Dear IBRI Stakeholders,
Hope is something we all need, especially when facing life's biggest health challenges.
“Science Creates Hope.”
It is only three words. Yet, to the scientists at the Indiana Biosciences Research Institute (IBRI), it is a powerful statement that embodies our lifelong commitment to advancing innovative solutions for complex diseases. We proudly share this message at the Indianapolis International Airport as an award-winning campaign welcoming guests and residents to find out more about the IBRI’s translational research that is leading to novel therapeutics.
Throughout the past year, we have enhanced our science and patient impact by focusing our efforts to accelerate research in Alzheimer’s disease (“Alzheimer’s research – accelerated”) and pediatric rare diseases, including osteosarcoma (“Battling a rare children’s bone cancer”) and neurofibromatosis 2 (“Using patient-centered science against NF2”).
We also expanded our intern program to instill our passion for science in 10 students from our neighborhood high schools (“Future STEM leaders”), as well as six undergraduate and graduate students from the IU School of Medicine, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and Hanover College.
Our work to grow the biomedical community continued in 2022 through the expanded use of our lab space to a total of 13 resident start-ups (“Entrepreneurial ecosystem expansion”). Additionally, we made significant steps toward achieving our vision of being a world-class collaborative research institution through our partnership with INSERM Paris (“INSERM Paris satellite lab opens at the IBRI”).
In 2022, we renewed our strategy to enable innovation in the life sciences ecosystem, improve the efficiency of therapeutic discovery, and more quickly translate disease hypotheses into potential therapies that improve patient health outcomes here in Indiana and around the world.
That evolution has led us to an inflection point of growth in 2023 when we plan to add up to 20 new employees as part of our enhanced scientific capabilities in drug discovery (“The Dr. August M. Watanabe Drug Discovery Laboratory launched”), bioinformatics and enabling technologies.
To each of you, I want to say thank you. You helped us get here. You enabled us to expand our facilities, hire top talent, enhance our diabetes research footprint and move into new disease research areas. You help us create hope for patients through science. Hope that they will see better treatment – or even a cure – in their lifetime. I am grateful for your support in our shared mission to improve human health.
I also want to thank our team members, our collaborators and our member companies for your commitment and passion. Together we will make powerful discoveries to defeat disease.
Best regards,
Alan Palkowitz, PhD
President and CEO
Indiana Biosciences Research Institute