BICOEE Brain Imaging Center of Economic Excellence

Results of Creating BICOEE

The BICOEE umbrella would contain all the key ingredients needed for a world-class brain imaging research cluster. The various components would work together in a synergistic way and share precious personnel and infrastructure resources. As noted above, the strengths and weakness of USC and MUSC complement each other perfectly, and serve as the natural basis for collaboration. It is more and more apparent that national centers of research excellence evolve from cooperation and synergy of different institutions. Large grants and contracts increasingly go to a group that can accomplish all areas of a project. This is commonly carried out in inter-institutional consortia. The BICOEE would act as a unified center, with the expertise to take abstract ideas about brain circuits and work these through, eventually spinning these off into mature industries. Without this, neither USC nor MUSC can remain competitive in this rapidly expanding area of neuroscience. It is especially important to be involved in human brain science, because the technologies beginning to evolve from this science will transform health care, will penetrate into our daily lives, and will create a large and expanding industry. This BICOEE allows the SC research universities to compete in this lucrative league.

Today's research reality is that industry, the defense department and federal granting agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, and National Institute of Justice increasingly want and demand one-stop shopping. They search for centers where all the expertise for a particular problem is available in one place. There are a number of locations in the United States that such concentrations exist - e. g., Boston, New York, San Diego. Many large projects can only be pursued in such centers, and as a result the State of South Carolina is currently excluded from these grants that represent a significant and increasing portion of federal research funding. Once a center with comprehensive expertise has been funded on these projects, technology start-up companies are soon to follow. By not having the comprehensive expertise in one center, South Carolina loses both the jobs generated directly from the federal funding, but also the jobs generated from the technological spin-offs. However, by pooling the resources of USC and MUSC, and with the modest additions to our expertise enabled by the SC Lottery Endowment, we can create a BICOEE that is nationally competitive.

Additionally, although aspects of the BICOEE already have international reputations, a BICOEE would bring an even greater enhanced national recognition. Federal granting agencies are increasingly demanding that even well established investigators add collaborators in related fields. The research universities of South Carolina are at risk of simply not having the "critical mass" for this ever more demanding research environment. By creating an inter-institutional center we achieve the higher profile needed to attract industry and federal high technology grants.

A BICOEE would serve as a cluster to facilitate, grow and attract high-technology based industry to SC. Neuroscience, medical technologies and defense are some of the fastest growing areas for the US economy. Healthcare already accounts for about 15% of the US economy, and many estimates suggest that this proportion may double over the next 15-20 years. Moreover, the Healthcare Industry is becoming increasingly high-tech, with increasing emphasis being placed on the production of sophisticated medical devices. While the late 20th century saw a boom in the role of pharmaceuticals, the new century will see a similar boom in the role of devices and prosthetics. This is a major industrial movement that we, as a state, can become involved in, if we pool our resources to create this BICOEE.

Finally, this BICOEE would likely serve as an incubator for a lucrative portfolio of patents and other intellectual property. For example, the MUSC CAIR and BSL have generated 7 patents over the last few years. They are currently under contract from the defense department to design new ways of non-invasively stimulating the brain. All of these designs generated over the past year in their lab notebooks (12 to date) are patentable and may eventually work their way to market. These patents will continue to provide dollars for the BICOEE to continue to create new ideas. Thus, an initial seed from the SC lottery has a high likelihood of ultimately creating a self-sustaining enterprise, growing technology in the state for decades to come. (In this complex area, we have drafted an initial way to distribute the patent royalties among the universities).