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GHS gets funding for health institute

GHS gets funding for health institute
Investments are key step in collaborative's goal to expand research, improve care

Posted Saturday, September 17, 2005 - 6:00 am

By Liv Osby and Tim Smith
STAFF WRITERS
losby@greenvillenews.com

Greenville Hospital System will build a health sciences institute to help take research innovations from the lab to the marketplace with a $9.5 million investment from two South Carolina universities that got state matching funds Friday.

GHS is part of Health Sciences South Carolina, a collaborative formed last year to drive economic growth by fostering research the partners hope will attract biotechnology companies and promote development of better-paying jobs.

The collaborative was formed by GHS, the Medical University of South Carolina, the University of South Carolina, and Palmetto Health. Clemson University and Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System subsequently joined as well.

Each is investing $2 million a year over a decade, which would be eligible for a state match, to leverage more funding from the federal government, national foundations and private institutions for medical research.

One of its first projects is a research institute at GHS to train more health-care professionals and to further biomedical research.

GHS is providing 22 acres on Grove Road for the $20 million, 100,000-square-foot health sciences research institute. GHS CEO Frank Pinckney said initial site work will begin in November. Construction should be finished by late 2006 or early 2007, said Dr. Harris Pastides, vice president for research and health sciences at USC.

Most of the research activities will be housed there, Pinckney said. But because some work needs to be done closer to patients, it will be carried out at other GHS campuses, he said.

Clemson pledged $7 million while USC committed $2.5 million toward that project. And on Friday, the Infrastructure Review Board, appointed by the state to administer funds from the South Carolina Life Sciences Act, approved the idea, providing the matching funds to help make it a reality.

Another $2.5 million pledged by MUSC for the project was put on hold because the board didn't have enough time to review the details, Pinckney said.

Rest at Greenville News