Research Innovation Center next linchpin in battling disease

FORT COLLINS – Colorado State University is about to ratchet up its infectious disease research capability once again with the addition of a Research Innovation Center, where scientists and business entrepreneurs can mingle and work on breakthroughs in the treatment of a variety of illness-causing bugs.

Earlier this month, CSU unveiled the Rocky Mountain Regional Biocontainment Laboratory on the university’s Foothills Research Campus in west Fort Collins. The $30 million laboratory, which features Level 2 biosecure laboratory space (Level 3 is highest), is part of an infectious disease research complex planned for the campus that will also include the RIC when it opens in 2010.

William Farland, CSU’s vice president for research, said the $50 million, Level 1 RIC “is going to give us a significant opportunity to deal with not so much biosecurity issues but on community infectious agents that would be more interesting to small companies” to bring to market.

SPONSORED CONTENT

Commercial Solar is a big investment, but not an overwhelming one

Solar offers a significant economic benefit for commercial property owners while also positively impacting the environment and offering a path to compliance for new municipal requirements like Energize Denver. A local, experienced solar installer will help you navigate the complexities of commercial solar to achieve financial success for your project.

Those agents would likely include West Nile virus and avian flu among many others, he said.

Farland said bond funding for the facility was approved by CSU’s board of governors in June and the university hopes to break ground late this year or in early 2008.

Barry Beaty, professor of microbiology, immunology and pathology, said the size of the RIC remains “kind of up in the air.” Beaty, a CSU Distinguished Professor and chief scientific officer for Colorado State’s infectious disease supercluster, said there will be at least 10,000 square feet devoted to a “business incubator” within the RIC for scientists and entrepreneurs to develop their ideas.

“We think this is really one of the crown jewels of our infectious disease program,” Beaty said, noting that the RIC will have 10 labs of 1,000 square feet each. “If a company’s really growing, we can open (each laboratory) up bigger.”

Science, business link

Beaty said the RIC is envisioned as a place where research scientists with promising ideas can mingle with entrepreneurs interested in taking those ideas into the marketplace once animal and clinical testing has been completed.

“They’re our principal target – our own investigators and entrepreneurs,” he said. “We’ll consider it a victory not only when our investigators get licensing agreements and patents but also in building (startup) companies. We feel that’s directly aligned with our mission as a land-grant university.”

Beaty said the RIC will be modeled after a similar facility created at the University of Wisconsin. “They have spun off so many companies it’s just amazing,” he said. “We’d like to see Fort Collins as the northern anchor of a biotech corridor.”

The RIC will also have the capability to manufacture infectious disease treatments under Good Manufacturing Practices requirements, he said.

“Not only can something be taken forward to FDA approval but also prepared and manufactured for clinical trials. Most people we’ve talked to want (a vaccine or drug treatment) taken to Phase 1 clinical trials before they’ll step in and invest,” he added. “I think it’s what we’ve really been lacking.”

Beaty said he doesn’t see the RIC’s business incubator becoming a competitor with the Fort Collins Technology Incubator, which has been providing a launchpad for startup businesses with new products for the last several years.

“I think we would serve as a staging area for some of these things,” he said. “We’re not trying to duplicate it. We think it’ll be a real complement to the Fort Collins incubator.”

Partnering for science

Mark Forsyth, director of the Fort Collins Technology Incubator, said he agrees that the RIC and its business incubator will not be in competition.

“The bioscience companies have some very specific and unique needs,” he said. “I think the university is in the best position to manage something like that, but we hope to partner with them to get these companies launched.”

One company that was launched through the Fort Collins Technology Incubator – with help from the Fitzsimons BioBusiness Incubator at the former Fitzsimons Army Medical Center, now the Fitzsimons Life Science District, in Aurora – is InViragen, a bioscience company working to develop vaccines for dengue fever, plague and other diseases worldwide.

Dan Stinchcomb, InViragen CEO, said having access to a facility like the RIC could have launched his company even faster. “The missing piece for us when we were getting started was access to wet laboratory space to allow us to start doing experiments,” he said. “We could have gotten off the ground maybe six months sooner.”

Stinchcomb said the RIC also has the advantage of being located right in the middle of a research campus that includes a branch of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. “The other attractive aspect of the RIC model is a biotech company such as ours could have the proximity to such entities as the Division of Vector-Borne Diseases of the CDC.”

Farland said adding the RIC to the biocontainment lab and other local infectious disease facilities should help CSU reach a new threshold in the ongoing battle against infectious diseases.

“Clearly, it is a great opportunity for us and these kinds of partnerships will get us to the point of making some significant (infectious disease) advances,” he said.