Collaboration, From the Ground Up

Mary “Cindy” Farach-Carson will become Rice’s first associate vice provost for research (AVPR) and a professor of biochemistry and cell biology on July 1, 2009. She has a secondary appointment in bioengineering and is a member of the Institute of Biosciences and Bioengineering.

 

 

Q&A

Cindy Farach-Carson
Associate Vice Provost for Research
Professor of Biochemistry and Cell Biology
Rice University

 

RICE: When you join Rice as AVPR, how will you be involved with the BioScience Research Collaborative (BRC)?

FARACH-CARSON: The new position has a strong focus on building collaborations between Rice and local biomedical research and education institutions through the BRC. As AVPR, one of my primary functions will be to build interdisciplinary research collaborations in the broad spectrum of biomedical and health research and education. I also will help provide scientific leadership and vision for the BRC and help expand the ability of Rice’s Office of Research to support faculty research activities.

 

RICE: Which of your experiences do you think will help you most in your work at the BRC?

FARACH-CARSON: I am a researcher myself, which will benefit my administrative role with fostering collaborations. I started out as a bone biologist and then segued into cancer research. Currently, I’m part of a $7.6 million multi-institutional National Cancer Institute Research Project that’s designed to study how and why prostate cancer spreads to bone.

My life has progressively moved toward more collaborative work. I have found that the longer I have been a researcher, the more I have really started to think about how I can do more than just become a successful individual scientist. Our planet has huge challenges that need to be fixed, and that can’t be done alone. Attacking big problems such as cancer requires innovative teams of brilliant people who span a variety of disciplines. Being surrounded by these types of people is one of the reasons I chose to return to Houston and join Rice as AVPR.

 

RICE: What is your vision for the BRC?

FARACH-CARSON: I would like to see the BRC become a vanguard for showing how it is possible to bring the best basic science and the best clinical or applied science together for a smooth transfer of knowledge from “bench to practice,” which is even broader than the “bench to bedside” so often talked about. We live in the Bio Age, and the opportunities for integrating life sciences discoveries at Rice with world challenges are enormous.

Science will play a central part in this economic recovery and in providing new “real value” to the economy. That will happen if new knowledge is speedily translated into products that people need and businesses can profit from, which will create a first-rate science and technology workforce in America. I’d like to see the BRC be a hub where that process of innovation begins.

 

RICE: What challenges will the BRC have to overcome to be successful?

FARACH-CARSON: I think one of the biggest challenges will be blending cultures from researchers in different fields of basic science with clinical and translational researchers who are much more applied. There will be challenges in changing people’s habits and reward systems, such that truly interdisciplinary projects can be undertaken in a spirit of trust. Another issue is how credit for discoveries is shared, and how funding allocations are shared among different organizational groups.

There are also challenges inherent in establishing the reputation of the BRC. If it is only defined as a building, it will fail. What it has to be is a hub that brings together people who work in whatever research areas are captured in the collaborative web. I don’t want the word “collaborative” to mean the building — I want it to be the effort that comes about as a result of that building.

 

RICE: What areas of science will research at the BRC impact?

FARACH-CARSON: I am most excited to see what discoveries the BRC can help take from bench to practice. To me, the real core of this building is the word “collaborative.” It’s not just about biomedicine, because that implies that every project has a goal to do something that’s good for a patient, and I think that’s a very narrow view of what collaboration can produce. I care tremendously about health care, but it’s not the end-all and the be-all. The life sciences also have applications in science-driven products that are good for the economy, whether they’re clothing or cars or rooftops that don’t leak energy.

The key issue is, how do you bring together all of the basic new pieces of knowledge we gain in the lab and use them to improve the quality of life for the people on our planet and to improve our planet in general? There’s a huge wealth of talent at Rice that is extremely capable of addressing those issues.