TMC PULSE

t m c » p u l s e | m a y 2 0 1 8 17 institution research with bigger and better grants, a recognition by the government that more minds—or in this case, more organizations— are better than one. The TMC 3 campus will also encourage for-profit industry leaders to lease space, allowing for commercial partnerships and, ideally, an influx of venture capital. Alliances between institutions and commercial partners, McKeon said, will catalyze the development of new therapies, medical devices and digital health breakthroughs. It's an opportunity that has never existed before in the Texas Medical Center, primarily because of the covenants put in place during its founding, which are written to attract not-for- profits and discourage industry. But that was the past. The future, McKeon said, lies in the commer- cialization of research. Texas Medical Center executives asked the TMC Board of Directors to revise the covenants for the TMC 3 site as well as the TMC's innovation site, the former Nabisco building on the southeast corner of Holcombe Blvd. and Almeda Rd. that houses the TMC Innovation Institute as well as the AT&T Foundry and Johnson & Johnson's JLABS @ TMC and their Center for Device Innovation. "My hat has got to go off to the trustees of the Texas Medical Center," Paul Klotman, M.D., president, CEO and executive dean at Baylor College of Medicine said during the press event. "You did the brave thing, which is to completely change the covenants around two plots of land. … That is a visionary step." McKeon said that by allowing for-profit use of that land, pharma- ceutical companies would be able to work side-by-side with academic researchers and clinicians and really create a haven for accelerating dis- covery and moving groundbreaking therapies up to the front lines. "It's an opportunity that does not exist anywhere else in the world," McKeon said. "If you're at MD Anderson today, you want to make sure that your clinician knows the most advanced therapies and also knows the emerging therapies that are coming out of research, because a clinical trial may be your best hope." Peter Pisters, M.D., president of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, said TMC 3 will be a boon to research and development. "I think this really represents a monumental opportunity for great institutions to come together, for us to diversify the economy of southeast Texas, to create an even greater life sciences ecosystem here in Houston, and to really leverage a lot of the opportunity through the R&D [research and development] that exists right here in the Texas Medical Center," Pisters said at the press conference. McKeon cited the Broad Institute in Boston as a model for researchers and industry working side-by-side. "MIT and Harvard brought their best scientists together, and that collaborative network effect has accelerated discovery so much that it's drawn more industry around it, and suddenly it's become one of the fastest, most productive research spaces in the world." When institutions come together, McKeon explained, they gain the resources to invest in the most advanced technology and keep with the pace of inno- vation. Ultimately, he envisions industry giants like GE or Siemens adopting some of the labs as show- rooms, which would simultaneously benefit researchers and their com- mercial interests. A beacon to the world The Texas Medical Center and TMC 3 's other founding institutions will break ground on the new campus in 2019. Flanking the area will be a 410-room hotel and con- ference center, which will provide 50,000 square feet of meeting space for researchers and clinicians from around the world to convene in Houston. The Texas Medical Center is already a destination for patients seeking life-saving treatment. It is a place for students to learn and for scientists to immerse themselves in research. It is a place for discovery and innovation, and TMC 3 will be its beacon, a signal to the world that Houston is the next big player in health care innovation and biomedi- cal sciences. "We recognize we must do more than simply represent a collection of individual institutions that happen to share proximity. We must com- pletely change the way we operate," McKeon said. "Our institutions are aligning in new ways, leveraging our collective expertise. Our future is extremely bright and we are only limited by our imagination and will- ingness to work together to build upon our vision." That confidence is shared among leaders in Houston and beyond. "TMC 3 will, for a while, be competing with the best of the best around the United States and then the globe," Gov. Abbott said, at the press conference. "And then TMC 3 will attain its rightful position of being the No. 1 biotechnology and biosciences center in the world. And we can do that because we are Texas, and Texas always achieves the very best." Credit: All renderings, Gensler Top: A rendering of TMC 3 's double helix shows a three-tiered structure that will connect all the buildings on campus. Bottom: A rendering shows an aerial night view of the piazza within the double helix, which offers space for concerts, galas and other events.

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