all together, and that’s what’s special about Rhode Island.

URI President David M. Dooley’s stated goal for the Ryan Institute is for it to gain international credibility as a resource in neuroscience. How will you make that happen?

Basically, we’re going to serve as a model for how people can work together in these areas and hopefully develop some new therapies that will actually be effective in treating neurological disorders. •

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