September 18, 2006
A matter of degrees | The new Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences aims to boost Maine's research capacity and pool of trained scientists
By Joseph R. Thompson
Christopher McCarty, a graduate student at the University of Maine, just finished studying a genetic investigation technique known as "gene knockout" under the supervision of Dr. Antonio Planchart, a researcher at Mount Desert Island Biological Lab. The technique allows researchers to disable a particular gene to discover what information it contains.
Now, McCarty is working at Dr. Carol Kim's lab at the University of Maine, studying a group of molecules in zebrafish that are related to human toll receptors, an important part of the human immune system. Through this work, McCarty is headed toward his doctorate in functional genomics, thanks to the new University of Maine Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.
A collaboration between several Maine research institutions and colleges, the GSBS allows students like McCarty to work with scientists and researchers from around the state while taking classes toward their doctorate via video conferencing. While still a relatively small field in Maine, the biomedical industry is an area of growing economic importance. The Maine Biomedical Research Coalition's 2005 report card on the industry noted that while general employment around the state grew 22% since 2000, the biomedical sector had grown by 44%, to more than 500 employees.
These statistics can be seen in detail at Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory, one of the four research institutions involved in the GSBS. In 1999, the lab had nine year-round employees. Today, it has 43, about half of which are scientists and researchers. "It's a growth industry," says Patricia Hand, the administrative director at the lab. "There's a recognition by all of us, all of these institutions, that biomedical research is an economic engine in the state of Maine."
To help provide the skilled workers needed to fuel that economic engine, those research institutions teamed up with the University of Maine to give biomedical students the education and hands-on training they'll need. With the official launch of the GSBS early this month, 22 graduate students, including McCarty, will be working towards their doctorates while doing research under the supervision of 80 different faculty members from four different research institutions and three different universities around the state.
For research institutions like the MDIBL, the creation of the school provides an opportunity to bring graduate students in to assist staff researchers with projects and provide fresh insights to particular problems, says Hand. And by rotating students through the different labs, the program gives students the opportunity to work in different fields and gain experience that could strengthen the state's scientific workforce. "That allows us to become stronger as individual institutions," says Hand. "It allows us to compete very well for funding at the national level, which means we're bringing dollars into the state and increasing our ability to collaborate among institutions in the state."
The colleges participating in the program ˆ the University of Maine, University of Southern Maine and the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine ˆ also anticipate benefits from the collaboration. By tapping top scientists at the state's research institutions to help teach classes, the GSBS brings a new level of expertise into the universities involved. Participating colleges that don't offer a doctorate degree program, like the University of Southern Maine, also gain by now offering their students' access to Ph.D programs and their faculty access to staff at institutions like the Maine Medical Research Institute. "One of the things these graduate programs do is increase collaboration across faculty," says Keith Hutchison, the project's interim director and a University of Maine professor. "And we're seeing that on many different levels ˆ we're seeing people collaborating across disciplines and across institutions."
A statewide program
According to Hutchinson, implementation of the GSBS happened in large part because of University of Maine President Robert Kennedy's support for biomedical research when he took over the office in 2005. However, it was an idea that has been discussed since the 1990s, and several previous programs brought the University of Maine and other institutions closer to the goal. Of these, it was the functional genomics degree program funded by the National Institutes of Health in 2001 that most closely resembled the GSBS in its scope and aim, albeit offering only one degree. Students in that program work with The Jackson Lab and Maine Medical Center Research Institute to earn a Ph.D in a science discipline that attempts to determine the biological function of specific genes. "The functional genomics program served as the truth of concept," says Hutchison, "showing that we could work among major research labs across the state as well as universities."
Still, that system wasn't ideal. Previously, if a student wanted to work under an advisor at The Jackson Laboratory, he or she was directed to apply at the University of Maine and then to contact the laboratory. It was an ad-hoc system that made it difficult to advertise and created conflict over which entity was responsible for funding the student's education.
Now, students in the GSBS don't just work with one researcher at one laboratory. Instead, the doctoral programs require them to work three laboratory rotations, and it's strongly recommended that students work at a minimum of two different labs. This means that a student working on his or her biomedical engineering doctorate can focus on, say, the biomedical microdevices and microinstruments track while spending one semester at the Maine Med Research Institute in Scarborough, and then the next semester at Jackson Laboratory studying how cells communicate messages to each other.
To allow students like McCarty to work at Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory while taking courses and meeting with advisors at institutions as far away as the University of Southern Maine, the program relies heavily on video conferencing. For example, a course in cell biology offered by the Maine Medical Center Research Institute meets three days a week. But through video conferencing, a student working at Jackson Laboratory 180 miles away is able to both work and take the class without commuting hours and hours each week.
The technology also is useful when students meet with their advising committee, says Hutchinson. And it allows students to choose the most skilled advisors, regardless of where they work in Maine. "Any time now a student has a committee meeting," says Hutchison, "we do an awful lot less driving."
Although the program is just starting, however, the technology already is showing some limits. "At the moment, I don't think we can do more than one course with [Jackson Laboratory] at a time due to the bandwidth," Hutchinson says.
As the program grows, it will need to increase the bandwidth used to communicate between the institutions. The school also will need more physical space, like video conferencing rooms. But a 2005 bond package included $1 million to renovate Camden Hall on the University of Maine's campus.
While the GSBS is currently funded through the participating institutions ˆ which kicked in $65,000 to cover administrative costs ˆ and appropriations from the gambling revenue generated by the Bangor racino, it has the long-term goal of bringing in funding from sources other than the state. But according to Hand, it's important for the state to support biomedical research like this as it provides the seed money to bring in more outside funding. The Maine Biomedical Research Coalition report says that the state's $42 million in R&D investment since 2000 has attracted $275 million in additional private and federal grants. "The biomedical research institutions that received funding by the state have gotten a tremendous return on the investment," says Hand. "That return can be quantified by external funding."
Likewise, say supporters, the GSBS program is an investment in the state's biomedical research future because it not only increases the capacity of institutions across the state, it also makes it possible for more students to complete their graduate degrees in Maine. And if the research sector continues to grow, those students will be available locally to help fill the labs. "The [GSBS] will produce graduate students that will be very well trained in the medical sciences and some may very well stay in the state," says Hand. "Some of them are going to definitely leave the state, but as we become stronger in the state we will have more jobs for them."
Now, McCarty is working at Dr. Carol Kim's lab at the University of Maine, studying a group of molecules in zebrafish that are related to human toll receptors, an important part of the human immune system. Through this work, McCarty is headed toward his doctorate in functional genomics, thanks to the new University of Maine Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.
A collaboration between several Maine research institutions and colleges, the GSBS allows students like McCarty to work with scientists and researchers from around the state while taking classes toward their doctorate via video conferencing. While still a relatively small field in Maine, the biomedical industry is an area of growing economic importance. The Maine Biomedical Research Coalition's 2005 report card on the industry noted that while general employment around the state grew 22% since 2000, the biomedical sector had grown by 44%, to more than 500 employees.
These statistics can be seen in detail at Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory, one of the four research institutions involved in the GSBS. In 1999, the lab had nine year-round employees. Today, it has 43, about half of which are scientists and researchers. "It's a growth industry," says Patricia Hand, the administrative director at the lab. "There's a recognition by all of us, all of these institutions, that biomedical research is an economic engine in the state of Maine."
To help provide the skilled workers needed to fuel that economic engine, those research institutions teamed up with the University of Maine to give biomedical students the education and hands-on training they'll need. With the official launch of the GSBS early this month, 22 graduate students, including McCarty, will be working towards their doctorates while doing research under the supervision of 80 different faculty members from four different research institutions and three different universities around the state.
For research institutions like the MDIBL, the creation of the school provides an opportunity to bring graduate students in to assist staff researchers with projects and provide fresh insights to particular problems, says Hand. And by rotating students through the different labs, the program gives students the opportunity to work in different fields and gain experience that could strengthen the state's scientific workforce. "That allows us to become stronger as individual institutions," says Hand. "It allows us to compete very well for funding at the national level, which means we're bringing dollars into the state and increasing our ability to collaborate among institutions in the state."
The colleges participating in the program ˆ the University of Maine, University of Southern Maine and the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine ˆ also anticipate benefits from the collaboration. By tapping top scientists at the state's research institutions to help teach classes, the GSBS brings a new level of expertise into the universities involved. Participating colleges that don't offer a doctorate degree program, like the University of Southern Maine, also gain by now offering their students' access to Ph.D programs and their faculty access to staff at institutions like the Maine Medical Research Institute. "One of the things these graduate programs do is increase collaboration across faculty," says Keith Hutchison, the project's interim director and a University of Maine professor. "And we're seeing that on many different levels ˆ we're seeing people collaborating across disciplines and across institutions."
A statewide program
According to Hutchinson, implementation of the GSBS happened in large part because of University of Maine President Robert Kennedy's support for biomedical research when he took over the office in 2005. However, it was an idea that has been discussed since the 1990s, and several previous programs brought the University of Maine and other institutions closer to the goal. Of these, it was the functional genomics degree program funded by the National Institutes of Health in 2001 that most closely resembled the GSBS in its scope and aim, albeit offering only one degree. Students in that program work with The Jackson Lab and Maine Medical Center Research Institute to earn a Ph.D in a science discipline that attempts to determine the biological function of specific genes. "The functional genomics program served as the truth of concept," says Hutchison, "showing that we could work among major research labs across the state as well as universities."
Still, that system wasn't ideal. Previously, if a student wanted to work under an advisor at The Jackson Laboratory, he or she was directed to apply at the University of Maine and then to contact the laboratory. It was an ad-hoc system that made it difficult to advertise and created conflict over which entity was responsible for funding the student's education.
Now, students in the GSBS don't just work with one researcher at one laboratory. Instead, the doctoral programs require them to work three laboratory rotations, and it's strongly recommended that students work at a minimum of two different labs. This means that a student working on his or her biomedical engineering doctorate can focus on, say, the biomedical microdevices and microinstruments track while spending one semester at the Maine Med Research Institute in Scarborough, and then the next semester at Jackson Laboratory studying how cells communicate messages to each other.
To allow students like McCarty to work at Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory while taking courses and meeting with advisors at institutions as far away as the University of Southern Maine, the program relies heavily on video conferencing. For example, a course in cell biology offered by the Maine Medical Center Research Institute meets three days a week. But through video conferencing, a student working at Jackson Laboratory 180 miles away is able to both work and take the class without commuting hours and hours each week.
The technology also is useful when students meet with their advising committee, says Hutchinson. And it allows students to choose the most skilled advisors, regardless of where they work in Maine. "Any time now a student has a committee meeting," says Hutchison, "we do an awful lot less driving."
Although the program is just starting, however, the technology already is showing some limits. "At the moment, I don't think we can do more than one course with [Jackson Laboratory] at a time due to the bandwidth," Hutchinson says.
As the program grows, it will need to increase the bandwidth used to communicate between the institutions. The school also will need more physical space, like video conferencing rooms. But a 2005 bond package included $1 million to renovate Camden Hall on the University of Maine's campus.
While the GSBS is currently funded through the participating institutions ˆ which kicked in $65,000 to cover administrative costs ˆ and appropriations from the gambling revenue generated by the Bangor racino, it has the long-term goal of bringing in funding from sources other than the state. But according to Hand, it's important for the state to support biomedical research like this as it provides the seed money to bring in more outside funding. The Maine Biomedical Research Coalition report says that the state's $42 million in R&D investment since 2000 has attracted $275 million in additional private and federal grants. "The biomedical research institutions that received funding by the state have gotten a tremendous return on the investment," says Hand. "That return can be quantified by external funding."
Likewise, say supporters, the GSBS program is an investment in the state's biomedical research future because it not only increases the capacity of institutions across the state, it also makes it possible for more students to complete their graduate degrees in Maine. And if the research sector continues to grow, those students will be available locally to help fill the labs. "The [GSBS] will produce graduate students that will be very well trained in the medical sciences and some may very well stay in the state," says Hand. "Some of them are going to definitely leave the state, but as we become stronger in the state we will have more jobs for them."
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