RESEARCH IS COMPETITION: BEST WORKFORCE WINS

By AMP Staff

New York Yankees legend Yogi Berra reportedly said, “Baseball is 90 percent mental. The other half is physical.”

This classic Yogi-ism is amusing and contains a larger truth: being a top competitor demands intense mental and physical preparation. The same can be said for scientific research, which requires a major league level of dedication. Winning the competition for funding directly affects the speed of translating discovery to the benefit of saving lives and economic progress.

Like any other business (or blood sport) on the planet, in research, you are only as good as your people, especially in the fight for funding.

“Research laboratories recognize that the race for innovation is a war for talent,” said Dr. Hong-yu Li, who has won more than $4 million in funding the lssdt two years as an Arkansas Research Alliance Academy Member and professor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. “Innovation is a mindset that needs to be turned on 24/7. Early-stage researchers with that drive will always have a home in my lab.”

Chemistry, a complex field in which Li is widely known, is especially demanding. It is the “home plate” for treating things like cancer. For Arkansas to compete in the innovation economy, Li believes it is critical that Arkansas’ science community devote the time necessary to succeed. After all, the work is vital to enhancing our quality of life, and the sooner the research is delivered to the public, the quicker we can all enjoy its enormous impact. Additionally, research infuses the state’s economy with millions of federal grant funding — and the competition for receiving that funding is intense.

“You really have to like research,” Li said. “It’s more than just work; it’s a calling for which they’ve spent the first 30 years of their life studying and getting ready for.”

Building a strong research culture in Arkansas is critical because research is competition.

“We’re competing with labs on the east coast, the west coast and with labs across the globe. Researchers need to recognize that they are in a competition, or they will not see their work leave the lab.”

This research competition has routinely recognized Li, who in 2021 won a five-year, $1.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute toward developing treatment options for acute myeloid leukemia patients. Recently, Li’s team earned a $3 million grant to develop new medications for cancer treatments.

How is this money spent? While a portion of the grant money buys equipment and supplies, the majority goes to human capital.

“About 75 percent goes to hiring more people,” Li explained. “And that will bring more research talent to Arkansas.”

Dedicated research talent is vital to Li’s research, which centers on anti-cancer therapeutics. The goals of his team’s research are to develop treatments that provide cancer patients with novel therapeutic agents, such as tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI), designed to target tumor cells or the tumor micro-environment. The results of this research can possibly save thousands of lives. It can also cement Arkansas’ reputation as a leader in the development of innovative anti-cancer therapeutics.

Fostering a healthy research culture in Arkansas can go a long way in helping Li bring his research to its happy fruition. The good news is that we can all be part of process. The research culture, Li insists, extends beyond the researchers themselves. It takes the entire community to identify problems that need intense study, marshal the resources to implement a plan and then ultimately ensure the benefits are equitably available to everyone.

“We need more investors in translational research,” Li said, referring to research that seeks to produce more meaningful, applicable results that directly benefit human health. “In Arkansas, investment in translational research can be very hard to get, but we’re making progress.”

Funding stability for investigators attracts the best of the best and moves discoveries from the lab to the bedside and the market.

Discovery Economics is a monthly feature highlighting the work of the ARA Academy of Scholars and Fellows, a community of strategic research leaders who strive to maximize the value of discovery and progress in the state. ARA recruits, retains and focuses strategic research leaders to enhance the state’s competitiveness in the knowledge economy and the production of job-creating discoveries and innovation. Learn more at ARalliance.org.