Gov. Glenn Youngkin is proposing $90 million to fund a “Virginia’s Research Triangle” initiative that will include Roanoke-based Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC.
One-time funding for a biotechnology, life sciences and pharmaceutical manufacturing network will be part of Youngkin’s biennial budget, scheduled to be released Dec. 20, according to a news release from the governor’s office. The University of Virginia’s Manning Institute for Biotechnology and Virginia Commonwealth University’s Medicines for All Institute, along with Virginia Tech’s Fralin Biomedical Research Institute, would receive the funds.
The three university research institutions would partner with the Virginia Innovation Partnership Authority to collaborate on commercialization and startup support, according to the news release.
The investment is laying “the groundwork for startup innovation and commercialization” connecting Charlottesville, the Richmond area, Roanoke and the New River Valley, Youngkin said in the release.
In Roanoke and Blacksburg, the allocation would allow for a patient research center that would move some of the institute’s research from the laboratory to real-world patients, said Michael Friedlander, Fralin’s executive director.
“Through this state commitment and private philanthropy, we are building Virginia’s research triangle and network, supporting our higher education institutions’ research endeavors, and expanding Virginia’s university research capacity that will enhance life-saving research development for generations to come,” Youngkin said in the release.
Once the three institutions and the Virginia Innovation Partnership Authority have signed a memorandum of understanding, $50 million would be available for the Manning Institute, $27 million for Fralin and $13 million for the Medicines for All Institute.
The Fralin Institute at VTC, a collaboration between Virginia Tech and Carilion devoted to research and medical studies, received a $50 million gift in September from the Richmond-based Red Gates Foundation. With that gift, the institute will recruit 14 researchers dedicated to cancer, neuro-engineering and computational neuroscience while further supporting six faculty-led research projects that are already underway and center on cancer and brain disorders in adults and children.
“I hadn’t had a chance to catch my breath and think about it, but it’s been a good year,” Friedlander said Monday afternoon.
The proposal, which awaits action in the next General Assembly session, comes in response to a specific request from the institute to the governor’s office: a clinical research enterprise that translates the institute’s “very successful and very strong” fundamental discoveries in cardiovascular, neuroscience and cancer, Friedlander said.
“And so it really kind of completes the virtuous cycle, if you will, that we’ve developed here at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, and takes it to the next level and the next steps,” he said. “So we’re really excited. We will still continue to collaborate on things like that with other partners, certainly with Carilion Clinic and other partners, Children’s National Hospital.”
UVa, VCU and Virginia Tech are no strangers to research collaboration, Friedlander said. One example features UVa and VTC partnering on a National Institutes of Health-funded program called iTHRIV (pronounced “I thrive”), or Integrated Translational Health Research Institute of Virginia, which has been in place for more than five years.
“In the translational clinical research realm, we share data. We have portals where people can access information. We fund pilot projects together. We fund our early career scholars. We do a lot of things together, which is great,” he said. “And also our partners at Carilion Clinic are part of that as well.”
[Disclosure: Carilion Clinic is one of our donors, but donors have no say in news decisions; see our policy.]
Fralin researchers and VCU colleagues have been collaborating on what Friedlander said are “very strong programs” in addiction and substance abuse research.
VCU’s Medicine for All Institute works to innovate medicine manufacturing through lowering costs, strengthening supply resilience and increasing quality, its co-founder Dr. Frank Gupton said in the news release.
UVa and commonwealth officials broke ground late last week in Albemarle County on the Paul and Diane Manning Institute of Biotechnology. The Mannings donated $100 million to build it, with goals of propelling the university to the forefront of cutting-edge medicine, fast-tracking the development of new treatments and cures, and transforming health care delivery in the state and beyond, according to a UVa news release.
Friedlander was at the groundbreaking and said he looks forward to the two institutes teaming to further develop cell and gene therapy programs to deal with rare and challenging diseases.
“We have a couple of [projects] going now,” he said. “Some of them are done here, and some we’re doing in collaboration with our partners at the Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C. And so as we get our programs going, and they have their programs at UVa, we’re going to share ideas and resources and collaborate with investigators.
“So I really think this is much more than hype,” he said. “It really speaks to true collaborative research that we’ll do between these three institutions. And we’re all serious about it. We’ve met and talked about it. And I’ve been up to UVa several times in the last few months meeting with their leadership, and they’ve been down here. So I think this is really going to facilitate that.”
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