New Facilities Create Space for New Discoveries
Published Oct 22, 2009
The name fits.
As three key Texas A&M projects come online, The Research Valley continues to live up to its name and build its reputation as a region rich in research resources and innovation.
A new campus is in the works for the Texas A&M Health Science Center, a new facility is opening for the Texas A&M Institute of Preclinical Studies and the Texas Institute for Genomic Medicine will come online before the end of 2009. Creating space for research, education and innovation is vital to Texas A&M’s mission and to the research-based economy of the region.
“We are physically visible on the skyline, and both the research building and education building are on budget and on time,” says Dr. Nancy Dickey, president of the Texas A&M Health Science Center and vice chancellor for health affairs for the Texas A&M University System. The new campus’ education building should open in July 2010, followed by the research building in March 2011. Both the colleges of medicine and nursing are hiring faculty and staff in preparation for growth and occupancy of the new facilities, Dickey says.
The highly anticipated opening of the Texas Institute for Genomic Medicine will create a world hub for genomic research. TIGM will house the world’s largest mouse genome library for use to study the roles of genes.
Established in collaboration with Lexicon Genetics and Texas A&M University System, the institute will utilize advanced technologies to accelerate the pace of medical discoveries. TIGM is expected to create at least 5,000 new jobs during its first decade of operation.
The breakthroughs discovered at TIGM will be further researched and tested in the new facility of the Texas A&M Institute of Preclinical Studies, or TIPS. TIPS trains veterinarians, physicians, scientists, technicians and engineers to meet the needs of the biomedical industry.
TIPS offers space, equipment and expertise to study potentially life-saving devices and drugs in large animals – a necessary step before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will approve clinical trials in humans.
Animals often have the same diseases as people. TIPS researchers work to develop new drugs and methods to treat these diseases in animals and then move these discoveries toward development for humans.
TIPS association with the veterinary college provides access to expertise ranging from cardiology to orthopedics. In addition, TIPS can pull experts from across the A&M campus in fields such as engineering, business and marketing to assist with development or commercialization.
TIPS offers an animal hospital with space to house 240 large animals, and has some 10,000 square feet set aside as a commercial-startup incubator, as well as 25,000 square feet of advanced imaging equipment, making it a comprehensive operation, says Debra Bridges, associate director.
TIPS works with a diverse group of researchers, everyone from Texas A&M and other academic institutions to the National Institutes of Health and other government entities. The new advanced-imaging component will ramp up those opportunities, and also help the facility to establish new industry partnerships, Bridges says.
“We’re looking forward to a very exciting and prosperous future,” Bridges says. “It seems like we’ve been working on this building forever, but we’re now where we can provide a valuable resource to the local, regional and state research communities as well as industries that need these kinds of services.”
Story by Joe Morris
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