Lawrence and Douglas county
KU may get $6M bioscience lift
State authority recommends grant to boost research at School of Medicine in Wichita
September 11, 2008
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Olathe — It's startup money geared at boosting the bioscience industry in south-central Kansas.
The Kansas Bioscience Authority's investment committee recommended on Wednesday approving more than $6 million over three years to help start a program for integrating research into residency programs at Kansas University School of Medicine's Wichita campus.
Administrators would be hired to focus on the research process in Wichita. Leaders at the Wichita Center for Graduate Medical Education hope the initiative will help pay for itself in three to five years.
"The grant dollars we bring in will add life-science jobs in Kansas," said Barbara Atkinson, executive vice chancellor of the Kansas University Medical Center.
The center - known as WCGME and pronounced "wig-me" - is a consortium of KU in Wichita, Via Christi Regional Medical Center and Wesley Medical Center, also both in Wichita.
The investment committee for the bioscience authority recommended $250,000 to fund strategic planning for the initiative. The bioscience authority's executive committee is expected to approve the funding later this week.
Also, the investment committee recommended funding $2.94 million for the initiative for the first year. Funding would be $1.9 million the second year and $970,000 the third year.
The bioscience authority's board of directors would need to give approval to those funding streams at a meeting Oct. 28 in Manhattan.
"I think it's exciting, and we're happy to be able to work with WCGME on this. It's a great step in the right direction," said Ray Smilor, chairman of the bioscience authority's investment committee and executive director for the Beyster Institute at the University of California in San Diego.
The initiative will focus on supporting clinical researchers at the KU medical school in Wichita. Another component would include studying how people get access to health care and its effectiveness. A third area would focus on study of populations and patterns of disease within them.
Atkinson said the strategic planning would begin soon, and other funding sources may not be out of the question for the second and third years.
"We probably can find some ways we can do additional commercialization and partnering," she said.
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