Release Date: 08/11/2005

Shreveport Times: Cristina Rodriguez

SHREVEPORT, LA: August 11, 2005  A $305,310 grant to update scientific equipment used by the Biomedical Research Foundation is a "validation that what is happening here is being seen by those in the know," the foundation's president said Wednesday.

"Research is the life blood of innovation," Jack Sharp said at a news conference adjacent to labs where research on cancer, fetal alcohol syndrome and other issues is done.  "All of that innovation has to begin somewhere, and the beginning point is the basic research taking place here."

The money from the Troy, Michigan-based Kresge Foundation will be split. The Biomedical Research Foundation will use the first $152,655 for equipment: a heavily used flow cytometer that identifies, counts and classifies cells; and Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction instrumentation, which helps copy a single gene billions of times.

A local campaign has to raise $604,000 for an equipment endowment before the remaining $152,655 is sent over. That money will also go into the endowment. 

The foundation raised $310,000 from the community to be allowed to apply for the grant.

The Kresge Foundation, started in 1924 by the founder of what would eventually become Kmart, has given more than $2.1 billion in grants since its inception "to promote the well-being of mankind."

The Biomedical Research Foundation is overseeing a master plan to build the biotechnology industry in Shreveport. In 25 years, it plans to have created 6,000 technology jobs, mostly within the InterTech Park being built near the LSU Health Sciences Center.  Currently the sixth floor of the Biomedical Research Institute houses LSU's Research Core Facility, the benefactor of the Kresge grant. The idea is that the labs there and at an upcoming wet lab incubator can create technology that can be turned into companies. Those companies would move into the InterTech Park.

"When candidates for the faculty interview, they commonly comment on how surprised they are to find the kind of core facility they find here," said Dr. John McDonald, LSUHSC's chancellor.