2.5M award to help make CSI biotech center

STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE
Friday, October 25, 2002

A $2.5 million state award will help create a major biotechnology research institute at the College of Staten Island, state Sen. John Marchi and Dr. Marlene Springer, the college president, have announced.

Dr. Springer heralded the award – garnered with Marchi’s help – as “a momentous occasion for the College of Staten Island.” The new center, called the Macromolecular Assemblies Institute, will contribute to advances in medicine and agriculture, and may even be important to efforts to combat bioterrorism.

The money comes from a $225 million state fund, called Gen*NY*sis (Generating Employment for New York Science), which is designed to expand the state’s biotechnology research industry.

“I think it speaks well of the senator and I that we are supportive of an institute it took us a while to learn to pronounce,” Dr. Springer laughingly told a room of scientists, administrators and deans gathered Wednesday at the Willowbrook campus. On a more serious note, she said the award is formal recognition of the value of the research already under way at CSI, and will help the college expand and extend that research.

The investment in biotech research will bring many local benefits, but has implications beyond Staten Island’s borders, Marchi said.

“This is an area of maximum concern and sensitivity,” he said, “not only in the state, but federally.”

The $2.5 million is only the first installment of a larger commitment he hoped to extract from the state, Marchi told Dr. Springer.

“You ain’t seen nothing yet,” he said.

Dr. Ruth E. Stark, a veteran researcher at CSI and head of its nuclear magnetic resonance facility, will head the institute. She earned her Ph.D. in physical chemistry at the University of California, San Diego, and obtained postdoctoral training in molecular biophysics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge. She teaches general and physical chemistry at CSI, and has co-directed the City University of New York’s Center for Applied Biomedicine and Biotechnology.

The money will give the college the momentum it needs to build a world-class research facility, Dr. Stark said.

“The simple thing would be to take the money and to make good use of it,” she said. “But the better thing is to build on it for the future.”

While the money is earmarked for capital costs, such as laboratories and equipment, it will also enhance CSI’s reputation, which will bring in more funding and attract scientists who are leaders in their fields, Dr. Stark said.

As its title implies, the new institute will focus on the interaction of large molecules which – in the body or a test tube – assemble themselves into organized structures. These “assemblies” are the basic machines that drive all life: The cell itself is an assembly of molecules that interact in specific ways.

The outer protein skin of the HIV virus is an assembly, as is the receptor on the surface of a human cell to which the virus binds during infection.

By examining the structure and function of these assemblies, scientists hope to tease out the underlying mechanisms of healing and disease. They may also learn how to fabricate new assemblies, such as vaccines, that hinder the structures that contribute to disease.

Much of this work involves simply trying to “see” the molecules and how they bind together, said Dr. Stark. For that, researchers need a host of sophisticated tools. The grant will allow the college to get much-needed equipment and build new laboratories to aid the work.

Scientists at CSI are already studying “macromolecular assemblies” implicated in many diseases or possibly valuable in disease treatment. Dr. Stark is studying the assembly of proteins associated with Parkinson’s disease.

Other research may lead to new ways to deliver drugs to specific locales in the body, enhance the effectiveness of existing drugs or lessen the body’s rejection of transplanted organs. Some fields of study may help develop methods for detaching or removing biologically or chemically hazardous materials.

The research is valuable in its own right, but is also fundamental to the educational goals of the college, Dr. Stark noted.

“I know I can’t spend all my time in the classroom and still do my research,” she said. “But when I’m in the classroom I’m giving 110 percent. And I also bring my research into the classroom.”

Educating students in a reputable research setting exposes them to top-notch scientists and cutting edge ideas, Dr. Stark said, which enhances their knowledge and broadens their opportunities.

By Diana Yates
Reprinted here with permission from the