New tools, new technologies, new collaborations at new Ship Street labs

by Richard Besdine, M.D.

In August, the University opened new laboratories at 70 Ship St. in the city's Jewelry District. Inside this former watchband factory, two significant trends in science collide.

One trend is the blurring of academic disciplines. More and more, neuroscientists work with engineers, biologists team with statisticians, cognitive scientists collaborate with computer scientists. By crossing academic boundaries, scientists explore new ground and make substantial leaps.

An example at Brown is the Brain Science Program. A team of faculty members from the departments of neuroscience, engineering, computer science and applied mathematics developed a device with stunning promise - allowing paralyzed people to control a computer cursor using only their minds. This technology is being tested in quadriplegics in a clinical trial.

Such an enormous advance in science and medicine would not be possible unless the walls between researchers were torn down. At Ship Street, there are no walls.

Labs are built on an open floor plan. Each floor has a communal lounge, kitchen and conference room. The design is meant to encourage discussion and teamwork among researchers so that they can combine their expertise in biology, chemistry, pharmacology, physics, pathology, community health, computer science and biostatistics to better understand human health and disease.

The building is also within walking distance of other Jewelry District research buildings populated with scientists from Women & Infants Hospital, Rhode Island Hospital, and The Miriam Hospital, three of our affiliated hospitals. The building, with a 90-seat auditorium for lectures and meetings, should lure students and clinical faculty as well.

The Ship Street facility also offers tangible evidence of the second trend: the increasing precision of modern biomedical science. The building is host to experiments that reveal the inner workings of cells.

Brown professors will be using cutting-edge technologies in genomics and proteomics to explore fundamental disease processes, create new animal models of human diseases, and coordinate this wealth of information for the design of novel drugs and therapies. The fields of investigation include cancer, aging, neurodegenerative diseases, and reproductive failure, among others. Thanks to new tools, technologies and a significant emphasis on computational methods, this undertaking places Brown Medical School at the forefront of institutions exploiting the promise of molecular medicine to alleviate human suffering.

This means that by collaborating, we can ask better, and bolder, questions. By unlocking the body's most minute mysteries, we can develop safer and more effective ways to treat and prevent disease. I cannot think of a better investment for Brown University to have made.

Richard W. Besdine, M.D., is interim dean of medicine and biological sciences.