Transcript Slide 1

The UMass Life Sciences Task Force
‘UMass LSTF’
UMass Board of Trustees
Committee on Science,
Technology & Research
September 3, 2008
Formation of the UMass LSTF
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Formation was the result of a recognition that there exists with the
university no single entity better positioned to realize the potential
created by continued investment in the life sciences and the economy of
all the regions of the state
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Creation of the UMass LSTF important and timely
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Willingness on the part of senior administrators, faculty and staff
across the university to foster university initiatives in the life
sciences, increase collaboration, leverage and optimize use of
resources
Commonwealth’s emergent life sciences vision, in which the
university is featured prominently as a partner of the
Commonwealth, intersects with a critical point in the future of life
sciences research
Structure of the UMass LSTF
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UMass LSTF decided it most prudent to organize its efforts into six working
groups, each responsible for crafting focused reports on life sciences thematic
areas, represented as “pillars”
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Shared Infrastructure and Additional R&D
Advanced Therapeutics
Nanotechnology
Technology Innovation Centers
Workforce and Policy Initiatives
Health, Disease and Behavior
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Each of the working groups conducted thorough situational analyses of campus
and university-wide research activities that occur within its thematic areas and
provided a set of recommendations to the UMass LSTF
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UMass LSTF identified common themes and endorsed them as ‘UMass LSTF
Recommendations.’
UMass LSTF Takeaways
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UMass Is Well Positioned
UMass LSTF Recommendations document that the university is poised to
achieve its full potential as a world class research university, particularly in the
life sciences
Success Depends On Collaboration And Engagement
Potential dependent upon a commitment of the five campuses and its life
sciences leadership to collaborate actively and to integrate the many resources
and expertise that exist throughout the university system and in the
government, private research institutions and life sciences industry of the
Commonwealth
We Have The Potential To Be World Class
UMass LSTF process has made clear that there exists a willingness and desire
to continue to work together actively and collaboratively to implement strategies
that advance the university’s position as a world class center of life sciences
education, research and innovation
UMass LSTF Takeaways
New Collaborative Structures Are Essential
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Developing collaborative structures to coordinate life sciences
information, activities and initiatives would be in the best
interest of both the university system and the five campuses
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Helps to reduce and avoid unnecessary inefficiencies and
redundancies
Helps to bring together multidisciplinary UMass faculty who would
otherwise not be presented with opportunities to engage with
colleagues on other campuses or in other disciplines
Strengthens the university’s position as an attractive institution to
invest in (industry; extramural funding agencies; the state;
philanthropists)
UMass LSTF Takeaways
The Time To Act Is Now
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Report presents wonderful opportunities for
collaboration
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University embarking on a major life
sciences infrastructure improvement
campaign
UMass LSTF Key
Recommendations
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Attract, Retain and Graduate University
Students in STEM Degree Programs
and Prepare Them to Become the Life
Sciences Talent of the Future
Focus on Existing University R&D
Strengths in the Life Sciences
Develop a Network of University-led or
Supported Regional Innovation Centers
Across the Commonwealth
Continue University-wide Support of
Life Sciences Collaborative Efforts
Establish the University of
Massachusetts Center for Clinical and
Translational Science
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Establish Life Sciences-specific Seed
Funding
Establish the University of
Massachusetts Core Facilities Steering
Committee to Develop New Models for
Inter-campus Sharing of Core Facilities
Develop Organized and Funded
Programs of Inter-campus Retreats,
Symposia, Seminars and Visiting
Professorships
Undertake a Systematic Review of
Administrative, Regulatory and Statutory
Barriers that Inhibit Inter-campus
Collaboration and Prevent the University
from Acting in an Entrepreneurial
Manner
Pursue Capital and Operating Funding
to Enhance University Life Sciences
Infrastructure and Research Initiatives
UMass LSTF Panelists
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Greer Glazer
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Paul Vigeant
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Establish the UMass Life Sciences Moment Fund
Susan Braunhut
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Establish UMass Center for Clinical and Translational Science
Terence Flotte
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Develop Regional Technology Innovation Centers
John Sullivan
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Attract, Retain and Graduate University Students in STEM Degree
Programs
Establish the UMass Core Facilities Steering Committee
Paul Kostecki
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Develop Incentives and Removing Barriers to Inter-Campus Collaboration
and Entrepreneurial Efforts
Attract, Retain and Graduate
University Students in STEM
Degree Programs and Prepare
Them to Become the Life Sciences
Talent of the Future
Greer Glazer, PhD
Attracting, Retaining and Graduating
Students in STEM Degree Programs
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Academic and professional achievement in the life sciences requires increasing
the number of students prepared for, recruited to, and successful in STEM
degree programs and the dynamic life sciences industry
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Efforts should include:
– strengthening K-12 initiatives to attract more students into STEM fields
– undertaking special strategies to improve retention and graduation rates of
STEM students, such as summer bridge programs, developmental advising
for STEM majors and increased use of supplemental instruction in STEM
courses with poor success rates
– hiring new STEM faculty, as well as administrative and support staff
– improving the undergraduate curriculum by integrating the life sciences
with other disciplines
– providing additional experiential learning experiences through expanded
use of co-ops and internships
– developing new kinds of graduate degrees that target high demand areas
and link the life sciences with business and management.
Next Steps in Developing Talent
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Use capital funds in Higher Education Bond Bill and Life Sciences
legislation to develop necessary infrastructure for teaching STEM
Use the Life Sciences Talent Initiative report as a “blueprint” for new
program development
Aggressively pursue state funding opportunities to be developed by
the Mass Life Sciences Center
Seek out federal funding through the Readiness Project to support K12 STEM program development
Work with industry associations and key firms to develop academicindustry partnerships
Creation of a database of programs and students involved in STEM
initiatives across the system
Establishment of program-specific post-doctoral traineeships in the life
sciences in areas where they don’t exist in the UMASS system
Develop a Network of University-led
or Supported Regional Innovation
Centers Across the Commonwealth
Paul Vigeant
UMass is Key to Developing Regional
Innovation Centers
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UMass is uniquely positioned to serve as a strategic resource
for the development of regional technology innovation centers
throughout the state
Such centers can provide regional infrastructure and services to
support growth of key elements of the life sciences industry
Such centers will enable UMass to link its research and
teaching capabilities with the needs of industry around the state
UMass campuses already have some centers in place or in
development
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PVLSI (Amherst/BayState), VDC (Boston), ATMC (Dartmouth),
M2D2 (Lowell), Stem Cell Bank (Worcester)
UMass chancellors have been appointed to the advisory board
to the Mass Life Sciences Center
Next Steps in Developing a Network of
Regional Innovation Centers
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Develop centers that will incorporate:
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An understanding of industry’s needs…appropriate staffing and
organizational models…business-like administrative policies and
practices…state-wide linkages on common roles such as tech
transfer and workforce development
Ensure UMass campuses make effective use of the nearly
$30MM already allocated to such centers
Pursue additional capital funds to develop additional centers
(over $50MM in life sciences bill)
Pursue annual operating funds for such centers from the Mass
Life Sciences Center, industry fees, etc.
Organize the centers as state-wide “network” using a group
such as Mass Tech Transfer Center to assist in coordinating
activities
Establish the University of
Massachusetts Center for Clinical
and Translational Science
John Sullivan, MD
UMCCTS
Michael F. Collins, M.D.
UMCCTS Strategic Advisory
External Advisory Committee
SVP for the Health Sciences
Group
UMass Center for Clinical and Translational Science (UMCCTS)
J. Sullivan, Director
T. Flotte, J. Gurwitz, Chair QHS, W. Ettinger, K. Luzuriaga, S. Noone
Operations
Committee
Community
Advisory Board
Research Leaders: Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, Lowell
Co-Directors
Campus Leaders
Amherst
Boston
Dartmouth
Lowell
Chair, Medicine
Chair, Molecular Medicine
Chair, Cardiovascular
Chair, Pathology
Chair, Orthopedics
CEO UMMHC
Cancer Center
Tom Chmura, UMass
P. Isakson, Abbott
Bioresearch
R. Farquhar, Charles River
Labs
E. Overstrom, WPI-BEI
UMCCTS
Executive Committee
Co-Directors
T2 and T3
Bedside to Patients &
Community
Bench to Bedside
Biostatistics &
Child Health Research
Co-Directors
Co-Directors
Co-Directors
T1
Research Education, Training &
Career Development
Research Integrity & Clinical
CT Design
Biomedical Informatics
Community Research &
Engagement
Novel Methodologies
UMATC
M2D2
CWM
MBL
Research Integration
Pilot & Collaborative Studies
Translational Technologies
& Resources
Operations
K-12 Program
PhD, CPHR, MD PhD,
Millennium PhD
Regulatory Knowledge
& Support
Master’s in Clinical
Investigation
Participant Clinical
Interactions
Medical Student Research
Track
Clinical Research Ethics
DNP, PhD Education and
Research in Nursing
UMass Center for Clinical and
Translational Science
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Never before in the history of UMASS campuses has any
administrative structure been created to facilitate and enhance
research collaboration and education and training between campuses
The UMCCTS will provide an innovative structure which will:
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streamline processes for UMass and non-UMass inventors to achieve rapid
‘bench to bedside’ assessment and advancement of effective new medical
devices and innovative therapeutics
allow for “cutting edge” core technologies to be available to faculty on all
university campuses
provide pilot research grants to facilitate research collaboration between
faculty at the medical school and faculty on other campuses
serve as the first center to bring research faculty from all campuses with
interest in clinical and translational research together through symposia
and research retreats
make education and training programs focused on training the clinical
investigators and research professionals of the future available to faculty
and students on all UMASS campuses.
UMass Center for Clinical and
Translational Science
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UMCCTS envisioned as the training ground for the next
generation of clinical and translational research investigators at
the University of Massachusetts
UMCCTS will provide all the resources necessary for the
growth and development of clinical investigators
Example:
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A young investigator working with our Research Integration CoPilots to obtain Pilot grant funding which will utilize novel
translational research methodologies and core technologies to
speed the development of new therapeutic agents and medical
devices based on discoveries made by our basic science faculty.
Therapeutic agents or medical devices shown to be effective will
be piloted in the community setting with implementation or
standard of care being our final goal
Establish Life Sciences-specific
Seed Funding
Terence Flotte, MD
UMass Life Sciences Moment
Fund
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$ 1 Million UMass LS Moment Fund will be funded by the medical
school and overseen by the Office of the SVP for Health Sciences
Funds dedicated to multi-investigator pilot projects identified as key
strategy to incentivize collaborative partnerships
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Fund will complement the highly successful President’s S&T Fund, which
has had $80MM ROI on $5MM investment
Fund will be made available for inter-campus collaborative projects,
involving at least one faculty member from the Worcester campus
Collaborative projects must be oriented towards clinical and translational
research
Envisioned that the LS Moment funding will be leveraged to attract
additional extramural funding, particularly NIH (R21, R01, P01) and
NSF program awards
Ultimate goal is to develop technologies that will interest industry
partners
Establish the University of
Massachusetts Core Facilities
Steering Committee to Develop
New Models for Inter-campus
Sharing of Core Facilities
Susan Braunhut, PhD
UMass Core Facilities Steering
Committee
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There exists well-equipped laboratories and sophisticated equipment
in individual labs and core facilities on particular campuses, but there
is no “one service-one fee” structure and no centralized database
alerting investigators of the existence of these resources
Cores throughout the university lack adequate critical technical staff to
operate them
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Forms for requesting services are not standardized
Some cores do not have web-based information about their specialized
services
Provisions for shipping materials and adequate descriptions on expected
results and analysis are not well defined for potential user
Little contact and collaboration with industry
Certain highly desired capabilities, such as a high performance
computing capability, do not exist anywhere in the university
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Desired capabilities need to be identified, prioritized and funded
UMass Core Facilities Steering
Committee
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Implement a plan to improve access and use of university cores, with particular
focus given to reviewing: services; fees; governance and the establishment of a
Web-based portal listing of the core facilities
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Comprised of members from each of the campuses to coordinate core facility
resources within the university system
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Committee would be charged with the following:
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identifying and prioritizing new instrument acquisition needs that are lacking throughout
the five-campus system
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new equipment acquisition should focus on desirable capacities that are currently limited or not
found within the current cores
Soliciting applications for supplementation or select cores that would receive funds
for staffing
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Staffing of a core facility should, by design, address the care and use of sophisticated
instrumentation and should provide, where appropriate, training to students at the
undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral level in the use of such equipment.
Staffing would include a core manager, as well as an additional technical staff person.
Developing Incentives and Programs
and Removing Barriers to InterCampus Collaboration and
Entrepreneurial Efforts
Paul Kostecki, PhD
Developing Incentives and
Programs
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Identified need and desire to develop structured
opportunities for UMass faculty engaged in life
sciences-related research to interact and collaborate
with each other and with potential industry partners
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Annual or bi-annual life sciences meetings or retreats
Faculty-industry seminar series or meetings
Visiting Professorships
Seed funding for multi-campus projects (i.e. Life Sciences
Moment Fund)
Collaboration-enabling technology (i.e., wikis, blogs, portals,
video-conferencing)
Removing Barriers
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Barriers exist at multiple levels of the university and
between the university and outside institutions that
impede collaborative and entrepreneurial efforts
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Life Sciences” definition beyond just biomedical
Expertise awareness
Library resources access
Core facilities access
Articulation agreements
Real estate, construction and leasing authority and flexibility
Addressing Barriers
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The five libraries of the university learned of
the administrative barrier recommendation
and decided to act upon it
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Organized a task force to discuss those barriers
that exist between the libraries and that impede
collaboration and/or access to library resources
Libraries have proposed a unified strategy to
address access issues
Now What??
How do we capitalize on the
process, as well as the
recommendations?
Maintaining the Momentum into
Academic Year 2008-2009
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Ensure that we deliver exceedingly well in the initial
state-supported initiatives that were awarded to
UMass (e.g., stem cell bank, M2D2)
Receive support and encouragement of the STR
Committee, as well as the entire board, to advance
the work of the UMass LSTF
Distribute the report broadly throughout the
university community
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Enlist the help of governing bodies such as the campus
faculty councils to raise awareness and channel campus
input
Maintaining the Momentum into
Academic Year 2008-2009
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Establish and bring together UMass LSTF Steering Committee to:
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Facilitate chancellor-level discussion to move life sciences vision forward
Consider broadening life sciences
Bring together executive committee of the UMass Center for Clinical and
Translational Science to develop the center
Organize, structure and administer the ‘UMass Life Sciences Moment
Fund’
Populate and oversee a steering committee to review core facilities
throughout the university
Follow through on the recommendations of the Life Sciences Talent
Initiative
Use the Standing Meetings of the President’s Council, the Provost’s
Council and the Research Council to identify and address those
administrative barriers that impede inter-campus collaboration and
entrepreneurial activities in the life sciences