Expansion at UR could lift economy
BYLINE: David Tyler DTYLER@DemocratandChronicle.com
Staff writer
A new plan from the University of Rochester Medical Center aims to position the center as a national leader in a quickly growing scientific field and create big economic benefits for the region.
The school intends to build a research facility on its campus that would create hundreds of jobs and lead to an estimated $440 million in economic impact over six years.
Plans call for a $56 million, 150,000-square-foot Clinical and Translational Sciences Building, which UR officials said could be the first of its kind in the United States. The work done there would help to move, or translate, biomedical discoveries from the laboratory into treatments and cures for health problems.
In October, the medical center received a $40 million grant from the National Institutes of Health — the biggest the center has ever gotten — to help set up the clinical and translational programs and operations. The money for the building would be in addition to that NIH award.
"This is truly a big deal," UR President Joel Seligman said Wednesday. "Our research already places us in a position of national leadership in clinical and translational science, and this will allow us to build on the momentum of this extraordinary award."
{}Work could start in 2008
Construction could start early next year. The structure would likely be built in what now is a parking lot west of the medical center's nursing building.
The new building would enable researchers from several disciplines to cooperate more easily, said Bradford Berk, chief executive of the medical center.
By putting resources under one roof, discoveries may get to patients faster, too.
In contrast, the cervical cancer vaccine much in the news now had roots at UR as a doctoral project in 1993 but didn't gain federal approval until 2006.
Clinical and translational research is a growing science that depends on two-way feedback, UR officials said. It involves scientists not only making basic discoveries about how to prevent, treat and cure diseases, but also receiving feedback from doctors about what they are observing in their patients.
The medical school expects to hire about 50 researchers for the building and estimates those new positions would lead to $25 million annually in additional research funding.
The project also would set off a chain reaction of growth elsewhere on the medical center campus. Several existing programs would relocate to the new building, including the center's biostatistics, epidemiology and heart research programs. The center then would use some of the vacated space for new lab facilities, which officials said would attract yet more research.
Each new principal investigator position would require about five support personnel, said Peter G. Robinson, chief operating officer at the medical center.
UR projects that the center will directly generate 326 jobs. It believes an additional 230 jobs would be created indirectly by the center's economic ripple effect. The projection of 556 new jobs overall could wind up being conservative if any spinoff companies arise from research at the new building, officials said.
Seligman said that projects like this tend to generate additional grant money and hiring over time. He noted that a UR initiative in 1996 led to 400,000 square feet of new research space and a doubling of NIH grants at the medical center.
The new project is an example of how Rochester-area colleges are crucial to the region's economy. UR and its Strong Health medical system already are the region's largest employer, with more than 17,000 workers.
{}State assistance sought
UR officials have asked the state to kick in $50 million for the construction project.
Sen. Joseph Robach, R-Greece, said he's excited by the center's potential. He said he and the rest of the local delegation are working to garner support for the project.
"If we, along with the university and the federal government, can help make this center in Rochester a reality, it's not only going to heighten the academic standing of the medical center, but I believe it will be an increasing engine for technology and economic development."
DTYLER@DemocratandChronicle.com
What's at stake
Both medical and economic progress. Taxpayer dollars also could be at stake since UR is seeking $50 million in state funding for the project.
Would you support a $50 million state grant that would help create more than 300 jobs at the University of Rochester Medical Center?
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