Biodesign sets the pace

When I arrived as the new executive director of the Biodesign Institute one year ago, two things stood out. The first was the sheer breadth and volume of Biodesign team efforts to improve health, protect lives and sustain the planet. The second was the speed with which new ideas were able to be implemented.

Universities have a reputation of being slow to adopt new ideas. ASU is different. When I outlined a program to expedite societal adoption of ASU innovations, it was approved by ASU and the Arizona Board of Regents in a matter of months, creating the Biodesign Impact Accelerator.” Similarly, when the Biodesign team spotted an opportunity to enhance our imaging research last fall, I never imagined that we’d so quickly become home to the world’s largest ongoing study of CT screening for lung cancer.

Neither of these two efforts were simple. Each involved significant analysis, input from ASU departments as well as outside organizations, and efforts to secure funding in a difficult economy. What makes the difference is ASU’s commitment to fast-tracking ideas that benefit our community or society.

This same purposeful action is reflected in our community, allowing me to engage with more than 150 organizations over the past year, including health care providers, philanthropic foundations, governmental agencies, technology companies, and educational institutions. Our engagement with these groups extends from sharing information to joint research projects, but the common theme is an eagerness to collaborate in order to reach shared goals.
 
Many scientific advances, particularly those impacting human health, take years to get through regulatory approvals and become available to the public. So, our work at Biodesign includes collaborations aimed at expediting these processes.

We also took an enormous step forward this year with the appointment of Nobel Laureate Dr. Lee Hartwell and policy expert Dr. Michael Birt to lead our new Center for Sustainable Health. This gives us the ability not only to address the technological needs of health care, but to tackle the equally important economic and social policy issues that must change to allow better outcomes for patients while reducing costs.

Every day, I see the challenging work of science being enthusiastically pursued by the hundreds of researchers, students and support staff at the Biodesign Institute. Each month, Biodesign produces several breakthroughs of sufficient importance and innovation to be published in top-tier research publications. Our teams work very hard to secure the funding required to do this work, each year generating more than 300 competitive proposals to a large variety of agencies.

Our greatest measure of success will be our societal impact. In the coming year, I look forward to sharing news of our progress toward this important goal. I invite you to learn more about our efforts through our website or by contacting us at biodesigninstitute@asu.edu.

Dr. Alan Nelson is the executive director of the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University, a professor of bioengineering in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, a professor of physics in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and CEO of VisionGate.