Graduate School of
Biomedical Science
Chamber of Commerce Breakfast
Feb. 21, 2006
Robert A. Kennedy, President, University of Maine
Thank you for the kind
invitation to join you here this morning. As a resident of this area and
one with a keen interest in our community's future, I appreciate the
Chamber of Commerce and all that it does, under Candy Guerrette's
outstanding leadership. I know many—if not most—chamber members, and I
can not tell you how much I value the work of this group. I also believe
it to be critical for the chamber and the University of Maine to work
together – and I welcome continued collaboration.
At the University of Maine, we really feel like we are an important part
of the greater community, and I hope you agree. We have 11,500 students
and about 2,500 employees; on any given day, when you include our
visitors, that can be a community of about 15,000 people. We generate
nearly $700 million in annual economic output. Importantly, we bring in
millions of dollars from outside Maine – through research grants and
out-of-state tuition.
Some of you were at my installation last September, where I used the
phrase "new model" for a land-grant university for the first time. And
by that phrase, I mean a university with many partnerships and
collaborations that is infused within its community and state more than
ever before. UMaine is an example of this new model, and that is why our
relationship is so important.
We recently conducted a little exercise to determine how large UMaine
is—from an infrastructure standpoint, looking at habitable space and
utilities—in the context of other communities in Maine. We looked at our
property, and the number of people who are part of the university, and
we developed a formula that tells us that UMaine is about the same size
as Gardiner, Belfast or Houlton – pretty sizeable communities by Maine
standards.
Beyond that, I believe that our most important impact is particularly
significant in ways that have real meaning. A university like ours
contributes to a community in terms of educational opportunities,
business connections, culture and entertainment. We are fortunate to be
surrounded by municipalities with which we have great relationships, and
we look forward to continued progress in developing ways we can benefit
each other.
We got some good news in January, when the University of Maine System
Board of Trustees granted formal approval to our Graduate School of
Biomedical Science (GSBS for short). We worked for more than a year to
put the pieces in place for this initiative, which I believe has the
potential to help transform Maine's economy and become one of our most
significant statewide assets.
When I presented it to the trustees, I began my comments by saying that
the Graduate School of Biomedical Science "is not just another academic
program…" And by that I meant, indeed, that it is an academic program,
but it is so much more than that.
It will also create research and graduate education opportunities –
right here in Maine – that have previously been impossible. It will be a
lure for biomedical and biotechnology companies considering locating in
Maine; it will be an asset to help recruit professionals to this area—a
byproduct which has been confirmed by talking with some of you; and
finally, we believe it will be instrumental for researching cures for
health problems and diseases which occur in Maine in disproportionate
numbers compared to other areas of the county—thus reducing long-term
healthcare costs to the state's taxpayers.
The Graduate School of Biomedical Science is a UMaine program, but it
involves partners around Maine. Also participating are the Jackson Lab
in Bar Harbor, the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory, Maine
Medical Center Research Institute, the University of Southern Maine and
the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Closer to home, Eastern Maine Healthcare System is also a part of GSBS—who,
along with the Jackson Laboratory—are collaborating with us on the Maine
Institute for Human Genetics and Health. The MIHGH is located in Brewer,
where we are currently hiring faculty for this new venture.
The GSBS is a virtual research and education collaboration that draws on
the strengths of the state's entire biomedical enterprise, which in many
ways, is world renowned. And its centerpiece—at its core—is the
university's unique graduate education program.
In November, voters approved $1 million for infrastructure for the GSBS,
and the state will provide additional funding to support students. Each
of the institutions is also contributing funds.
These partnerships exemplify that new model for a land-grant university.
We are reaching out to other great Maine institutions and forming
partnerships that allow us to pool resources and maximize efficiency.
(While I am talking mostly about R&D this morning, the recent HUD COPC
grant with the city of Bangor is another example of such a partnership
characteristic of this "new model.")
Each member of the GSBS has unique strengths – and together we create an
impressive biomedical research force. Altogether, we will have some 80
faculty members – which will rival the largest programs of this kind in
the country.
To be sure, we will face some challenges related to distance, but we've
got the infrastructure in place to use technology to overcome many of
those issues. There is great enthusiasm among all of the partners, and
we will officially begin the program this fall. Our faculty members are
currently reviewing the first student applications—I received an update
yesterday—and we anticipate an outstanding group of students to be part
of the program.
One of the unique aspects of the GSBS—in addition to the partnering
arrangement and its focus on biomedical programs—is that it concentrates
on graduate education and recruiting the very best graduate students
from around the country to Maine. Right now, our average graduate
stipend is about $12,500, whereas the national average might be closer
to $18,000-$20,000, reaching $30,000 or more in some areas.
In some instances it comes down to money, and despite our wonderful
faculty, we can't compete when that's the case. The GSBS is founded on
offering competitive graduate stipends and attracting the best students
possible—from wherever they might come—to UMaine. And there is evidence
that this approach is working.
As a practical matter, we have students in the program already. Our
Ph.D. program in functional genomics is already in operation, and some
of those students will become part of the GSBS.
By the way, functional genomics is the "practical" expression of a
cell's DNA, We hear a lot about sequencing DNA but that doesn't tell you
what it does—that's the purpose of functional genomics.
In the context of the functional genomics Ph.D. program, we have
approximately 25 students in the program and some 18-20 are in Bar
Harbor, or in Portland or Scarborough! And we have three UMaine faculty
"stationed" at TJL in Bar Harbor. That's the nature of this "new model"
and the GSBS.
One such student is Karen Fancher, who's pursuing a UMaine Ph.D. Using
the mouse as a model, Karen is making advances in work on the
development of early diagnostic tools to detect breast cancer. This is
exactly the type of work we're talking about – it's directly related to
human health, and it involves combining resources from UMaine with those
at Jackson Lab.
Karen Fancher, by the way, is a native of Plymouth, Maine. She graduated
from Hartwick College in New York, then went to work at Jackson Lab.
Karen saw the opportunity to advance her career and her life by
enrolling in the functional genomics Ph.D. program, and now she is
doing vitally important work.
I keep coming back to collaboration and there is another important
reason for it.
The planning and development process involved in creating the GSBS has
brought together scientists from all of our institutions. They come from
backgrounds in embryonic stem cells to human disease, to neuroscience,
to toxicology, to orthopedics to blood flow—and because of this—new
collaborations and new research opportunities are being opened up.
In fact, toxicology is a good example. UMaine and USM have faculty
members interested in that area. And the MDI Biological Lab has a toxico-genomics
data base. All these resources – right here in Maine – are now being
pooled for the advancement of teaching and science.
This format also serves to accelerate the process and lead more quickly
to the advances that come from sharing ideas, expertise and experiences.
I'd like to add some thoughts about why this work is particularly
important in Maine. We don't have a public medical school, as you know.
But we do have more than our share of serious health issues. We need to
do this work, and we have the intellectual resources—the most important
resources—to do it in this state. The benefits will be significant, not
only to our collective health and the health of others, but also to our
economy.
With Eastern Maine Healthcare and the University of New England
involved, we will be able to eventually move the research advances to a
clinical setting. The phrase "bench to bedside" is often used to
describe this approach, and it's the best kind of application for the
kind of work we're aggressively developing.
We used to talk a lot about basic research and applied research. When we
discuss biomedical science, we now use the term "transitional research."
That is exactly the approach we want to take with GSBS – taking the idea
and developing a way to deliver the related treatment effectively.
Now, how do we see this initiative influencing the economy? The answer
to that question takes several forms.
First, it will allow scientists to compete—and we expect very
effectively—for research funding. The National Institutes of Health is
one of the primary research funding agencies in the U.S., but up until
now we were disadvantaged because, we didn't really have as many
researchers as we'd like to have to compete for those funds. We will be
hiring more in these areas.
We will also be able to compete because the top researchers from all of
the institutions will work together to develop programs and develop
creative proposals. This will bring real dollars – potentially in the
tens of millions—into Maine, and, indisputably, these investments lead
to new ideas, new technologies and economic development.
And there are residual effects, which are equally important. As we have
seen in many areas of research – this type of work often breeds the
development of new businesses – spinoffs. At UMaine, we have a very
strong record in this area – we've been listed in the top ten in the
U.S. for the number of spinoff businesses, per dollar of state research
investment.
Since the state created the Maine Economic Improvement Fund (MEIF) in
1998—with a current investment at UMaine of $10 million --UMaine has
created 30 or more companies and holds more than 50 U.S. and foreign
patents. That is far more intellectual property than all of the other
research institutions in the state combined.
That creation of intellectual property—at the heart of the silicon
valley in California, or the research triangle in North Carolina, or
Sematech in Austin, or Route 128 in Boston—is the proverbial "economic
engine" that brings jobs, businesses, economic development and wealth to
a community. As we read about almost daily—or have read about in Tom
Friedman's "The World is Flat"—that is exactly what China, and India and
Japan have discovered.
And that is why the state's investment in UMaine is so critical. We are
already doing this; we know how to develop new technologies, and
commercialize them, and we have a record to prove it beyond anyone else
in the state.
How's this for a return? Our researchers have brought in $5-6 in outside
funding for every dollar of state investment. That's a $50-60 million
return on every $10 million invested. And there are 625 Maine people
working in good jobs, created through MEIF investment.
That is testament to the state's foresight in making this investment,
and it also says good things about our researchers. On average, UMaine
researchers bring in $114,000 in research funding. That's a higher
average than our peers – a fact that makes me proud, but does not
surprise me.
Just over a week ago, the Maine Sunday Telegram published an interesting
column by Charles Lawton an economist who lives in southern Maine and
has extensive experience in policy research.
He wrote about how economic development policy is related to promoting
and supporting entrepreneurship. Mr. Lawton wrote that the path to a
brighter future will be created by "people who can transform an idea
into a successful enterprise. Finding, attracting and developing human
capital is the central challenge of Maine's economy as it moves into the
21st century."
I believe that the GSBS provides a structure, a framework, to do exactly
that. In the end—from an economic development point of view—it is about
maximizing that human capital, and finding ways to support those with
the great ideas and the ability to transform them into economically
viable concerns.
As much as we appreciate the state investment—and we think we have
generated a return that exceeds even the most optimistic projections—we
need to note that Maine is not alone in recognizing the value of
research.
Other states are investing—most of them at a much higher rate than
Maine; in fact, we are 50th in university research dollars invested per
capita. While MEIF funding has remained essentially flat, other states
are pulling away from us with large annual investments.
We're working with the Legislature and the governor's office and others
to make the case that the time is right to make this funding a priority,
and to take dramatic steps to move this state forward by investing in
the power of the idea. There is no better investment the state can make,
and we will depend on business and community leaders like you to help us
make this case.
As a biochemist, I used to think in terms of events or reactions being
"catalytic"—some small molecule that could lead to a huge chain of
events. Growing up on the farm in Minnesota, we more than likely used
the phrase "priming the pump". Whatever you call it, that describes the
effect of a state's investment in their research universities. A modest
investment will have the effect of turning research into scientific
advances and economic development—it's catalytic; it's priming the pump.
The Graduate School of Biomedical Science is a wonderful example. It
really is "not just another academic program." We're looking forward to
continued research and education success—and in our heart and soul—we
believe that UMaine is the most critical investment that the state can
make in securing the economic viability and future for our young people
and the state of Maine.
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