Last Thursday, we were privileged enough to be visited by NYS Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. During her visit, she announced a bill which would aim at stimulating private investment in local research facilities.
The America Innovates Act of 2012 (S. 2369) “creates a bank which is aimed to help universities and institutions turn scientific ideas into commercialized products that will attract private investment and the critical capital which is needed to commercialize,” said Gillibrand. “Many of our universities and research institutions lack the resources they need to take a scientific breakthrough into a high-tech job or a high-tech product.”
Specifically, the bill would create an independent agency, the American Innovation Bank, with the ability to direct loans and grants to non-profit research organizations, individual researchers, and private companies.
During a small press conference held in the building our Director of Research and Development, Dr. Chris Fasano, was asked to speak. Here are his opening remarks.
The ultimate goal of biomedical research is translating basic
discoveries into therapeutics for sick patients. For years, state
and federal grants have done a tremendous job establishing a
rich pipeline of discovery in all fields of biomedical science.
However, programs for the translation of these discoveries have
not been so abundant and this gap, better known as”The Valley of Death”, is a critical roadblock for the successful transition from bench to bedside.
In 2007, Dr. Sally temple and Dr. Jeffery Stern
founded this institute — the first independent stem cell institute in
the country — to be an oasis in “The Valley of Death” for the
successful translation of neural stem cell discoveries.
The east campus of the University of New York at Albany was an easy choice for a location due to its integration of academic labs, core facilities, and small companies.
Administratively lean, but rooted in academic research, NSCI can
be nimble and autonomous in its decisions on how best to take
the discovery out of the lab and into clinical trials. Just like most
academic institutions, NSCI is dependent on federal and state
grants, and has been quite successful securing funds through the
years.
With this, we have made key discoveries including a
potential drug to combat macular degeneration, as well as a small
time-released system to implant into injured spinal cords to
promote regeneration. While our results show tremendous
promise, big pharmaceutical companies do not take risks at such an early stage, and will not invest until the product is much further developed, typically costing 10s to100s of millions. — a cost too much for us to bear.
NSCI Director of Research and Development, Dr. Christopher Fasano, gives his opening remarks as NYS Senator Kirsten Gillibrand looks on.
We sincerely thank Senator Gillibrand for taking the time to visit our institute and speak with us.
This post comes to you from Rachel Wurster. Research technician by day, social media guru by midday and on some rare occasions evenings.
Neural Stem Cell Institute 