KC Area Life Sciences Institute Founded

Across the nation, life science research and funding are escalating at an unprecedented rate. The Kansas City area is no exception. According to its director Bill Duncan, the recent establishment of the Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute (KCALSI), a consortium of seven participating research institutions, attests to the strength and growth of life science research in the region.

KCALSI grew out of a 1999 initiative by the Kansas City Area Development Council and the Civic Council of Greater Kansas City who formed a task force to assess economic potential of the life sciences in the Kansas City area. "There's no question, the founding of the Stowers Institute was the catalytic event," said Duncan, an organic chemist and vice president of technical operations at Midwest Research Institute. The task force saw that the Stowers Institute could pave the way for a huge life science initiative. Business leaders prepared a plan,and in October of 2000, the Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute was born.

KCALSI is a consortium of seven key stakeholder institutions-the University of Kansas, University of Missouri-Kansas City, the Stowers Institute, Midwest Research Institute, St. Luke's Medical Center, Children's Mercy Hospital, KU Medical Center and University of Health Sciences. The Institute's role is to act as facilitator and matchmaker among these organizations so that the Kansas City area can take on large, multidisciplinary initiatives. "The great thing about KCALSI is that it allows stakeholder institutions to take advantage of shared resources and go after much larger grants and opportunities than an individual could pursue," said Duncan. "Also, these stakeholders can take advantage of equipment at various institutions, so there's no unnecessary duplication of costly equipment."

A number of exciting things have grown out of KCALSI already. "In the last two or three years of business planning, quite a bit of media coverage has created momentum in the community," Dun-can said. This momentum has played a significant role in generating funding for several of its stakeholder institutions.

KCALSI's short term goal is to capitalize on this momentum and increase the amount of life science research going on in the Kansas City area. Specifically, the Institute wants to see significant growth in pro-teomics research, a discipline energized by the completion of the human genome project. Another short-term goal is to connect the various stakeholders through a database- sharing program. Also, the Institute will soon issue a request for proposals from its stakeholder institutions for center and program project grants.

"Our long-term goal is to build a critical mass of life science research in the region," said Duncan. "Within a 10-year period, we hope to be doing $500 million of life science research in the Kansas City area. A year ago the amount of research done in the area was listed at about $120 million, so that's a significant increase. "I think there's been a critical need for an organization that could act as a coordinator and facilitator between member institutions so that they could take on large, multidisciplinary programs. As I see it, that's what's exciting - the collaboration."