Health Sciences South Carolina announced the award of its first endowed-chair matching grant, committing $5 million toward the establishment of the South Carolina Brain Imaging Center of Excellence.

The center will serve as the impetus for an industrial cluster in the lucrative multidisciplinary field of brain imaging, integrating the intellectual resources of the University of South Carolina and the Medical University of South Carolina with new physical resources so together the universities can compete internationally for funding, projects and people.

In April 2004, the board for the South Carolina Research Centers of Economic Excellence awarded $5 million of its $19 million in legislative funding to MUSC for the second year of its endowed chairs program. Later that same month, the leaders of MUSC, Greenville Hospital System, Palmetto Health and USC signed a memorandum of understanding to establish the South Carolina Health Sciences Collaborative.

Founded with the vision of improving the health and economic wellbeing of South Carolina through a coordinated effort to advance health sciences education and research, SCHSC is an inclusive public-private partnership that seeks to bring together universities, health systems and other partners committed to the vision of using health science education and research to drive economic growth and improve the health status of South Carolinians. The health care collaborative allowed the research universities to match state funding with the state's health systems to more quickly achieve their financial goals for the endowed chairs program.

Each year, the state's three research universities submit proposals requesting between $2 million and $5 million to be matched by private support. The institutions have one year to get pledges and five years to receive the money.

This award will help facilitate the purchase of a 3 Tesla Magnetic Resonance Imaging scanner, which will be located in a facility on the campus of Palmetto Health Richland. MUSC already has a 3T MRI scanner, used cooperatively by MUSC and USC scientists for research and patient care.

"In a state that is primarily rural in population, these three scanners connected to this research initiative will provide access to the entire population of South Carolina in advancing research that will directly impact economic development, creation of new jobs and the transfer of knowledge to physicians, nurses and allied health professionals," says MUSC President Ray Greenberg.

Palmetto Health will use the high field strength MRI scanner for clinical research and patient care. Plans are to add a third 3T MRI scanner in the Upstate on the campus of Greenville Hospital System. The three high-field scanners will be electronically linked and integrated through the Brain Imaging Center.

Dr. Mark George, MUSC Center for Advanced Imaging Research director, will be co-director of the Brain Imaging Center. George says the Brain Imaging Center has the potential to impact economic development in several ways: attracting multimillion dollar grants and research partnerships, the sale of patents on technology developed by the Center and job creation. The integrated statewide network of 3T MRI scanners located in Charleston, Columbia and Greenville will help South Carolina lure companies interested in conducting large-scale clinical trials.

"The fact that we can offer three of the most powerful MRI scanners in the world in three very different geographies is very attractive to companies that need to test new technologies or pharmaceuticals in a large, ethnically diverse population," adds the Brain Imaging Center's co-director Dr. Gordan C. Baylis, who also is the associate provost for academic initiatives at USC.

The Brain Imaging Center will target research projects that focus on neuro-degenerative disease like stroke, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease; serious health threats that are all too common in South Carolina. "Our state is at or near the top of the list in these diseases due to the age, poor diet, lack of exercise and smoking. While it is a problem, South Carolina's poor health status also represents an opportunity for us to make significant improvements," says Baylis.

Making the announcement were Health Sciences South Carolina founding partners Greenberg, USC president Andrew Sorensen, Palmetto Health CEO Kester Freeman and Greenville Hospital System president and CEO Frank Pinckney.

"When the General Assembly agreed to make funding available to our state's research universities through the South Carolina Research Centers of Economic Excellence Act, they created a window of opportunity for transforming South Carolina's economy," Sorensen says. "Today, Health Sciences South Carolina has responded by committing $5 million to advancing brain imaging clinical research and patient care. The Brain Imaging Center will allow USC and MUSC to accelerate the pace of research by leveraging USC's expertise in cognitive neuroscience, computer science, engineering and public health and MUSC's international reputation in brain imaging and new brain therapies, making South Carolina more competitive nationally and internationally."

"The goal of the collaborative is to achieve tangible benefits for our state as quickly as possible, recognizing that stimulating economic growth through health sciences research and education requires a long-term commitment," adds Freeman. "In the case of the Brain Imaging Center, South Carolinians will see an immediate return on investment. The fact that the Brain Imaging Center will be actively engaged in patient care in a state adversely affected by stroke, particularly among the African-American community, is very exciting."