The Keck School is on a trajectory to become one of the top research-oriented medical schools in the nation. Keck School leaders are working to further strengthen areas in which Keck School faculty members already excel, while building new interdisciplinary programs based on the melding of knowledge from traditional scientific disciplines with the goal of medical innovation.
Keck research funding soared during the years preceding and including the budget doubling at the National Institute’s of Health. Despite the fact that this doubling has been effectively reversed because of budget decreases over the past five years, Keck School’s sponsored programs funding portfolio has continued to expand steadily. Fiscal year 2008-2009 saw an impressive 9% increase in sponsored program awards to Keck School faculty members.
KSOM is in an enviable position with regard to research space, with a large amount of new wet laboratory space now available and open for faculty recruitment, and with new space under construction. Expansion of research space began with the opening of the Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute (ZNI), the first new laboratory research building on the health sciences campus in 10 years. ZNI has 125,000 gross square feet, of which 76,750 is assignable as research space.
In June 2007, the University opened the Harlyne J. Norris Cancer Research Tower. That facility adds another 172,440 gross square feet, 98,400 of which is assignable to research programs.
Renovation of 8,015 gsf in the Clinical Science Center (CSC) building was also completed in May 2007.
A new laboratory building named the Eli and Edythe Broad CIRM Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at USC is currently under construction. In FY2008, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine awarded nearly $26.9 million in funding toward the construction of a five-story building that would allow USC to carry out stem cell research in three categories: basic and discovery stem cell research, preclinical research and preclinical development and clinical research. The facility will comprise 53,000 assignable square feet. The funding supplements a $30 million gift made in 2006 by the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation.
Recruitment of over 100 new research faculty members is projected over the next seven years, based on committed financial start-up packages to chairs/ institute directors, as well as leveraging of existing grant funding and development opportunities. Two-thirds of these new faculty members will be hired within the next three years. Search committees have been instructed to concentrate on nationally recognized leaders and the most promising young investigators in medicine.
The Keck School is recognized for national leadership in cancer, genetic epidemiology, and public health. New recruitment will build on these strengths, as well as create new programs based on interdisciplinary investigations in neurogenetics, regenerative medicine & stem cell research, infectious disease, and global health.
To many, what makes Keck School research unique and successful is its emphasis on interdisciplinary and translational research. Multiple institutes, centers and programs support the collaborative research so highly valued by Keck scientists, clinicians and students. Research programs at Keck reach across departments, schools, the university, the nation and even the world, to bring together a variety of perspectives that allows innovative and holistic research.
Translational medicine has become a valued tradition for many Keck researchers and clinicians. At the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, for example, an emphasis on translational research helps to transform the latest scientific advances into potential new treatments, decreasing the time it takes for effective therapies to become available to patients. Working closely with physicians, researchers may follow the development of a basic lab finding as it is tested in clinical trials and, potentially, as it enters the physician’s tool box as an effective new therapy for disease. The cooperative nature of research at the Keck School also means that this process can be speeded up in some cases – giving patients cutting-edge treatments that may be lifesaving and not widely available outside of academic medical centers.
The location of the Keck School has enabled some researchers to produce unique, valuable research that is highly relevant to medicine in a multi-cultural society. The ability to study the large and diverse metropolis of Los Angeles has been proved pivotal in attracting research funding and recruiting renowned scholars interested in the unique resources that the Keck School and L.A. offer. Keck researchers studying disease in Los Angeles have produced seminal studies of cancer rates and risks, cultural influences on health behavior, AIDS-related illnesses and many other key findings. Keck School research has helped medicine move away from a focus on the health of the white male (the subject of most early medical studies). The result has been a greater understanding of the nature of disease risk, detection, treatment and survival in men, women and children of all ethnicities, lifestyles and backgrounds. |
