Arizona plots a course

The next six years will see the University of Arizona in Tucson expand its life-sciences capabilities. As part of a broader initiative to boost bioscience research in the state, the university plans to take on some 100 new faculty members in medicine, pharmacology, public health, agriculture and engineering.

The recruitment strategy, submitted to the university's vice-president for research at the beginning of the month, follows hot on the heels of a ten-year ‘road-map’ for the state unveiled last month. This was assembled by a statewide consortium of leaders from Arizona's government, education and business sectors who want to see the state focus its research efforts on cancer, neuroscience and bioengineering. The consortium's plan, which encompasses both the private sector and the state's universities, anticipates generating up to 32,000 bioscience jobs in Arizona by 2014.

A committee at the University of Arizona reacted to this vision with its own plan, which adds increases in research into diabetes, obesity and asthma to the state's core areas. Michael Cusanovich, the committee's chairman and director of the university's Arizona Research Laboratories, foresees hiring 30 members of staff in the first year of the plan.

Some of these new recruits will be in what Cusanovich calls the “crosscutting” disciplines of bioimaging and mathematical biology. These positions would support work being done in the three targeted research areas.

Although the committee is still discussing the improvements needed to house the new faculty members, it is likely that some space currently under construction will come into play. The university broke ground on two life-science projects this year — the $60-million Institute for Biomedical Science and Biotechnology, which will emphasize interdisciplinary research, and the $54-million Medical Research Building, which will house translational research. Both are scheduled for completion in 2005 and there are tentative plans for a third life-sciences building on the campus.

The six-year plan does not yet have an estimated cost, and it is also unclear how many of the proposed new positions would be net gains, as opposed to a reallocation of existing faculty slots.

Nevertheless, the university's expansion would complement other efforts in bioengineering, neuroscience and cancer research across the state.