CU Boulder, Anschutz to join forces on research

BOULDER and AURORA — The University of Colorado CU Boulder and the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus are embarking on a plan to collaborate on research to improve human health, innovation and economic development.

The two campuses will attempt to:

• Drive innovation and research breakthroughs, win more competitive awards, and elevate reputation through combined research efforts.
• Identify areas of collaboration between existing research strengths in biosciences, biochemistry, engineering, arts and sciences, pharmacology and immunology, public health, mental health and other areas.
• Remove existing administrative barrier and unlock potential through leadership communication and connectivity.
• Charter individuals and groups on both campuses to own and accelerate the process of enhanced partnership.

“Faculty members at CU have substantial expertise in areas of critical importance to society, and fostering collaborations among them will allow us to enhance our impact,” CU President Mark Kennedy said in announcing the collaboration. “Being deliberate about furthering partnerships between faculty on our two biggest research campuses will also help focus our collective efforts on common problems, issues and opportunities.”

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The two campuses have combined research enterprise worth about $1.2 billion and have grown research more than 20 percent the past three years. Combined, the two campuses rank in the top 10 public research enterprises in the nation.

Even now, 16 research partnerships exist between the two campuses facilitated by funding from the National Institutes of Health, the university said in its announcement. The average NIH award for these projects is $1.8 million. Various projects are already underway.

For instance, CU Boulder engineers and faculty from the Consortium for Fibrosis Research & Translation at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus teamed up to develop biomaterial-based “mimics” of heart tissues to measure patients’ responses to an aortic valve replacement procedure, offering new insight into the ways that cardiac tissue re-shapes itself post-surgery.

Other collaborations include research into improving colonoscopy technology and finding new ways to fight cancer by examining a cluster of proteins called PRC2 that has become a key target for new cancer-fighting drugs. Another ongoing collaboration deals with sleep, and the health risks associated with not getting enough of it.

“As the leading research institution in the region, the University of Colorado is already regarded as a research leader in a diverse range of disciplines,” said Terri Fiez, vice chancellor for research and innovation at CU Boulder. “This new collaboration with our colleagues at Anschutz will help us combine those strengths to achieve even greater impact, both individually and collectively.”

CU analysts estimate the two campuses could net an additional $10 million or more in new research dollars annually through the collaboration.