AHSC Phoenix Campus Office of Research Awarded $900,000 Grant

The Phoenix Campus of the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center (AHSC) has received a $900,000 commitment from The Flinn Foundation to support the startup of a research consortium that will promote collaborations among health sciences researchers in Phoenix and Tucson.

Dr. Michael S. Gordon, associate dean for research for the AHSC Phoenix Campus, will oversee the two-year planning and development grant, which will build the Arizona Health Sciences Center Research Consortium. The consortium will focus on a variety of initiatives to promote educational, regulatory and research infrastructure needs.

"The development of the AHSC Research Consortium represents a unique opportunity to establish stronger collaborations among researchers in Tucson and in the greater-Phoenix metropolitan area," says Dr. Gordon. "Our major goal is to establish the Phoenix area as a focal point for research in the health sciences."

"The array of medical research studies in Arizona has grown in recent years, and is poised for dramatic advances and expansion," says John W. Murphy, executive director of The Flinn Foundation. "This consortium will join Phoenix and Tucson research teams to position Arizona as a prime location for studies of new therapeutic and diagnostic treatments. The timing comes just as research funding by the National Institutes of Health is increasing."

The research consortium represents a shared vision of the future and a firm belief that AHSC's research expertise, in union with Phoenix-area research physicians, can help make Phoenix a major hub for new drug discovery and development.

Dr. Jacqueline A. Chadwick, vice dean of the AHSC Phoenix Campus, said, "The research initiative of the AHSC Phoenix Campus seeks to increase the number of health-related research projects in Phoenix, including clinical trials of new drugs for cancer and other diseases. This generous grant helps us achieve that goal. It also broadens the Arizona Health Sciences Center's increasing partnership with Phoenix-area physicians and institutions."

The research consortium initially will focus on strengthening clinical trials of new drugs for treating cancer. "Increasing access to cancer-prevention strategies will be a major priority for the research consortium. By establishing relationships with physicians and institutions in the Phoenix area, we hope to increase insight and participation in ongoing research studies designed to test new ways of treating and preventing cancer," Dr. Gordon says. He added that other clinical research projects will be added to the consortium's agenda later.

Expanding these relationships within the Phoenix area, as well as between Phoenix and Tucson, will ensure that patients throughout Arizona can more easily gain access to new opportunities for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of a wide range of diseases.

The Flinn Foundation is a private, nonprofit philanthropic trust established in 1965 by Dr. and Mrs. Robert S. Flinn. The Foundation supports projects of Arizona nonprofit organizations primarily in the medical sciences field, as well as a college scholarship program involving Arizona's universities and an annual grants program in the arts.