Newark announces plans for new mega-TB center
Newark announces plans for new mega-TB center
PHRI to relocate, joining hands with Model Center
Plans were recently announced for the creation and development of an International Center for Public Health, an infectious disease research complex that will be housed in University Heights Science Park in Newark, NJ. Cost for the development of the international center is expected to be $78 million, of which $60 million in grants and loans has been committed by the state of New Jersey.
Cornerstones for the new development will include two tenants from the New Jersey Medical School - the National Tuberculosis Center and the Department of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics. Anchoring the private-sector side will be the Public Health Research Institute (PHRI), now based in New York City. PHRI is a 55-year-old biomedical research institute, with a major focus on research in antibiotic resistance and the development of new antibiotics. Groundbreaking is expected to begin by the end of this year.
The partnership will join PHRI, a basic research institution, with a powerful clinical partner, the TB model center, says Barry Kreiswirth, PhD, director of PHRI's TB Center.
"It's going to be great to have the whole kit and caboodle in one place," Kriesworth says. "The one thing we lack now is our own patient population, and I've always been interested in having the chance to do more in a real-time way, since a lot of what we do is retrospective."
The move also gives Kreiswirth's shop the chance to shift one foot out of the research laboratory and into the clinical laboratory, he says. "Right now, what we're doing still takes a lot of computerization and a lot of manpower. But a few years down the road, we'll be there. We'll have established sequencing databases, and we'll be able to translate that data into clinical tests, with clinical kits."
The benefits will include a huge savings in time, he says. "Not long from now, we'll be able to take an isolate at bedside and look directly at the DNA, instead of growing it. It's accurate, and more importantly, we can save you three weeks' time."
Overall, such developments will make for a startling change, he says. "You'll have a research lab that's a lot like a clinical lab."
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