SUNY REACH Investment in SUNY Eye Institute
The SUNY Academic Health Centers (AHCs) have an incomparable public service mission built around their medical schools, teaching hospitals and clinical operations. Moreover, each supports a biomedical/ biotechnology research enterprise aimed at improving human health. The five SUNY AHCs are united in their quest to expand translational research in the public service in four key areas related to human disease: Cancer; Infectious Disease; Disorders of the Nervous System; Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease. To move this agenda forward, the leadership of the SUNY AHCs formed the SUNY REACH (Research Excellence in ACademic Health) program. The SUNY Eye Institute (SEI) is a key component in the REACH program.
Since 2009, the SUNY AHCs have funded SEI activities along with other REACH efforts. Thus far, the SEI has received $375,000 of Phase 1 REACH funds. This funding has already yielded tremendous results. SEI investigators have transformed each $1 of Phase 1 REACH investment into nearly $20 in shared and new grants. Building on the dramatic success of Phase 1, SUNY administration is planning for Phase 2 REACH funding which is currently envisioned as a $12 million annual investment in REACH programs. Phase 2 REACH would expand SUNY REACH to three more campuses along with the five founding partners, to include researchers from SUNY Binghamton, SUNY Albany, and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.
In advance of Phase 2 funding from REACH, SEI is already blazing the trail for expansion of research across the SUNY system, having established collaborations and incorporated faculty from the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering at SUNY Albany into its efforts. With Phase 2 funding from REACH, the SEI will continue to build the critical mass needed for multidisciplinary approaches to key clinical issues affecting vision.
Our efforts in translational research will lead not only to cures for visual disease but will also spur the development of the new New York by promoting superior high technology jobs and enhanced clean growth for years to come.
