The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences have signed a collaborative agreement to accelerate basic, translational research.
The scientific and business-development team at The Hamner Institutes will work with Carolina's schools of medicine, pharmacy and public health, and its Kenan-Flagler Business School, to identify and develop new research leads. Initially they anticipate working on therapies for cancer and respiratory diseases.
Together they will also seek a wide array of research grant opportunities from government, industry and non-profit organizations to accelerate development of promising research and technologies that can be licensed out and/or spun out into the University's new innovation center.
This new partnership between The Hamner Institutes and the University will draw upon extensive resources available at the state's other academic institutions and the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, which supports statewide faculty recruitment, scientific education, economic development and technology development.
"We are extremely pleased and honored to be joining with one of the world's leading research universities to create a unique integrative model for translating basic science research into new medicines," said William Greenlee, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Hamner Institutes. "This partnership also will foster new alliances between academe, industry and government regulatory agencies to advance public health research, education and scientifically informed policies."