Contact: Ellen Bank
843.792.2626
Sept. 25, 2003
CLEMSON -- Clemson University and the Medical University of
South Carolina have forged a unique biomedical engineering
partnership that could make South Carolina a leader in the
development of new biomedical engineering technology, leaders from
the universities announced today (Sept. 25). The partnership is
expected to help attract millions of dollars in additional biomedical
engineering research grants.
"We're combining the unique strengths of Clemson and MUSC to create a
regional powerhouse," said Larry Dooley, one of the catalysts behind
the Clemson University-Medical University of South Carolina
Biomedical Engineering/Bioengineering Program. "We're not competing
against each other; we're competing against the world."
The collaborative research will place Clemson professors in MUSC labs
in Charleston, giving them closer access to clinical testing.
Through the partnership, research is already under way on vascular
implants and drug-enhanced cardiac stents that could help prevent
early failure and reblockage in heart vessels. Cardiovascular disease
causes roughly 35 percent of deaths in South Carolina.
Non-cardiac work includes cell-based drug-delivery systems,
"injectable" liquid tissue implants and tissue and therapeutic
interventions for nerve regeneration, spinal injury repair and
Parkinson's disease. Researchers are even using a modified desktop
inkjet printer to produce 3-D living tissue as a a step toward
printing complex tissues or even entire organs.
Officials predict the new bioengineering knowledge cluster will
prompt a wave of start-up companies specializing in the production of
innovative therapeutic and research devices.
"We're building the foundation for research that will save
lives and substantially improve the quality of lives," said Dan
Knapp, MUSC's bioengineering program director. "Patients could see
benefits from this work within three to five years."
The collaboration coalesces Clemson's nationally-recognized expertise
in biomedical engineering, bioengineering and cell biology with the
substantial work in developmental biology and fundamental stem cell
research being conducted at MUSC.
Students in the Charleston area will for the first time have the
opportunity to study graduate level bioengineering locally, and
students in the Upstate, who are studying bioengineering at Clemson's
world-class program, will have expanded opportunities to study at an
academic medical center where they can see firsthand the clinical
applications of their work. Bioengineering graduates are increasingly
in high demand by the medical device industry as well as by research
and educational institutions.
On a state level, the new program is a model of inter-institutional
cooperation that will strengthen the collaborative research and
education programs of both universities as well as increase advanced
degree opportunities in the state without the cost of establishing
another biomedical engineering department at MUSC, said Martine
LaBerge, interim chair of Clemson's bioengineering department.
Clemson has the only bioengineering department in the state. It
offers M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in bioengineering and collaborates with
both MUSC and the University of South Carolina School of Medicine on
biomedical engineering research projects through the S.C.
Bioengineering Alliance.
The collaboration is partially funded by a $6 million award from the
National Institutes of Health to help build the state's biomedical
infrastructure. That award placed two Clemson bioengineers at MUSC.
Partial funding also comes from a $9 million National Science
Foundation grant, awarded through the state's Experimental Program to
Stimulate Competitive Research office, that paid for two researchers
to be housed at MUSC and an additional two at Clemson.
Clemson's bioengineering department has now doubled in size, with 15
faculty on staff or in the process of being hired. On board fewer
than three months, the researchers have already received more than
$300,000 in research funding, with more than $2 million in grant
applications pending.
The collaboration is part of the same biomedical engineering
groundswell that's also won the state's three research universities -
Clemson, MUSC and USC - a commitment for $6 million from 2004 state
education lottery proceeds. The money, which will be matched by an
additional $6 million raised privately by the universities - will
establish the S.C. Center for Regenerative Medicine. The money will
be divided evenly between the schools to hire some of the nation's
top bioengineers in endowed chair positions.
Clemson bioengineering students working with the bioengineering
faculty in Charleston will receive their degrees from Clemson. MUSC
graduate students in MUSC degree programs may also work with the
bioengineering faculty and receive their degrees from MUSC. MUSC
students pursuing the combined M.D. - Ph.D. will have the option of
receiving a Ph.D. degree in bioengineering from Clemson. Both MUSC
and Clemson students will be able to take courses from both
universities.
The distance separation of the two campuses will be overcome by use
of videoconferencing and distance learning technologies, said
LaBerge. Bioengineering course taught at Clemson will be viewed by
students at MUSC. Likewise, Clemson students will be able to see MUSC
courses and lectures through the use of teleconferencing facilities
at Clemson.
MUSC and Clemson have a long history of cooperation in the field of bioengineering.The fluidized air bed, which has eased the comfort of untold numbers of hospitalized patients, was developed in the 1960s by a member of the the MUSC Department of Surgery with an adjunct appointment in engineering at Clemson. Since then, a variety of programs in dental materials, cardiology and digestive diseases have been successful as a result of bioengineering collaboration by faculty of the two institutions. The new program will build on this foundation.
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