FOR LIFE SCIENCES CONTINUES ing life sciences industry in Kansas City. KCALSI was formed, and “road maps” were created to build on the research and clinical assets already in place. The results have been impressive, as detailed in the latest census conducted by KCALSI. (The Life Sciences Institute has conducted a census every three years since 2003, with the most recent in 2012.) The 2012 Census identified 240 life sciences companies in the region, with the majority (62 percent) in Jackson and Johnson Counties. Those companies, the Census reports, conservatively employ up to 2400 people. “The region also has significant academic research assets,” the report states, with 117 university research centers and 17 regional hospital and medical centers involved in clinical trials to advance research. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) designation received by the KU Cancer Center also expands the area’s research capabilities. New companies are springing up – 67 of the 240 companies didn’t exist at the time of the previous census in 2009. Nearly half those companies are housed in one of the area’s new incubators. The best news from the KCALSI Census – despite difficult economic times, “the region has witnessed significant growth in the total number of companies and in employment” since 2009.
He says KU Medical Center’s CTSA grant is unique in the country – the only one of 62 awards that crosses a state line. “We started building bridges (among researchers and institutions) in 2006,” he says, “hoping to attract one of these large grants. I thought it was a long-shot, but we were able to convince the National Institutes of Health that we actually had a strong clinical and translational research program here in Kansas City.” The grant, Bahron says, is helping to build the region’s clinical and translational research infrastructure. “With that $4 million a year and cost-sharing among partners, we’ve been able to fund investigators doing translational research in the Kansas City area. We give out more than $300,000 a year in pilot grants for investigators at KU, UMKC, KCUMB, Saint Luke’s and others who are on the cusp of putting in new grants for research in their institutions…Some of our awardees have gone on to get significant NIH grants for their work.” Bahron adds, “By getting the CTSA grant, we’ve put Kansas City on the map…(We told the NIH) that by receiving a grant to improve our infrastructure, we could do much more, and I think we’ve done that.”
E
New “Frontiers” The KC Chamber’s Big 5 idea for the life sciences actually has three goals: creation of a translational research institute is one goal, the other two components are achieving NCI designation for the KU Cancer Center (done) and maximizing the $20 million Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) received in 2011 (underway). The award was the result of five years of effort and creation of Frontiers: The Heartland Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, headquartered at KU Medical Center. The partners in Frontiers are in both Missouri and Kansas and include five academic centers, multiple hospitals, and a number of community partners. Dr. Richard J. Bahron is Director of Frontiers and University Distinguished Professor and Chairman, Department of Neurology, University of Kansas Medical Center.
Richard J. Barohn, M.D., director of Frontiers: The Heartland Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, visits with a patient who came all the way to KU from New Zealand to participate in a clinical trial.
JANUARY 20 14
KCC H A M B E R .CO M
7