While other state colleges have already forged partnerships with the research institute, USF's plans are still at the committee stage.
By KRIS HUNDLEY
Published December 4, 2003
When a team of officials from Tampa's University of South Florida visited San Diego in August, they weren't able to line up an appointment at the prestigious Scripps Research Institute.
Now those officials say it's because Scripps was in the middle of secret negotiations with Gov. Jeb Bush to bring a branch of the high-profile research institute to Florida.
As Florida universities race to cozy up to Scripps, it seems USF has been behind the curve ever since.
Florida Atlantic University already has a deal to provide Scripps with a temporary home on its Boca Raton campus. This week the University of Miami revealed plans for a research clinic near Scripps' permanent new home in Palm Beach Gardens.
At USF in Tampa, meanwhile, officials have only just created a committee to explore ways to work with Scripps. But Ian Phillips, USF's vice president of research, said administrators are not worried.
"Everybody's trying to elbow into position, but really, not a lot is going to happen immediately," Phillips said Wednesday. "We'll let the dust settle."
Among those already vying for position with Scripps are Florida State University and the University of Florida, touting their expertise in magnetic resonance. The University of Central Florida in Orlando has boasted to Scripps' officials of its strengths in optics, lasers and simulation. The University of Miami, a private institution, hosted Scripps' president for a visit, during which he met with the college's researchers in diabetes, cancer and genetics.
The dance between Scripps and Florida universities is particularly sensitive because Scripps' expansion is being funded by $569-million in public money. Officials at the state's public universities, who might have preferred that bonanza being funneled directly to their institutions, publicly praise the Scripps' incentive, saying it brings a stellar biotech brand to the state.
"The key is to utilize the incredible facility and scientific horsepower Scripps will bring, in concert with researchers at universities all over the state, to build biotech in Florida," said Terry Hickey, provost at UCF.
But Hickey doesn't hide his disappointment that Scripps rejected a site just down the road from his school in favor of Palm Beach.
"Scripps would have been maybe 15 minutes away and construction could have begun almost instantaneously," he said of the proposed Orlando site. "With distance, we have to define a different kind of collaboration. Some collaborations that can occur when you're right next door are more difficult if you're two to three hours apart."
Scripps, whose 280 investigators in California routinely collaborate with universities worldwide, has wisely thrown out the welcome mat to all the state's universities. During a visit by Florida legislators to Scripps' La Jolla campus in October, Dr. Richard Lerner, the institute's gregarious president, suggested some of Florida's universities should open branches next to Scripps in Palm Beach.
"The universities become the anchor," he said, likening a successful biotech cluster to a retail strip. "We're the high-end boutique."
University officials say Scripps, whose faculty members do not teach classes, has good reason to want universities close by. They say a big reason for San Diego's biotech boom comes not just from Scripps, but from the proximity of the University of California San Diego and several other research organizations within minutes of each other on the Torrey Pines mesa. To replicate that success in Palm Beach, they say, it will be critical for Scripps to tap the brainpower and expertise of the state's universities.
"The flow will be both ways," said Kirby Kemper, vice president of research at Florida State University in Tallahassee. "The partnership will be driven by Scripps looking at what we've got here versus us lining up and saying, "How about giving us some of what you've got?"'
FSU and UF are betting their joint expertise and highly specialized magnetic imaging equipment will be attractive to researchers at Scripps. Their facilities already attract users from throughout the world, whose tests are run at either campus, with the results sent electronically to the researchers.
"None of us are rich enough to have every conceivable magnet at $3-million to $4-million a pop," said FSU's Kemper. "Scientists have realized if they want to do an experiment using magnets, they have to come to us. And right now, both facilities (at FSU and UF) are used 16 hours a day. But we can go to 24 hours a day."
Arthur Edison, head of UF's MRI facility, said the equipment is particularly strong in small-animal imaging. That should be attractive to drug researchers at Scripps who want to screen mice for abnormalities without sacrificing the animal.
"We have some of the best magnets in the world and a team of technical engineers," he said. "Scripps may be just one more user or it could be a tighter partnership. We're approaching this in the spirit of scientific collaboration."
The University of Miami is discussing plans with Scripps for a multispecialty clinic next to its Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Palm Beach Gardens. Such a facility could conduct clinical trials of drugs developed by Scripps' researchers.
"Since Scripps doesn't have a clinical arm, we could be the clinical arm," said Dr. Leo Twiggs, associate dean of UM's medical school.
"But it's all still preliminary. It's going to take two to three years for Scripps to get up and running there (in Palm Beach). We see it as a long-term process of integration."
Phillips, of USF, is also taking a long-term approach to Scripps' Florida expansion. He is organizing a committee that will encourage collaborations with Scripps. It will include himself, an associate in his department who was previously on the faculty of UC San Diego, several USF professors and a representative of H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Care and Research Institute.
Though Scripps' representatives have visited all the other universities mentioned in this story, Phillips said they had not yet come to USF's campus. "But we do have a medical school and Moffitt, so I think they would be interested in working with us," he said.
Once the awkward introductory phase is over between Scripps and Florida's universities, faculty members such as UF's Edison say they are eager for the real work to begin.
Referring to a planned meeting with Scripps in January, he said, "We're going to start talking science at that point and stop talking politics. It will be fun to get something going."
How Florida's universities hope to partner with Scripps Research Institute's Palm Beach campus:
FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY: Will offer temporary lab and office space in June to Scripps' faculty on its Boca Raton campus, then provide housing in a new building on its Jupiter campus until Scripps' permanent campus is complete.
UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI: Plans to open a research clinic near Scripps' permanent site in Palm Beach County and adjacent to UM's Bascom Palmer Eye Institute. Is also looking for possible collaboration with UM's researchers in the areas of diabetes, cancer, ophthalmology and genetics.
FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY: Will meet with Scripps in January to encourage its use of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, which it operates jointly with the University of Florida and Los Alamos National Laboratory.
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA: In addition to its magnetic imaging equipment, UF will explore using Scripps as a way to translate its research in regenerative health into marketable drugs.
UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA: Will look for possible collaborations with Scripps in the areas of optics, lasers and simulation.
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA: Is forming a committee to explore possible collaborations with Scripps, particularly with USF's medical school and H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute.
