Statewide Clinical Trials Network of Texas joins Rice’s BRC
BRC helps others take research from bench to bedside

BY JESSICA STARK
Rice News staff

The newly formed Statewide Clinical Trials Network of Texas (CTNeT), with central coordinating and operations staff in Austin and Houston, has signed a lease to house its Houston offices in Rice University’s BioScience Research Collaborative (BRC) at the corner of Main Street and University Boulevard.

CTNeT is a Texas nonprofit corporation committed to expediting and improving the clinical testing of novel cancer treatments and rapidly translating those advances from research labs to clinical application.

“The BRC space positions CTNeT and its staff in close proximity to MD Anderson, which will play an important role in the early central coordination of the trials, and to the Baylor Medical Center, where the CTNeT tissue biorepository and the Cancer Genetics Laboratory is housed,” said Patty Winger, chief operating officer for CTNeT. “At the same time, the BRC allows CTNeT to maintain its independence from any one institution while it continues to build upon the collaborative efforts of its 14 founding institutions.”

“CTNeT gives Texas the capability to run more clinical trials and help accelerate the translation of fundamental knowledge and application of the research within the Texas Medical Center and beyond,” said George McLendon, Rice University provost. “As the BRC grows and embodies the role of a think tank, CTNeT will be an important part of the intellectual ecosystem within and help bridge the gap from bench to bedside.”

In the 477,000-square-foot, 10-story BRC, CTNeT joins an extensive network of scientists and educators from Rice, Texas Children’s Hospital, the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT), the Gulf Coast Consortia, the Texas-UK Collaborative Research Initiative, the National Space Biomedical Research Institute and Baylor College of Medicine’s Center for Space Medicine.

CTNeT recently received a $25.2 million award from CPRIT to establish a statewide academic- and community-based clinical trials network. CTNeT’s award is the single largest research grant awarded by CPRIT, the state agency overseeing Texas’ investment in promising cancer research and prevention programs.

CTNeT expects to open its first clinical trial during the first quarter of 2011. Leading CTNeT’s strategic efforts will be Dr. James Abbruzzese, chairman of the gastrointestinal medical oncology department at MD Anderson Cancer Center and one of world’s foremost leaders in the clinical study and treatment of pancreatic cancer. Abbruzzese will serve as chair of the CTNeT Strategic Steering Committee.

“From the onset, the model for CTNeT is to be responsive to the findings and recommendations of the April 2010 Institute of Medicine report and improve the prioritization, selection, support and completion of cancer clinical trials,” Abbruzzese said in a press release announcing the creation of CTNeT.

CTNeT will house its administrative offices on the first floor of the BRC, which was thoughtfully designed to facilitate and encourage interdisciplinary interactions among interinstitutional researchers.

The BRC, the largest building project Rice has ever undertaken, is designed to eventually accommodate a visualization center and an entire floor dedicated to biomedical informatics. In addition to labs and offices, it features classrooms and 10,000 square feet of retail space for a restaurant and shops, as well as three levels of underground parking. The site includes the potential for adding a second research tower that could add another 150,000 gross square feet.

Negotiations are under way with several other Texas Medical Center institutions and institutions outside of Houston about leasing space in the BRC. For more information about the BRC, visit www.rice.edu/brc.