RESEARCHERS ACROSS THE ISLAND are getting connected—via the Internet2, shared facilities, and joint research projects. Though their projects differ in focus and cross many scientific disciplines, they share a common theme: basic research with potential long-term applications to health. This group of researchers is dedicated to discovering at the molecular level the answers to questions such as, which molecules are biologically active, how they work, and why they work.

To encourage collaboration and enhance the scientific infrastructure and research competitiveness of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, UPR researchers applied for and received in 2001 a $9.5 million over–three–years grant from the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) of the National Institutes of Health. Upon successful completion in 2004 of the Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network in Puerto Rico (BRIN), which created a consortium of universities throughout PR, the NCRR continued funding for a second phase of collaborative research. As the host institution of this $17.73 million over–five–years grant with another $2.5 million in matching funds from UPR´s Central Administration, the university created the Puerto Rico Alliance for the Advancement of Biomedical Research Excellence (PR-AABRE).

“One good thing about BRIN is the flexibility that NCRR allowed. We had a free hand in creating a network, and that was critical for the success of the program. In the renewal process of BRIN to PR-AABRE, the goals remained essentially unchanged, but we have fine tuned the way of achieving those goals. The AABRE program is focused on a target group—primarily undergraduate institutions—and UPR has become a mentor for the projects of the grant,” says Fernando González, Ph.D., professor of biochemistry in the Departments of Chemistry at UPR, RP, and Biochemistry at UPR, Medical Sciences Campus, and principal investigator of BRIN and PR-AABRE.

By focusing on Puerto Rico’s undergraduate institutions and creating research networks among them, UPR, and research universities in the United States, the PR-AABRE project is developing collaborative research, attracting competitive researchers, and improving accessibility to resources, databases, and journals.

The grant also supports 11 research subprojects in six primarily undergraduate institutions in Puerto Rico: Universidad Metropolitana and Universidad del Turabo of the Ana G. Méndez System; Inter American University, Bayamón Campus; and UPR’s Mayagüez and Humacao Campuses. Faculty and students of these institutions are focusing on the research clusters of Neuroscience, Drug Design and Delivery, and Molecular Medicine.

“The key to these individual projects and the whole program is networking,” says González. “Each researcher is required to have a local mentor at a Puerto Rico institution. In addition, each researcher has a scientific consultant, a competitive researcher either locally or in the United States, to provide insight, counseling, data interpretation, and to collaborate on writing papers and grant submissions.”

An Outreach Core supports all institutions included in the PR-AABRE network, as well as the Outreach Institutions, which include the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico; the University of Puerto Rico, Bayamón Campus; Inter American University, Metro Campus; Universidad del Este; and Carlos Albizu University. It provides professional development opportunities for researchers within the research clusters and an immersive research experience program for high school students and teachers.

In order to attract promising students into science and provide additional opportunities for exposure to research, the Outreach Core created the Seminar Tour program. PR-AABRE pays the honorarium for world-renown scientists to come to Puerto Rico to address the AABRE supported institutions across the island. “Every institution will host at least one guest speaker a year. They will be given an opportunity that each, individually, would not have had before.” This semester the speakers included Luis Salicrup, Ph.D., of the NIH and Bruno Sobral, Ph.D., director of Virginia Bioinformatics Institute. Salicrup, a senior advisor for International Technology Transfer Activities of the NIH, discussed opportunities for faculty and students at the NIH as well as the NIH partnerships in technology transfer that enhance biomedical research and global health. Sobral discussed how the cyberinfrastructure of the outreach program at Virginia Bioinformatics Institute allows the faculty and students to establish collaborations. Ida Mejias, Ph.D., of Inter American University, Metropolitan Campus, is the director of the Outreach Core.

PR-AABRE also created an internship program for undergraduate faculty to conduct research during the summer at doctoral institutions for up to twelve weeks, in order to establish research collaborations. Another program, Technology Transfer Travel Awards, supports Puerto Rican scientists who wish to work in the United States in a laboratory for up to four weeks to learn new research techniques or to develop relationships with other researchers in the field. The networking is an effort to augment the researcher’s repertoire of scientific techniques and transfer new technology to Puerto Rico.

González says that projects such as PR-AABRE are creating changes in the island’s researchers and institutions. “Biomedical research is a way of life. It’s not just a job—it’s a calling and it requires sacrifice, commitment, and a deep-rooted desire to achieve new biomedical knowledge. You don’t do that by working nine–to–five or by following a job description. We have to work harder than in other jobs.

“Biomedical research creates problems for institutions because the demands are greater. The need for adaptation is absolute, and we have to keep on learning, doing research the right way and doing it fast. Research does not go on strike. Research is a global issue and it’s a change of culture.”

imejias@inter.edu

The 11 research projects supported by AABRE include:

Identification and Expression Analysis of ABC Genes in Plasmodium yoelii

Cell Cycle Changes in the Galactosemic Lens

Photochemistry and Bioactivity of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons Adsorbed on Model Surfaces

Localization of Substance P and Acetylcholine in the Pathway Mediating Mucociliary Activity

New Methodologies for the Synthesis of Amino Derivatives as Nicotinic Receptor Agonists

Photosensitized reduction and DNA alkylation of alkylating quinones and nitroarenes

DNA Interaction and Mutational Activity of Novel Benzazolo [3, 2, -a] Quinolinium Salts Anticancer Drugs

Synthesis, Characterization, Anticancer Activity and Reactivity Toward Biological Targets of New Platinum (II) Complexes

Molecular Studies of Protein Encapsulated in Soft Materials

Study of the Underlying Factors that Shape Enzyme Properties in Organic Solvents

Potentially Bioactive Metabolites from Tropical Fungi

AABRE facilities and projects