One big breakthrough will put Roanoke on the map as a hub for biomedical research, but upheaval at the national level is complicating progress, regional officials told Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., during discussions Wednesday.
“In Roanoke, I think we’re one big deal away from the incredible biotech community that is nascent here kind of breaking through to the big leagues,” Warner said. “I absolutely believe to my core we are on the cusp of a huge breakthrough. It’s taken longer — they always take longer — than we hope, and we’re that close.”
Warner sat around a table with a dozen leaders representing Roanoke Valley interests in health care, education and economy at the Carilion Clinic Center for Simulation, Research and Patient Safety, on the edge of the city’s growing research sector in southeast.
U.S. Sen. Mark Warner (center), discusses funding cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) during a visit to the Carilion Clinic Center for Simulation, Research and Patient Safety on Wednesday afternoon. Steve Arner, president and CEO of Carilion Clinic (at left) and Virginia Tech President Tim Sands (at right), were among those in attendance.
They discussed impacts of funding cuts at the National Institutes of Health, the federal agency that heads medical research. As President Donald Trump continues aggressively downsizing the federal government, thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in research grants have been cut from NIH funding, according to national news reports.
“Stopping research grants midstream has got to be the stupidest idea I’ve ever freaking heard of,” Warner said. “I stay optimistic, but it’s been a challenging time.”
U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, who has been making stops across the 9th District this week during a House recess, did not respond to a late afternoon email requesting comment about federal funding cuts.
Roanoke’s first big biotech breakthrough could be happening at Tiny Cargo, a startup founded by Robert Gourdie. The company found a way to isolate a component of cow’s milk and use it as a drug to potentially protect people from radiation, Gourdie said.
Tiny Cargo is ready to proceed to clinical testing, but they need specialized equipment to do so. They reached an agreement last year to receive that equipment from a specialized manufacturer in China, said Gourdie, also a Virginia Tech professor at the Fralin Biomedical Research Center at VTC in Roanoke.
“Of course, it’s all been sort of tied up in the tariff situation,” Gourdie said. “It’s sort of a concoction of unfortunate circumstances that’s really holding us back.”
Virginia Tech is the second-fastest growing institution in the country when measured by NIH funding growth, said President Tim Sands. The university receives about $69 million per year in NIH research funding, and that number is growing fast, at a rate of about 17% last year, he said.
“A lot of that action is right here in Roanoke,” Sands said. “So I do think we’re particularly vulnerable, because we’re still small.”
U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, center, discusses funding cuts to the National Institutes of Health during a visit to the Carilion Clinic Center for Simulation, Research and Patient Safety on Wednesday afternoon. At right is Virginia Tech President Tim Sands.
Mike Friedlander, executive director at Virginia Tech’s Fralin Biomedical Research Institute, said as much as research cuts are a concern, so is a new type of workforce worry.
The research institute employs many international student-researchers who hold legal visas to be here, but who are nonetheless afraid of federal immigration crackdowns.
“It’s hard for me to even express to you the level of fear that has descended over this population of workers here,” Friedlander said. “To the point that they’re fearful of walking out of their apartments and coming to work.”
Warner said, “this level of chaotic activity cannot continue for the foreseeable future,” and, “I do believe it’s going to hopefully burn itself out.”
The Carilion Clinic Center for Simulation, Research and Patient Safety is pictured on Wednesday afternoon where U.S. Sen. Mark Warner met with Carilion Clinic and Virginia Tech representatives to discusses funding cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
“I am astonished at what the administration is doing,” Warner said. “I think the chances are better than 50-50 we have a constitutional crisis in the next three to six months.”
He said if people can hang in and get through the summer, hopefully things will be starting to change.
“We’re going to get through this, and the part that we have to reassure people is this will pass,” Warner said. “I think we’re a better country than is being presented right now. I think it’s going to turn back, hopefully quicker.”
Heywood Fralin’s record $50 million gift in 2018 to what’s now the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute helped spark its tremendous growth. Fralin said the Roanoke-Blacksburg region is one of the state’s fastest growing areas.
“This biomedical research is a major component of that growth, and it’s only seen a tip of the iceberg,” Fralin said. “What can happen here can be as great as any research operation in the world.”
But, Fralin said, “we need help at the national level.”
“We’ve got to be ready,” Warner said. “Sign me up when you’re ready with the pitch book.”
“I have your number,” Fralin said.
Luke Weir (540) 566-8917