Academics link to boost biotech sector

Faculty members from five of Rhode Island’s colleges and universities will join URI in creating the Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network, funded by a three-year, $6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. It will help pay for lab equipment and salaries for university faculty members who are just starting their research endeavors.

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“The network’s emphasis is to stimulate and foster the junior faculty’s research experience, so they’ll be more successful in attracting NIH dollars,” said Zahir A. Shaikh, director of the new network and chairman of URI’s Department of Biomedical Sciences at its College of Pharmacy.

For the state’s existing and future research firms, the initiative means an enhanced pool of skilled labor, access to new equipment and expertise and the chance for more NIH funding down the road, industry officials say.

“There’s no doubt that an enhanced research infrastructure will benefit the state’s (biotech and biomedical) industry as a whole,” said Joseph Hammang, director of science and technology for the state’s Economic Policy Council. “As the expertise and instrumentation fall into place, it should lead to more collaborations between university researchers and existing companies and eventually more (research-based) startups.”

Initially, the network will be composed of 21 researchers from URI and 16 researchers from Rhode Island College, the Brown School of Medicine, Roger Williams University, Bryant College and Providence College. Projects will include a broad range of disciplines, such as pharmacology, toxicology, chemistry, biology, computer science, mathematics and biomedical engineering.

Specific research will include:

 Studies of cancer forms and treatments

 Research on how environmental chemicals damage male reproductive potential

 Engineering of new instruments for the study of cardiovascular function

 Development of computer software to mimic brain neural networks

 Discovery of natural substances for therapeutic uses

 Behavior-modification programs to reduce the risks of smoking, alcohol and sexually transmitted diseases.

Rhode Island’s biotech and biomedical sectors have grown in recent years, spawning new research-based startups – mainly out of university labs – and attracting large drug-manufacturing companies such as Immunex Corp. and Dow Chemical.

The state’s biotech and biomedical firms now number nearly 100 and employ more than 3,400 workers, according to the Rhode Island Economic Development Corp. Their pursuits range from discovering new pharmaceuticals to manufacturing of packaging to handle hazardous waste.

But Rhode Island’s biomedical research still lags that of other states. The NIH in recent years has denied at least 80 percent of grant applications from investigators in Rhode Island. Rhode Island and 22 other states that fall into that dubious category receive a combined total of just 10 percent of the institute’s research grant money.

It’s a chicken-or-egg scenario: Rhode Island investigators consistently lose out on funding opportunities to their counterparts in Massachusetts and other biotech hotbeds because those places already have a research infrastructure in place and can better leverage funding. But how can Rhode Island build its collective research capabilities if it doesn’t qualify for grants?

The URI grant is part of a NIH program aimed at funneling more seed money to those states.

“That’s one reason why our success rate is so low, because the proper infrastructure in not in place and that puts Rhode Island at a disadvantage,” Hammang said. “But if we build better infrastructure, it should follow that investigators will be more successful attracting NIH grants.”

That is precisely what network directors say will happen. But just as importantly, they say, the group will foster a skilled workforce.

”The most important contribution the network will make to local biotech and pharmaceutical companies, or new companies that may come here, is a pool of trained, skilled labor,” said Nasser H. Zawia, an associate professor of biomedical sciences at URI and assistant director of the network.

”(Skilled labor) is lacking everywhere, even in Massachusetts,” Zawia said, adding that URI’s program loses most of its graduates to the Bay State’s private research sector.

By creating research opportunities for junior faculty members, the network should also spawn research opportunities for undergraduate biology and chemistry students, who now are normally relegated to course work.

That research component is sorely needed at the four-year colleges, Zawia said.

“The four-year colleges really don’t have any money to start active research projects,” he said. “This (network) offers opportunities for them to buy equipment and recruit undergraduates to assist with research.”

About $1 million of the funding will go toward a new URI-based research facility with specialized, high-end equipment, such as a $250,000 cell sorter, which uses laser technology to separate and analyze living cells for drug-discovery research.

Zawia said the new lab would be accessible to any investigator in the state. “It will help build a biomedical base for the whole state, not just the (higher-education) institutions,” he said.

Eventually, scientists hope the network will serve as a central hub for Rhode Island’s biomedical research. Investigators from startups and other biomedical firms can access expertise and equipment and find out about various research projects that are under way.

While the network now does not have plans to offer contract services to private researchers, Zawia said there should be plenty of opportunities for collaboration between biotech firms and individual faculty members.

Mike Colias can be reached via e-mail at colias@pbn.com