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Newsletter:  Fall 2004/ Issue 6
Key Center Partners Join Forces with "Explore Life" to Further Russian-PNW Biomedical Links

by Carol Vipperman, FRAEC

The Pacific Northwest’s strong international orientation and reputation for excellence in the biomedical sciences make it an ideal area to launch a new partnership to facilitate biomedical and biotechnology research collaboration between scientists in the Pacific Northwest and Russia. The partnership brings together Explore Life, a civic partnership that seeks to create an international hub of biotechnology industry in the Pacific Northwest, and two organizations with strong ties to Russian science and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory: The Foundation for Russian American Economic Cooperation (FRAEC) and the U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation (CRDF). The goal of this new partnership is to speed the transfer of scientific results to the marketplace, improve public health, and support the economic transition of Russian science.

The Foundation for Russian and American Economic Cooperation, a Seattle-based organization, is one of the Center’s key partners, collaborating with the Laboratory on economic transition in the Russian closed nuclear cities as part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Russia Transition Initiative. "The Center has a strong interest in scientific and economic collaborations with Russia," notes Carol Kessler, the center director, "and is always looking for ways to link the Laboratory’s scientists with their Russian counterparts."

The Explore Life partners are planning a technology commercialization workshop in Seattle this fall for representatives from biotechnology companies, research laboratories, and investors. The workshop will also include selected Russian researchers interested in exploring partnerships with the Seattle-area participants.

"If the great science that is being done in the Pacific Northwest and Russia is to quickly start benefiting people around the world, then we must provide a broad range of researchers with the skills and understanding to launch their discovery," says Maura O’Neill, president & chief executive officer of Explore Life.

The workshop will highlight institutional capabilities in Russia and seek to stimulate interest in partnerships between the U.S. and Russian participants. Cathleen Campbell, CRDF’s senior vice president, notes that "the CRDF has almost 10 years of experience in linking scientific talent in Russia with U.S. industry. We believe that the potential in the Seattle area for our programs to facilitate successful, mutually beneficial collaboration with Russia is extraordinary."

The Explore Life partners are also exploring interest in bringing a branch campus of an appropriate Russian university to Seattle as a core element of its strategy. The goals of this project are threefold:

Although still in the early stages, this partnership is committed to furthering the cooperation between the Pacific Northwest region and Russia.

"We are very excited about this new opportunity to bring the talent, resources, and capabilities of the Russian biotech industry to our region," notes FRAEC President Carol Vipperman. "CRDF and Explore Life are natural partners for this endeavor, and we look forward to working with the Pacific Northwest Center for Global Security to identify ways to leverage our respective strengths. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is an important regional scientific resource. It operates the Environmental Molecular Science Laboratory (EMSL), a Department of Energy user facility in Richland, Washington that serves the needs of scientists from around the world, including its own growing systems biology staff."

The Laboratory is currently collaborating with the University of Washington and the Seattle-based Institute for Systems Biology on bioscience research.