NORTH BAY BUSINESS JOURNAL EVENT

2008 CONSTRUCTION CONFERENCE

Building the North Bay: What's on the horizon?
Tuesday, May 20, 2008, 8-11:30 a.m., Hyatt Vineyard Creek, Santa Rosa

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Buck Institute working with universities

STUDENTS FROM SSU, DOMINICAN GIVEN RESEARCH OPPORTUNITY

NOVATO –  The growth of the Buck Institute, sparked by significant grants from the National Institutes of Health and the California stem cell initiative, is enriching university curricula throughout the Bay Area and could make the North Bay a training hub for a new generation of stem cell researchers.

Both Sonoma State and San Francisco State university students, along with others from Dominican University, will be given the opportunity to be trained in stem cell reproduction at the Buck's $4.2 million Shared Research Laboratory for stem cell studies.

In another development, Dominican University will get a brand new science program. In the works is a five-year undergraduate and master’s program that will award the first graduate degree in biology with special emphasis on aging.

Developed by Sibdas Ghosh, Ph.D., professor and department chair of the Dominican biology department, the program will be research-based, unlike most course-based science programs in the U.S.

"Post-graduate science programs in Europe are focused on lab work. That's why students from all over the world earn doctorates in Sweden, England and France," said Dr. Ghosh.

About five students will be selected for the initial program, which is expected to begin in the fall of 2008. The students will have three years of undergraduate work and two years of hands-on research at the Buck.

Students will have the opportunity to spend one semester or a year at the University of Skovde in Sweden.

"During the third year they'll interview with scientists at the Buck to determine their areas of interest," said Buck President and COO Jim Kovach.

"Then they'll work alongside the scientists in the lab, with additional coursework at Dominican," Dr. Kovach said.

The students will have access to all the seminars held at the Buck and they'll be involved in research that leads to articles in journals.

"After they receive their degrees we'll encourage them to get a doctorate from the University of Manchester in England," said Dr. Kovach. "Our hope is that some of them circle back around to join the faculty at the Buck."

The program reflects the symbiosis that has grown between the private Catholic university, with its emphasis on science, and the Buck, with its focus on the conditions and diseases of aging.

Candidates for the degree will work in Dominican's new $20 million, 35,000-square-foot Science Center and also the Buck's newly opened $9.3 million Larry L. Hillblom Center for the Integrative Studies of Aging.

They'll also have access to the Buck's new $25 million interdisciplinary research consortium.

The recent NIH grant that establishes the consortium for the study of geroscience at the Buck also funds the nation's first post-doctoral training program in the new area of science.

"During the last three years, there's been a confluence of trends that have brought the Buck to the edge of a big inflection point," said Dr. Kovach.

"The baby boomers are raising awareness of the need for research on aging; the sequencing of the human genome has made new research possible; and we've made huge strides forward in the study of mono organisms like worms and fruit flies and what they can teach us about human aging."

Stem-cell grant a major step

Perhaps the most significant development for the Buck is catching the eye – and funding – of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, which has selected the institute as one of eight training centers to jumpstart the creation of stem cell scientists.

According to CIRM Chief of Communications Dale Carson, "our greatest need is for scientists, and we have to foster new ones. The Buck has access to private and state universities and other research groups that we don't. Their training center will draw young talent from schools like Dominican."

If the relationship between CIRM and the Buck continues to grow, the institute will add a third building to its campus to accommodate the training center. It's already recruiting eight additional scientists.

"The money California has directed toward stem cell research is meant to have the greatest possible impact. The Buck is a place where it can have that effect, and quickly. CIRM grants will alter the trajectory of the Buck from now on," said Dr. Kovach.

With Sonoma State and Dominican universities feeding the training center with post grads, the North Bay could become a hub of new stem cell scientists, said Dr. Ghosh.

"Now we have to go abroad to find stem cell researchers. With the Buck and local universities we're playing a role in producing our own," he said.

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