In Pursuit of New Knowledge: Embracing a ‘Culture of Inquiry,' Hiring World-Class Researchers and Building New High-tech Facilities, UNE Is Becoming a Significant Research University

By Steve Price

  "The stakes are clear. In the new global economy, the key to commercial success is knowledge. The asset with the greatest leverage in a knowledge economy is the modern research university…"
Paul Grogan, May 25, 2003 editorial in the Boston Globe

On a computer screen, in a cramped Stella Maris basement laboratory, beats the magnified image of a single heart cell. Like the organ from which it comes, the cell beats in a constant, rhythmic pattern, controlled by a complex chain of electrical and chemical events. The student research assistant is testing some of the cellular consequences of diabetes, focusing particularly on how the muscle cell handles calcium, important for normal heart function. She uses various drugs in an attempt to produce normal heart cell contraction and relaxation. What researchers are learning, in this tiny, secluded space, may one day save lives.

imageTeaching, service and research are the three pillars upon which universities are built. For most of its history, the University of New England has focused on two of those pillars, building a national reputation for excellence in teaching and developing a curriculum with a strong emphasis on service learning. More recently, the University has been quietly strengthening and expanding its scientific research capabilities, particularly in the areas of biomedicine, neuroscience, applied health and marine science.

In the medical school, Amy Davidoff, Ph.D. is investigating why diabetics suffer unusually high rates of heart disease; Edward Bilsky, Ph.D. is testing compounds that may one day replace addictive painkillers like morphine; and David Johnson, Ph.D. is searching for a way to treat Alzheimer's patients that would heal damaged brain cells.

Marine scientist Kathy Ono, Ph.D. hopes to learn how seal pups can move more successfully from our Marine Mammal Rehabilitation Center back to their real-world ocean environment. David Koester, Ph.D., a medical professor, seeks to understand how saltwater rays called skates "walk" along the ocean floor with leg-like appendages that suggest an evolutionary link between marine and terrestrial animals. Jacque Carter, Ph.D., dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, oversees research that tracks the seasonal movements of striped bass in the Saco River and the Gulf of Maine, using high-tech tracking devices placed on captured and released fish.

In the College of Health Professions, social work professors Stephen Rose, Ph.D. and Thomas McLaughlin, M.S.W. '97 seek to reduce smoking among poor, mentally ill people. And dental hygiene professor Lisa Dufour '76, M.S. involves her students in her on-going research on periodontal disease, which has been determined to have links to other human conditions such as heart disease, early labor in pregnant women and diabetes.

Of course, this is a very small sampling of research at UNE. And while natural science, medical school and health professions faculty do scientific research, the liberal arts faculty also advance human knowledge through scholarship. The results of those efforts take the form of books, articles in scholarly journals (and, more frequently, on academic web sites) and papers presented at conference.

This developing research model is already, in the words of Vice President for University Relations Ed Legg, "changing the culture and nature of the University of New England."

New Research Facility Planned
Since the Marine Science Education and Research Center opened in the fall of 2001, UNE's marine scientists have had the luxury of a state-of-the-art facility in which to pursue their research interests. For our medical science researchers, high-tech labs have been built in cramped, makeshift spaces throughout Stella Maris Hall, spaces made available seven years ago when the medical school faculty began teaching in the Harold Alfond Center for Health Sciences.

Expanding our biomedical research capabilities is key to the University's plans to become a significant research institution, which is part of the institution's larger vision to become a preeminent university. To achieve that goal, one of the issues we must address is our severe lack of quality research space. High-quality research space, located on an attractive ocean-side campus in Maine, will attract more world-class researchers to UNE, who will bring major federal and private grants along with them. To that end, the University is in the early stages of planning a 10-12,000-sq. ft. biomedical research facility to be located on the Biddeford campus, adjacent to the Alfond Center and close to the Marine Science Center.

The impetus to construct a new research facility started about two years ago when the College of Osteopathic Medicine joined the Maine Biomedical Research Coalition (MBRC), a group of five major research institutions that also includes The Jackson Laboratory, Maine Medical Center Research Institute, Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory and Foundation for Blood Research.

The Coalition's goal is to grow all its members' world-class biomedical research operations, which in turn will create many good-paying jobs for Maine workers in a clean industry committed to improving the health of the state's citizens.

To date, the Coalition has received some $45 million in state appropriation and bond monies. The University's share of those monies, with the addition of private funds still to be raised, will give us enough "seed money" to pursue a matching grant from the National Institutes of Health to build the proposed $4-6 million research facility. At press time, the grant submission to NIH was planned for October, 2004. If approved, and the additional funds are raised, the facility could be built and in operation by 2005 or 2006.

Positive Economic Impact
The MBRC has a remarkable track record. Prior to the 2003 bond, the state had invested $25 million in biomedical research. The Coalition's research labs have used this investment to attract an additional $168 million in federal and private grants—a 6-to-1 return on investment. Eighty-five percent of that money has stayed in Maine.

In human terms, more research means more jobs—construction jobs, research jobs, technical support jobs. Secure, good-paying jobs that will boost the local and state economy. A perfect example is Cathy Knowles, lab coordinator for biomedical researcher Edward Bilsky. Over the years, she has worked at four of the five organizations that comprise the Coalition. Her years of experience have made her acutely aware that good research jobs like hers are few and far between in Maine. "What the Coalition is doing, trying to gear up and make these kinds of jobs more available, is extremely important," Knowles says.

The medical school is committed to hiring more research-teachers for another important reason. Expanding UNECOM's research capabilities is critical to maintain the College's accreditation by the American Osteopathic Association (AOA). The AOA is requiring its accredited colleges to place more emphasis on research to advance health and document the efficacy of osteopathic principles and methods, to keep faculty members on the cutting edge of medical science, and to provide more research opportunities for students.

New medical researchers are being hired. One of them, Ian Meng, Ph.D., formerly of the University of California-San Francisco, is also focused on finding alternatives to treating pain.

The same trend is occurring in the College of Arts and Sciences. When hired, the new director of the Marine Science Center will be more than a top-flight administrator and educator. That person will also be a top researcher, as will the new veterinarian.

As new researchers are hired and infrastructure is established, UNE administrators envision a culture of cross-fertilization, both inside the University and among its coalition partners, that would produce a long list of cutting-edge, interdisciplinary research efforts. One of the hoped-for outcomes of internal collaboration would be medicines and other valuable products from the sea.

Creating a research institution involves a great deal more than hiring scientists and building labs, however. The entire university must rise to the occasion. The shift affects the Library and the IT Department (accessing and sharing information), the Business Office (meeting compliance regulations) and the Development Office (raising grant money for sponsored programs). [See, "Managing the Research Institution"]

A Culture of Inquiry
CAS Dean Jacque Carter talks about a "culture of inquiry" developing at UNE, a culture that pervades the entire university. This pervasive culture is "fundamentally different," he says, and requires a different kind of instruction and facilities. Faculty involved in original scientific research or academic scholarship will engage students to question what they know and seek their own answers, not merely absorb hand-me-down knowledge.

"This requires a more active role by students. It is hypothesis driven. Science is like this," notes Carter, a scientist. "It brings undergraduates meaningfully into the work they're doing…where they can experience the joy of discovering how things really are."

Such a culture would provide undergraduates numerous opportunities to work with graduate students and faculty members in a wide variety of research settings, giving them a unique hands-on learning experience.

"Universities are different from other institutions and organizations," explains Carter. "Here we ask questions, we generate new knowledge. The purpose of a liberal arts education is to liberate the mind to think freely. This is what makes us relevant. Makes it worth the headache. It's what makes an (educational) institution viable in the future and invaluable to society."
   

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