Medical Center News Star Center Breaks Ground, New Era of Research Begins

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Star Center Breaks Ground, New Era of Research Begins

The vision of translating basic science to the bedside and commercializing discoveries at Stony Brook University is growing. With the groundbreaking this fall of the STAR Center for Biotechnology and Bioengineering, another major step to building interdisciplinary research among SOM faculty and University researchers is moving forward. Estimated at a cost of $25 million, the enterprise will serve as the epicenter of discovery-based research and technology development. The projected opening of the STAR Center is April 2009.

At the groundbreaking of the STAR Center are, from left: Yacov Shamash, Ph.D., Dean, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences; Edward Reinfurt, Executive Director, N.Y. State Foundation for Science, Technology, and Innovation; Shirley Strum Kenny, President, Stony Brook University, and Dr. Richard N. Fine, Dean, School of Medicine

Located equidistant from the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences and School of Medicine, the STAR Center will serve as a high-tech educational center for biomedical sciences for both schools. The Center will house the translational research activities of the Department of Biomedical Engineering and components of the Centers for Advanced Technology in Medical Biotechnology and Sensor Technology.

“The new enterprise will be a catalyst for advancing research and medical discoveries at Stony Brook, in areas such as tissue engineering, gene discovery and drug design,” says Dean Fine. “It will also provide faculty with an academic and professional venue to maximize the results of their collaborative research.”

“The way in which the enterprise will be structured promotes intra-unit activities, shared facilities, and involvement of students,” adds Clinton Rubin, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor and Chair of Biomedical Engineering, and Director for the Center of Biotechnology. “The organization and layout of the center will also encourage synergies with other university entities, Brookhaven National Laboratories, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories, and the burgeoning biosciences industry in New York and in general, and Long Island in particular.”

The building will consist of 30,000 square feet and contain 17 laboratories. Each floor will provide equipment and space to integrate the work of multiple disciplines. Research activities will be divided into Research Units under an umbrella of Research Centers. These will be designated as the Centers for Biotechnology; Sensor Systems and Diagnostic Tools; Biomedical Engineering, Imaging and Instrumentation; Genomic and Bioinformatics; Musculoskeletal, Tissue and Biomaterials Engineering; Cardiovascular and Regenerative Engineering, and Applied Bioscience.

Dr. Rubin says that the STAR Center is an enterprise with the potential to make Stony Brook University a leader in the development of 21^st Century diagnostics and therapies. Through the expertise of University researchers, many basic science endeavors have applications in major medical disciplines, such as cardiology, endocrinology, orthopedics, neurology, and dermatology.

Researchers from Biomedical Engineering and the Center for Biotechnology have already contributed to more than 20 license agreements with companies to commercialize discoveries that are leading to new diagnostics or therapies.

Currently dozens of basic research studies headed by Biomedical Engineering faculty are progressing with the goal to discover a better diagnostic or a new therapy. Three examples are:

Danny Bluestein, Ph.D., Associate Professor, received a grant from the National Institutes of Health in October to advance his development of a thrombogenicity predictive technology for blood contacting cardiovascular devices. The Device Thrombogenicity Emulator measures the flow induced platelet activation as emulated by cardiovascular devices. The technology will serve as a research and development tool for cardiovascular device manufacturers with the aim of minimizing the need for anticoagulation therapy mandated for most patients with heart valves, ventricular assist devices, and other blood contacting devices.

Richard A.F. Clark, M.D., Professor, is designing and developing bioactive peptides and 3-D complex extracellular matrices as a basis to soft tissue repair and regeneration. The bioactive peptides are tested in vitro and in vivo for their ability to protect tissue cells and organs from injury, stimulate tissue cell migration and proliferation, and modulate stem cell and tissue cell differentiation. Animal models are being used to test the repair/regeneration technology.

Lilianne R. Mujica-Parodi, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, is researching neural limbic dysregulation, which is associated with modulation of autonomic arousal and thought to play a role in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and anxiety disorders. Dr. Mujica-Paroda uses simultaneous measurements, such as functional MRI, heart rate variability, and electrodermal activity, to quantify the excitatory and inhibitory inter-connections across neural, autonomic and endocrine components of the human arousal response. Validation of this approach by testing normal patients and those with mental illness may have direct applications of the development of diagnostic devices and novel drug treatments for schizophrenia.