Summer 2004

Message from the Dean

Community Partner - Community Player

Thirty years ago, Roger Roeske, PhD, received NIH funding to develop a more effective contraceptive drug. Through those efforts his laboratory created a drug recently approved by the FDA for the treatment of prostate cancer. “Like so many things, this project started in a different direction,” said Dr. Roeske, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at IUSM. What resulted was the development of a much-needed product.

This past year, Dr. Roeske’s colleagues in the IU School of Medicine attracted nearly $188 million in grants and contracts for biomedical research. In turn, their use of these dollars infuses the Indiana economy with a significant amount of money that otherwise would not be coming here--primarily, from federal coffers. The outcomes are many. Initially, the money creates jobs in the state; and from this work, ideas are created. At times, as in Dr. Roeske’s case, the ideas become intellectual property and can be brought to the marketplace.

There also is another path our faculty can take. They are creating small companies that can provide useful services or products. Last year, the School of Medicine and a consortium of institutions from Central Indiana created the Indiana Centers for Applied Protein Sciences (INCAPS). The mission of INCAPS is to provide the best prototype and commercially available proteomics tools and methods as a service to scientists in public and private institutions. We believe that this will attract small, private research companies who want to be near a service core such as INCAPS, as well as the other core services we provide such as gene arrays, creation of mouse models of genetic diseases, sophisticated imaging and microscopy.

Our proteomics scientists involved in INCAPS just moved to a new incubator facility on the edge of campus. Built by IU’s Applied Research and Technology Institute (ARTI), this space allows us to better support both academic and commercial activities. This spring, the School of Medicine, its long-time partner Regenstrief Institute, Inc. and other members of the Central Indiana Life Sciences Initiative, BioCrossroads, formed the Indiana Health Information Exchange, Inc (IHIE). This non-profit corporation aims to make Indiana providers the most “wired” in health care by creating a secure information exchange network that is designed to protect patient privacy while enhancing the quality and efficiency of healthcare delivery. Regenstrief scientists and IUSM faculty, led by Clement McDonald, MD, professor of medicine, are pioneers in health informatics, an important tool for providing evidence-based medicine.

D. Craig Brater, MD
Dean and Walter J. Daly Professor