Arizona Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University

[conceptualized; designed; initiated; fully operational by December 2004]

At an institution-building level, we will press for the creation of programs and initiatives that drive our research enterprise to higher levels of scientific and economic achievement. We have launched the Arizona Biodesign Institute, a state-of-the-art interdisciplinary research program and facility that will be the cornerstone of our research infrastructure in this vital and burgeoning field.

This new enterprise will focus on designing new biodevices, biomaterials, biotools, biosystems, and bioinformatic networks, all intended to directly help people, and to lay down the foundation for new economic activity. This research institute will serve as the prototype for the building of a new entrepreneurial research spirit at Arizona State University, and will enable us to enter the international competitive field of bioscience, biotechnology, and biomedicine with a set of research teams, students, and research facilities that will allow us to become globally competitive in less than two years.

Catalyzing large-scale interdisciplinary research focused on designing and meeting human health needs, the researchers at the institute will pursue advances in fundamental science and engineering related to the design of critical biotechnology solutions. We will be focusing on two emerging areas of great contemporary importance: biologics and therapeutics by design, and nano-scale biologic systems by design.

The work of the institute will significantly enhance our ability to develop new classes of pharmaceuticals that will monitor and remediate environmental change, rehabilitate motor function disorders, and initiate start-up biotechnology companies. To carry out this ambitious research agenda, we will collaborate with the University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University.

At a regional level, the Arizona Biodesign Institute will contribute to the potential for a globally competitive and internationally recognized biosciences cluster in metropolitan Phoenix, adding depth to the regional technology mix and diversifying the state’s economic base. At an institutional level, the Arizona Biodesign Institute represents the movement of the research enterprise of this university from a slow-moving agency model to a fast-moving enterprise model.