NSF Engines: Piedmont Triad Regenerative Medicine Engine

Piedmont Triad再生医学引擎（以下简称“Piedmont Triad引擎”）正在维克森林再生医学研究所（WFIRM）与其广泛的合作伙伴网络合作，致力于围绕再生医学（RM）领域的强大资产建立一个生态系统。该引擎位于北卡罗来纳州中部的Piedmont Triad地区，将提供资源，加速使用灵感型RM技术向商业产品的过渡，为该地区及其多元化社区创造经济驱动力。RM行业的增长有助于解决长期的区域挑战，这些挑战与再培训和提高当地就业不足的劳动力有关，这些劳动力是由于整个服务区域的烟草、纺织品和家具工作岗位的减少而留下的。该项目优先为该地区历史悠久的黑人学院和大学（HBCUs）建设技术基础设施，以减少STEM领域代表性不足群体的差距。再生医学承诺提供永久治疗，而不是缓解症状，鉴于医疗成本不断上升，这是一项重要的进步。目标是打破依赖终身维持药物和治疗的循环。技术重点领域包括标准化材料和流程，用于生产可推向市场的RM产品。业界伙伴和社区持份者将推动科技发展的方向，同时通过学术研究环境进行创造性创新。由Piedmont Triad Engine产生的技术将通过强大的业务开发系统进行商业化，从而产生新的公司和增加的劳动力需求，这些需求将由Piedmont Triad Engine的合作伙伴（包括两年制社区和技术学院）来满足。该NSF引擎将建立在行业使用启发和指导研究的基础上，涵盖产品创意和开发，转化科学，生物制造和下一代战略，包括空间RM技术。创新、翻译和教育核心系统将在合作学术机构之间开发，包括在服务地区的hbcu和技术学院，该系统将结合多个领域的科学专业知识，以应对RM多学科领域的挑战。Piedmont Triad Engine提供的资源将增加该地区的竞争优势，并利用其作为RM行业中心的全国声誉，吸引更多的资本和新公司到该地区。Piedmont Triad Engine将为该地区创造一支训练有素的新RM员工队伍，这将使美国在下一代RM疗法的开发和制造方面具有竞争优势，并有可能影响全球数百万人。从技术创新中产生的RM业务将成为经济驱动力，吸引全国利益相关者的投资。创造新的RM产品和业务将创造自我维持的区域繁荣，并对该地区的许多社区产生经济影响，包括皮埃蒙特三合会地区历史上处于不利地位的黑人社区。这个NSF引擎项目建立在WFIRM强大的研究和开发组合的基础上，并强调与已经在服务地区的强大劳动力发展组织合作建立创新生态系统的实践和商业化步骤。生物医学技术和RM行业与服务区域的优先事项表现出强烈的一致性，与实地考察团队合作的热情合作伙伴的强烈表现加强了这一点。领导层已经准备好利用NSF引擎资源来弥合研究实验室和商业市场之间的差距，而不会让当地社区落后。社区参与和劳动力培训将是皮埃蒙特三合一引擎成功的关键。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Piedmont Triad Regenerative Medicine Engine (the Piedmont Triad Engine) is working to build an ecosystem around strong assets in the field of regenerative medicine (RM) based at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) in collaboration with its extensive network of partners. Located in the Piedmont Triad region of central North Carolina, the Engine will provide the resources to accelerate transition of use-inspired RM technologies into commercial products, creating an economic driver for the region and its diverse communities. This growth in the RM industry helps to address long-term regional challenges related to retraining and upskilling of an underemployed local workforce left behind by the loss of tobacco, textiles and furniture jobs throughout the region of service. The project prioritizes building a technical infrastructure for historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the region to reduce disparities for underrepresented groups in STEM fields. Regenerative medicine promises to offer permanent cures rather than relief from symptoms, which is an important advance given rising healthcare costs. The goal is to break the cycle of dependence on lifelong maintenance drugs and therapies. Areas of technical focus include standardized materials and processes for the production of RM products that can be brought to market. Industry partners and community stakeholders will drive the direction of the technology development, while allowing for creative innovation through the academic research environment. Technologies born from the Piedmont Triad Engine will be commercialized through a robust business development system, giving rise to new companies and increased workforce demand that will be met by the Piedmont Triad Engine’s partners including two-year community and technical colleges.This NSF Engine will be built upon industry use-inspired and guided research spanning product ideation and development, translational science, biomanufacturing, and next generation strategies, including In-Space RM technologies. An Innovation, Translation, & Education Core system will be developed across partnering academic institutions, including at HBCUs and technical colleges in the region of service, that combines multiple areas of scientific expertise to address challenges in the multidisciplinary field of RM. The resources provided by the Piedmont Triad Engine will increase the region’s competitive advantage and leverage its national reputation as a hub for the RM industry, attracting more capital and new companies to the region.The Piedmont Triad Engine will have transformative impact on the region by creating a new trained RM workforce that will give the U.S. a competitive edge in the development and manufacture of next-generation RM therapies with potential to impact millions of individuals worldwide. RM businesses that emerge from technical innovations will be economic drivers, attracting investment from stakeholders across the nation. Creation of new RM products and businesses will create self-sustaining regional prosperity with economic impact for many communities in the region, including historically disadvantaged Black communities in the Piedmont Triad region.This NSF Engine project is built on a strong research and development portfolio at WFIRM and emphasizes the translation to practice and commercialization steps of building an innovation ecosystem in partnership with strong workforce development organizations already in the region of service. Biomedical technologies and the RM industry show strong alignment with the priorities of the region of service, which was reinforced by the strong showing of enthusiastic partners who engaged with the site visit team. The leadership is ready to utilize the NSF Engine resources to bridge the gap between the research lab and the commercial market without leaving the local community behind. Community engagement and workforce training will be key to the success of the Piedmont Triad Engine.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.