Kansas University researchers are hoping to prove an old axiom that every cloud has a silver lining.

When Oread Inc. filed for bankruptcy and eliminated its entire 200-member Lawrence work force in February 2000, it no doubt created a cloud over the area’s economy, said Robert Barnhill, president and CEO of Kansas University’s Center for Research Inc.

After Oread Inc. filed for bankruptcy and eliminated its 200-member Lawrence work force in February 2000, Kansas University purchased the vacated 55,000-square-feet of lab and office space at 15th Street and Wakaruse Drive.

But Barnhill is convinced that KU’s purchase of 55,000 square feet of lab and office space at Oread’s former campus at 15th Street and Wakarusa Drive will be a silver lining in the demise of the once-growing drug development company.

“We needed major space for big, new exciting projects, and that’s what we believe we’ll have going on out there,” Barnhill said.

Topping the list is a five-year, $10 million research program to develop new drugs to be used as part of cancer therapy programs. Barnhill describes the project, being led by researcher Gunda Georg, as the “anchor tenant” of KU’s newest research complex.

Hope for future

Barnhill said the fact Oread’s business was developing new pharmaceuticals makes the lab space ideal for KU’s emphasis on biosciences research, which is expected to grow in volume as efforts increase to establish the Kansas City metro area as a hub of life sciences activity.

“It is exactly the right type of space for the research we want to do,” Barnhill said. “We would have liked to have seen Oread continue on successfully like it had for a number of years, but I think this has all landed on its feet very well.”

Work done in the new research space will soon start adding funds to the university’s research ledger, Barnhill predicted. He said staff members hope the available lab space will improve KU’s chances of becoming a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center, which comes with a multimillion-dollar, multiyear grant.

Researchers from the chemistry and chemical engineering departments resubmitted proposals for work they are doing to discover ways to make the chemical engineering industry more environmentally friendly.

“They came very close to winning the grant last time, and we think having space available will give them another big plus in the competition this time,” Barnhill said.

The additional space, which includes office space that can be converted into areas for nonlaboratory research, will be important to keeping the university’s upward momentum in attracting federal research dollars.

Greater potential

During the past two years, KU has jumped to 78th from 93rd among all U.S. universities and to 51st from 60th among all public universities in the amount of federal research dollars received.

“It is very fair to say that we are moving upward as much or more than anybody else in the country in terms of federal research dollars,” Barnhill said.

More research dollars should produce greater potential for spin-off businesses to locate in Lawrence because of the research that is occurring. Barnhill thinks the greatest near-term potential for major spin-off activities will be in the biosciences and information technology and communications areas.

Barnhill warned, though, that the community will need to come up with appropriate start-up locations to entice the potential businesses to locate in Lawrence instead of looking for homes in the Kansas City metro area.

“I would invite the community as a whole to start thinking about how they can help us with incubator space,” Barnhill said.

Lawrence residents can look at communities like Boulder or those in the North Carolina area that form the Research Triangle as examples of smaller cities that benefit from university research.

“Those aren’t big cities, but they have had some very high-quality projects take place there,” Barnhill said. “I know it can be done here, too.”