News Release

LSU HEALTH SCIENCES CENTER IN NEW ORLEANS RESEARCH ENTERPRISE RETURNS HOME

            New Orleans, LA–Dr. Larry Hollier, Acting Chancellor of LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, announced at a press conference today that LSUHSC’s research scientists are once again conducting basic science research in labs at the Mervin L. Trail, MD Clinical Sciences Research Building and LSUHSC’s Neuroscience Center of Excellence on LSUHSC’s campus, providing a big boost to the Biosciences Industry in New Orleans.

            “LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans is one of the city’s and the state’s most powerful economic engines,” said Dr. Hollier. “The value of LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans’ research for FY 2005 was $221.3 million.”

            The research value was calculated by adding research expenditures for FY 2005 plus the remaining expected revenue for the life of all active grants and contracts related to sponsored research.

            Despite the upheaval of the flooding following Hurricane Katrina, LSUHSC’s research enterprise has continued to grow. LSUHSC scientists have successfully competed for $49.5 million in research funding in FY 2006, $22 million of that post-Katrina.

            Dr. Michal Jazwinski, Professor of Biochemistry and an LSUHSC molecular geneticist, is unraveling the genetics of aging. He is a Senior Scholar Awardee for 2005, funded by the Ellison Medical Foundation, and has four active NIH grants, including his second Merit Award. Recipients must be selected for these awards; they cannot apply. According to the NIH, they are awarded to a limited number of investigators who have demonstrated superior competence and outstanding productivity. The award provides the opportunity to secure funding for ten-year periods, in two segments. The objective of the Merit Awards is to provide long-term stable support to investigators whose research competence and productivity are distinctly superior and who are likely to continue to perform in an outstanding manner. Dr. Jazwinski also has a Health Excellence Fund program project grant awarded by the Louisiana Board of Regents for his Healthy Aging project. Direct costs for his current funding are $2.8 million per year. His research also has high value in human terms.

            "Katrina pointed to the special vulnerability of the elderly during natural disasters,” notes Dr. Jazwinski.  “The Louisiana Healthy Aging Study, which I direct, moved early last September to provide a scientific foundation for our response to seniors during crises."

            Dr. Richard Scribner, Professor of Public Health, is the principal investigator on five NIH grants–four are RO1s and the other is an R21. The value of these grants, which support the study of community influences on health behavior using the latest techniques in multilevel and spatial analysis, is $3.3 million.

            Dr. Augusto Ochoa, Interim Director of the Stanley S. Scott Cancer Center at LSU Health Sciences Center, was awarded a $10.6 million grant from the Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence of the National Institutes of Health for Training Translational Researchers in Louisianapost-Katrina. Extremely competitive, principal investigators on COBRE grants must have more than scientific talent; he or she must also have a proven aptitude for research, mentoring, and administration. LSUHSC recruited Dr. Ochoa from the National Cancer Institute where he headed both the Signal Transduction and Immunotherapy Laboratories. The COBRE grant is in addition to the two other active NIH grants he has been awarded totaling $2.6 million.

            Dr. Arthur Haas, Professor and Head of Biochemisty, was the fourth member of the team that was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry; however, the rules allow only three recipients. Not only is he one of two LSUHSC scientists with continuous grant funding of 22 years, Dr. Haas has led his department to a significantly improved national ranking, immediately behind New York University with more than $4.5 million in annual funding.

            Dr. Stephen Lanier, Professor and Head of Pharmacology, has established a program in “Integrative Pharmacological Sciences” which occupies a unique place among academic medical centers nationwide. The grants on which he is the principal investigator bring in about $2.8 million per year.  Funding for his department is $6.1 million per year.

            Dr. Nicolas Bazan, Boyd Professor and Director of the Neuroscience Center of Excellence, was awarded a patent on January 17, 2006 for a new anti-inflammatory, anti-stroke compound. Dr. Bazan has either applied for or been awarded 20 patents. The Neuroscience Center has generated about $25 million in grant funding. The grants on which Dr. Bazan is the principal investigator bring in about $3.5 million per year. He also developed the first successful spin-off biopharmaceutical company headquartered in New Orleans–St. Charles Pharmaceuticals.

            Dr. Hollier says LSUHSC research has the potential to support more such entrepreneurial growth–statewide. “Eighteen months ago, we developed a cooperative agreement with U.S. Antigens, a company dealing in high volume cell replication, in which the Health Sciences Center has an equity position.”

            “Biomedical research saves lives,” concluded Dr. Hollier, “but it also generates the jobs that will fuel a knowledge-based economy.”

For more information, contact Leslie Capo, Director of Information Services, LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, (225) 763-2808 or cell (504) 452-9166.