NCI Ground Breaking at Riverside

I was invited to attend the Ground Breaking Ceremonies yesterday at the new NCI facility near Monocacy Blvd and Gas House Pike.  I don’t know if people around town appreciate what a monumental occasion this is for FredCoBio.

The new facilities, situated on 117 scenic acres, will be comprised of a 330,000 sq. ft state-of-the-art Research and Development building (housing the Biopharm. Manufacturing and Advanced Technology Programs) and an additional 470,000 sq. ft for “synergistic partners.”  The campus will be complete with gardens and walkways, plenty of open green space for Scientific Contemplation.

The Biopharm Mfg group will be making material for clinical trials.  The ATP group will be conducting basic R&D.  The “Synergistic Partners” will be a melding of Acedemia & Industry in an Incubator-like Think Tank to create a “vibrant  new research facility” according to Dr John Niederhuber (Director of NCI).

This will, in effect, make Frederick the center for rapid discoveries that will impact human health and people around the world.  I don’t recall who specifically said this, but the facility, planned to open in early 2011, is expected to be testing new thereapies, diagnostics and cancer treatments within the next 5 years.  As Dr. Niederhuber stated “The efforts today will change the lives of millions”

One focus of the research will be in “Personalized Oncology”. Every cancer is essentially different and every person reacts differently to treatments and therapies.  This vision was elegently presented by Dr Niederhuber when one looks at the “miraculous, single case” scenerio.  Today we see that one individual among many who responds to a particular therapy and is “cured”, while the other 95% are deceased within a few months of diagnosis.  It appears that something specific, genetic, to this individual would be the cause for the favorable reaction to therapy. Understanding these mechanisms will be a focus of a genomic approach to cancer research.

And as recently re-elected Congressman Roscoe Bartlett put it, “Frederick will be known around the World” as the center of Cancer research, just as Bethesda was analogous to the NIH in the 70’s and 80’s.  He painted the picture of the “slow crawl” of biotech up the 270 corridor which is now “Blooming in Frederick.”

I had intended to scooop the Frederick-News Post on this story, but I got distracted and didn’t get my post up yesterday.  But I will scoop them on the golden shovel ceremoney by posting a video of the pinnacle of the event: