John Kirwan: Connection-driven research

Connection-driven research

The Baton Rouge Health District and the New Orleans BioInnovation Center partnership could make the Baton Rouge-New Orleans corridor a national leader in health

sciences. BY JOHN KIRWAN

COLLIN RICHIE

John Kirwan is executive director of Pennington Biomedical Research Center and an internationally renowned obesity, diabetes and nutrition scientist. THE FUTURE OF health care research in Baton Rouge will be driven by connections, not just scientist to scientist, academic institution to academic institution, or provider to provider. Researchers will collaborate across specialties, institutions, and even cities.

Some might say the future is already here. The Baton Rouge Health District and the New Orleans BioInnovation Center, or NOBIC, have partnered on a venture that could help make the Baton Rouge-New Orleans corridor a national leader in health sciences. The Gulf Coast Health Sciences Corridor was named one of 60 finalists for the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s Build Back Better Regional Challenge. The partnership is competing for close to $86 million in funding.

The money would fund several projects, including: • A new center on Pennington Biomedical’s campus that would help physicians quickly adopt cutting-edge, science-based solutions to prevent, treat and cure obesity, diabetes, cancer and dementia. • A project that will transform the primary interstate entry points to the Health District into signature gateways, enhancing the sense of arrival into a distinctive health care district and a major urban center. • A shared facility for advanced biotechnology development for universities, businesses and startups on the NOBIC campus. The facility will include wet-lab space, a hurricane-proof cell line vault to protect research materials, and a data visualization lab for analyzing complex data.

The Gulf Coast Health Sciences Corridor is the kind of advance the Health District’s members envisioned when they formed the organization. The district includes the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, Baton Rouge General Medical Center, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center, Ochsner Medical Center, Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, Woman’s Hospital, and Pennington Biomedical. The goal is to leverage the resources and influence of the hospitals, health systems, research centers, and affiliated organizations to create a culture of health.

The Health District is also leading the push to establish the Baton Rouge-New Orleans corridor as Louisiana’s first National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center. NCI cancer centers develop and translate scientific knowledge from promising laboratory discoveries to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer, tailoring their services to their communities’ unique needs and populations.

The requirements for the NCI designation include: • Creating a critical mass of elite cancer researchers. • Demonstrating the ability to transfer research findings into clinical practice. • Showing a record of innovative clinical research studies in the community. • Establishing a program of cancer prevention and control research.

NCI cancer centers must also show they draw a minimum of $10 million a year in National Institutes of Health funding for cancer research. By themselves, no single entity in Baton Rouge or New Orleans can meet the standard. It will take a coalition of research institutions to accomplish this goal.

That’s why I say the future of health care research in Baton Rouge will be driven by connections. Connections are central to adding the cutting-edge treatments, customized for the community, that are available only through large networks like the NCI cancer centers. Connections describe the way we learn how things relate to one another. Connections help us explain the way the physical world works. Connections are the key to scientific discoveries. Connections help us imagine the future.

Pennington Biomedical Research Center