PHILADELPHIA — (March 1, 2017) — The Wistar Institute, together with many regional academic institutions driving life sciences discoveries, has launched the Philadelphia Research Consortium — a preclinical research network for facilitating easy access to our region's robust research enterprise.
Spearheading the Consortium's launch is Heather A. Steinman, Ph.D., MBA, Wistar's vice president for Business Development and executive director of Technology Transfer, whose shared vision for the alliance is two-fold: enable transformative, potentially lifesaving scientific progress, and catalyze productive, long-term collaborations between the Philadelphia academic research community and for-profit research and development partners, specifically targeting life sciences start-ups.
As of now, representatives from technology commercialization offices at the following organizations have joined the Consortium: Baruch S. Blumberg Institute, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Children's National Health System, Drexel University, Lankenau Institute for Medical Research (part of Main Line Health), Lehigh University, Monell Chemical Senses Center, Penn State, Penn State College of Medicine, Temple University, The Wistar Institute, Thomas Jefferson University, and University of the Sciences.
"The end goal is to facilitate preclinical collaboration between start-ups and our research labs," said Steinman. "Instead of using resources to support infrastructure, our partners can utilize their capital to support preclinical research across the region while advancing and de-risking their own programs. We have all the talent, research and resources in Philadelphia–all working together to create a vibrant life sciences ecosystem."
The Consortium allows for local, national and international startup and biotech partners to leverage the collective research strengths of Philadelphia's vibrant life sciences community. Partners can focus on the key experiments required to advance therapeutic programs through to proof-of-concept without negotiating multiple, often cumbersome, contracts. Such relationships between research institutions and biotech partners could increase the likelihood of innovative early stage discoveries successfully moving from the laboratory to the marketplace.
To this end, members of the Philadelphia Research Consortium have made a pledge to the startup and biotech community to use a universal, sponsored research agreement with all potential partners interested in exploring preclinical discovery research with participating institutions where applicable. Steinman sees the user-friendly tool as an invitation for startups to unite with partners across the area's biomedical research community.
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For more information about the Philadelphia Research Consortium, visit https://wistar.org/philaRC.
The Wistar Institute is an international leader in biomedical research with special expertise in cancer, immunology, infectious diseases and vaccine development. Founded in 1892 as the first independent nonprofit biomedical research institute in the United States, Wistar has held the prestigious Cancer Center designation from the National Cancer Institute since 1972. The Institute works actively to ensure that research advances move from the laboratory to the clinic as quickly as possible. Wistar's Business Development team is dedicated to advancing Wistar Science and Technology Development through creative partnerships. wistar.org
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Story Source: Materials provided by Scienmag
