Archives
Funding, faculty key to success
Molecular recognition report calls for collaboration across units
By LOIS BAKER
Contributing Editor
A five-year plan designed to increase UB's prominence in advancing treatments for cancer and other compelling health concerns and, in so doing, to propel UB into the ranks of top research universities is outlined in a white paper prepared by the planning committee for the strategic strength Molecular Recognition in Biological Systems.
go to the UB2020 website
The plan, presented to the deans and the UB 2020 Academic Planning Committee at the end of August, recommends integrating areas of excellence in basic sciences currently located in disparate departments and schools to foster cross-pollination of ideas and research collaborations. It also calls for committing resources to hire "rigorously selected new faculty," nurture junior faculty and strengthen supporting infrastructure.
While the document stops short of placing a total dollar figure on the plan, it lists potential costs for certain projected activities, such as symposia, administrative hires, seed grants and start-up packages for new senior faculty.
The plan says these initiatives could result in UB researchers winning several major multidisciplinary research grants within the next five years, raising the university's profile nationally and internationally.
"By integrating chemistry, biology and pharmaceutics, the Molecular Recognition in Biological Systems strategic strength positions UB at the forefront of research related to the study and treatment of critical health problems such as cancer, diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases, autoimmunity and microbial pathogenesis," said Kenneth Blumenthal, professor and chair of the Department of Biochemistry in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and lead author on the white paper.
"There also are a number of crossover points between our strengths and those in nanostructures, extreme events and clinical sciences."
On a broader level, the work of the group would contribute to improving the health, safety and quality of the life of the people in New York State and beyond, said Blumenthal.
The Molecular Recognition in Biological Systems white paper was finalized following input from two envisioning retreats attended by more than 100 faculty members from biochemistry, chemistry, microbiology, pharmacy, biological sciences and structural biology. The document describes four "pillars," or areas of research, on which the group's combined strategic strength is based: Biological Systems; Chemical/Molecular Diversity; Pharmacometrics and Genomics; and Structural Biology.
All told, these research areas involve investigators from the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Roswell Park Cancer Institute and Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute.
"The central challenge for this strategic strength," state the authors, "is to move from its current status as a strong foundation of four mostly independent pillars of strength to a complete structure with selective integration and extensive collaboration among the four units."
Meeting this challenge will require establishing effective and stable communication channels between the various components, as well as lowering existing departmental and decanal barriers that impede critical elements of the plan, such as cross-departmental hires, interdisciplinary courses, and short- and long-term collaborative projects, the document states. It also calls for a new administrative infrastructure to support such initiatives.
The five-year plan is organized around three phases of development, with funding requirements increasing with each phase. They are: 1) improving communication to position the strategic strength, 2) seeding interdisciplinary collaborations and 3) submitting multi-investigator research and training grants, consolidating the strategic strength.
Improving communication calls for:
Creating a Molecular Recognition in Biological Systems home page and listserv.
Developing an "intellectual inventory" on the home page composed of descriptions of faculty research interests, and available equipment, cell lines, antibodies and other reagents.
Facilitating secondary faculty appointments to enhance communication between groups that presently do not interact on a daily basis.
Developing cross-disciplinary courses.
Implementing an annual research day.
Seeding interdisciplinary collaborations would be facilitated by:
Appointing two administrative/secretarial assistants dedicated to this strategic strength group to help prepare, submit and administer multi-investigator grant applications and handle day-to-day research-related needs.
Creating two-year, seed-funding grants to two investigators to support collaborative projects with a high potential for obtaining National Institutes of Health or National Science Foundation funding.
Hosting a national symposium on molecular recognition in biological systems.
Consolidating the strategic strength would comprise:
Implementing a program of thematically driven faculty hires at an estimated start-up-package cost of $350,000, plus annual salary, for assistant professors and around $500,000 start-up, plus annual salary, for senior investigators.
Supporting an annual visiting scientist series.
Upgrading the experimental and intellectual infrastructure essential to modern research by investments in enhancing the university's library system and desktop access to major journals, and investing in heavily used, core research laboratories in a targeted and integrated fashion while maintaining the ability to develop core research laboratories using newly emerging technologies.
The white paper calls for measuring the success of these initiatives based on increased publication rate, enhanced visibility in the scientific community, modernization and integration of the graduate and undergraduate curricula, and increased individual investigator, multi-investigator and cross-disciplinary external funding.
Among all the proposed initiatives, recruiting "rigorously selected new faculty" is the most effective mechanism for achieving the overall goal of increasing research activity and recognition, the document states. As an example, it notes that the Department of Chemistry, which has added six new faculty members since 2000, doubled its research grants and publications by 2004.
"Over the first three to four years, implementing the programs cited (in this document), particularly cross-fertilizing components, should lead to four to six cross-disciplinary grants between investigators currently included in the strength," the report states. In addition, the authors calculate that each new assistant professor would bring in another 1.5 external grants within five years, and that by years three and four of the program, program project and/or training grants should be in review, with some funded by year five.
"As I see it, the beauty of this plan lies in its using a faculty-initiated process to arrive at realistically achievable goals," said Blumenthal. "The ability of the different interest groups represented under Molecular Recognition in Biological Systems to move beyond the concerns of their departments and to see the potential gains derivable from the interdisciplinary approach has opened up some truly exciting scientific possibilities.
"It's now up to the group, and to UB leadership, to move forward with implementation," he added.
Members of the planning committee, in addition to Blumenthal, were Huw Davies, UB Distinguished Professor, and Thomas Szyperski, professor, both in the Department of Chemistry, College of Arts and Sciences (CAS); Thomas Melendy, associate professor, and Michael Russell, professor, both from the medical school's Department of Microbiology and Immunology; George DeTitta, chair of the Department of Structural Biology in the medical school; William Jusko, professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences; Gerald Koudelka, professor and chair of the Department of Biological Sciences, CAS; and Richard Gronostajski, professor in the Department of Biochemistry.