Although scientific discoveries in the field of medicine are advancing at an increasingly rapid pace, the amount of time it takes for these discoveries to travel from the research laboratory to your local doctor’s office or hospital has not undergone a similar transformation. Many experts estimate it can take as long as 17 years for a promising new drug or therapy to overcome the myriad of clinical, financial and regulatory hurdles needed to bring discoveries to the wider community.

Steps have been taken over the past several years to address this disparity between scientific advancement and clinical implementation, including the establishment of 60 National Institutes of Health-funded centers across the United States focused on accelerating the translation of discoveries into practice. The Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute, a partnership between Indiana University, Purdue University and the University of Notre Dame, was established in 2008 through a $25 million NIH Clinical and Translational Sciences Award along with $60 million in support from public-private partnerships across the state.

Educating future generations of researchers in how to turn their medical discoveries into therapies that reach patients is one of Indiana CTSI’s most important activities. To directly support this key role, the Translational Science Program of Indiana (TSPI) was launched in August 2011in collaboration with the IU School of Medicine.

To date TSPI has enrolled five students who, over the course of the two-year program, will get a crash course in all aspects of translational science. More recently, TSPI collaborated with the IU School of Medicine to create a fellowship program for medical students who take a year off from their primary studies to pursue an accelerated version of the master’s program. Eligible participants currently include students from the IU School of Medicine, with future plans to extend the program to different health science disciplines.

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This event will bring together leaders from Indiana’s healthcare, technology and entrepreneurial communities to foster cross-sector collaborations aimed at improving  patient care, reducing healthcare costs and continuing to establish Indiana as a premiere location for health IT innovation. Agenda items include presentations; breakout sessions, including a working session with hospital information technology experts; and a networking reception.

The Hoosier Healthcare Innovation Challenge is a TechPoint initiative presented by TechPoint’s Advancing Life Sciences and Health Care Information Technology Group, Develop Indy and Ice Miller LLP. It is sponsored by CoreTech Revolution, Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute, Indiana Economic Development Corporation, Indiana Health Information Exchange, Indiana University Health, Indiana Health Information Management Systems Society,Purdue Research Park, and Startup Weekend Indianapolis and St. Vincent Health.

This event is open to physicians, nurses, hospital administrators, information technology professionals and entrepreneurs. Registration is $40 (or $80 for a “team of three”) and includes seminar materials, a luncheon and the reception.

For more information, visit the Hoosier Healthcare Innovation Challenge website.

The fourth and final project I would like to feature is a brand new method to prevent hot flashes, a highly distressing symptom commonly experienced by women during menopause, developed by Anantha Shekhar, M.D., Ph.D., Raymond E. Houk Professor in Psychiatry, and Philip Johnson, Ph.D., assistant research professor of psychiatry, both of the IU School of Medicine. Dr. Shekhar also serves as the director of the Indiana CTSI. The project received about $26,000 in support from the Preclinical Project Development Team in 2010 to explore the mechanism of hot flashes, which directly led to the breakthrough discovery of the stimuli that solicit hot flashes and the corresponding therapeutic approach to preventing them. Thank you for tuning in for each posting in the series on Indiana CTSI/IURTC-supported projects.

I have now highlighted two of the twelve research projects that have reached the technology transfer phase of their development and filed invention disclosures with the Indiana University Research and Technology Corp. (IURTC). All twelve have contributed to the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (Indiana CTSI) setting a record last year for supported research projects reaching sufficient development to initiate technology transfer activities. I am highlighting four of the twelve projects to have entered this commercialization process over the past year. The first two blogs highlighted Dr. Craig Erickson’s autism research project and Dr. Stan Spinola’s new approach to the treatment of bacterial infections.

The third new project I would like to feature is a novel method to analyze dental “biofilm” for cavity risk by Dominick Zero, DDS, professor and chair of preventive dentistry and associate dean for research, and Andrea Ferreira-Zandona, DDS, MSD, Ph.D., associate professor of preventive and community dentistry, both of the IU School of Dentistry; and Milos Novotny, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, Indiana University Bloomington. This technology could radically change clinical treatment since dentists currently have no reliable method to predict whether a caries lesion (characterized by soft enamel and/or discoloration) will develop into an active tooth-detroying cavity. Subsequently, the commercial potential for this diagnostic invention appears substantial.  The project received more than $16,000 from the Pediatric Project Development Team in 2012. Dr. Zero and colleagues also benefited from services from the Design and Biostatistics Program. This is the third of four blogs. Check back soon for the last posting in the series on Indiana CTSI/IURTC-supported projects.

Read Part 1 on Dr. Craig Erickson’s autism research project here

Chancellor Harris leads the town hall discussion.

Recently, I had the opportunity to participate in Indiana University Kokomo’s regional town hall held on May 23.  Hosted by Chancellor Michael Harris, this forum convened over 60 north central Indiana leaders to discuss the impact of IU Kokomo on both the region and the state.  Paul Umbach, president of Tripp Umbach,a leading national provider of economic impact research,  presented the “Economic Engine for North Central Indiana” report.  Umbach explained the impact of IU Kokomo reaches far beyond the $52.1 million generated annually as the campus stands out as a clear leader in paving the way for higher education institutions to become more actively engaged in the economic and social well-being of the communities they serve.

“The role of this campus is absolutely critical to the future well-being of this region,” said Bill Stephan, IU vice president for engagement. “The data will affirm the significance of that point.”  In addition to the $52.1 million yearly impact of IU Kokomo, the report attributes another positive effect to the health care professionals serving local hospitals and medical providers who graduated from IU Kokomo’s School of Nursing and Division of Allied Health.  IU Kokomo plays another significant role through volunteerism and service projects that collectively impact the local community by $3.4 million per year.

BioCrossroads New Venture Competition

In addition to a cash prize of $25,000, the winner of the competition will have access to the Indiana Seed Fund II staff and the fund’s network of resources to provide business planning and early-stage strategic support. They will also have the opportunity to make a presentation to the ILSFII investment committee.

Click here to apply. Applications are due Tuesday, July 31.

IU Kelley School of Business Indianapolis students

Business students at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business Indianapolis along with students from the Purdue School of Engineering and Technology at IUPUI are partnering to bring a patented invention to market.  Two business students and three biomedical engineering students are joining forces to research how to commercialize a new kidney dialysis invention by IU surgeon George Akingba, M.D., Ph.D.  This partnership is made possible through the Center for Research and Learning‘s Innovation-to-Enterprise Central (ITEC) program. IETC takes advantage of IUPUI’s academic diversity by partnering undergraduate students from various disciplines with a mentor to bring a faculty member’s patent to market.

The second project is advancing a new approach to the treatment of bacterial infections by Stan Spinola, M.D., professor and chair of microbiology and immunology, who cited Indiana CTSI funding as a key contributor to early validation of his concept.  His idea, disabling the bacteria’s own stress response system, was recently  protected by IURTC through filing a provisional patent application. The invention’s different mode of action has great commercialization potential because current antibiotics have been exploiting the same basic set of biological pathways over the past 40 years, which has led to bacterial resistance to these drugs. In 2011, Dr. Spinola received more than $21,000 from the Indiana CTSI Clinical Project Development Team to support this research as well as services from the Indiana CTSI Clinical Research Center, Bioethics and Subject Advocacy Program, and Design and Biostatics Program. 

This is the second of four blogs. Check back soon for the next posting in the series on Indiana CTSI/IURTC-supported projects.

The Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (Indiana CTSI) set a record last year for supported research projects that have reached the technology transfer phase of their development. Twelve projects supported by the Indiana CTSI in 2011 have filed invention disclosures with the Indiana University Research and Technology Corp. (IURTC), a not-for-profit agency affiliated with Indiana University that specializes in moving innovative research into the marketplace. In 2010, notechnology transfer projects were reported by IURTC that cited support from the Indiana CTSI. Over the next few days four Indiana CTSI/IURTC-supported projects to have entered the commercialization process over the past year will be highlighted. 

The first project generated intellectual property based on autism research conducted by Craig Erickson, M.D., assistant professor of psychiatry at the Indiana University School of Medicine, who has cited the Indiana CTSI on five patentable invention disclosures filed with the IURTC in 2011. These include the use of the drugs acamprosate and riluzole as therapeutic agents for Fragile X syndrome and autism, as well as three potential biomarkers — two to detect biological evidence for improvement after treatment with acamprosate or riluzole and a third to predict in advance whether a patient will favorably respond to treatment with these drugs. Initial support for these research projects came from a $17,000 grant from the Indiana CTSI Pediatric Project Development Team as well as support from its bioethics, compliance and biostatistics support programs. Dr. Erickson also serves as clinical director of the Christian Sarkine Autism Treatment Center in the Department of Psychiatry at the IU School of Medicine.

This is the first of four blogs. Check back soon for the next posting in the series.

As a concept, ACOs are not new, but in recent years the concept of a group of health care providers working together to oversee care for an assigned population has emerged as one of the potential tools to “bend the health care cost curve,” said George Telthorst, director of the Center for the Business of Life Sciences in IU’s Kelley School of Business.

The conference will take place at Cook Medical World Headquarters, 750 Daniels Way, in Bloomington on Friday, May 11, from 8 a.m. to 3:15 p.m.  Registration for the conference is $90 and can be completed on the Center for the Business of Life Sciences website or by contacting Kelli Conder at the Kelley School, 812-856-0915 or kconder@indiana.edu.