"Franklin College could be key to Johnson County’s life sciences economy"

Central Indiana’s Business Authority

2015

The official magazine of the Indiana Health Industry Forum and Indiana Medical Device Manufacturers Council

BioFutures INDIANA • 2015

Big year for funding

From venture capital to government grants, investment in Hoosier firms soared

Indiana takes the lead State one of first to open access to biosimilar therapies

At the top

Indianapolis ranked as most diverse bioscience region in nation

A promotional supplement to Indianapolis Business Journal

Reprinted with permission of Indianapolis Business Journal, IBJ Media, copyright 2015.

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2/25/15 1:23 PM

reGIonal ProFIles

Franklin College could be key to Johnson County’s life sciences economy Johnson County wants to capitalize on Central Indiana’s robust life sciences economy, and it has a willing partner in Franklin College, which is repositioning its science department to help drive economic activity in the county and beyond.

The retooling of Franklin’s science program, which had been geared toward producing future doctors and nurses, began with a campus master plan about four years ago that recommended doubling the size of the school’s science facility.

But before embarking on a building campaign, leadership at the college decided to engage the community to see how Franklin’s science curriculum could change to better meet the needs of students and area employers. The answer to that question would help shape future facilities.

Dr. Steve Browder, head of the school’s Natural Science Division, and his colleagues embarked on a listening tour, visiting 24 entities, including IU Health and Eli Lilly and Co., to find out what businesses thought about the science education that Franklin was providing.

“They were amazed that someone in academia wanted to hear what they had to say about education,” Browder said of the community partners.

Their answers, and a national study of college-level science education that came out at about the same time, confirmed what leaders of the college had suspected—that science education at Franklin had to become more experience-based and better serve the area’s employers and potential employers.

Now students at Franklin perform undergraduate research as freshmen and sophomores (instead of waiting until the junior and senior years) so that they are better prepared for hands-on science work and more competitive for internships and jobs.

Franklin’s fresh look at its science facilities and curriculum is already poised to pay off for the county. B2S Consulting, a biotech firm founded by a former Lilly

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Learning science by doing science, Franklin College students work to identify potentially disease-causing organisms in the microbiology lab.

scientist, wants to locate a new laboratory operation within blocks of the college and is partnering with the school in ways that promise to be mutually beneficial.

B2S Consulting, started in 2003 by Ron Bowsher, is working with Johnson County and the city of Franklin on incentives that would allow his company to retrofit a historic building near campus for a new endeavor called B2S Labs. The lab firm would provide clients with custom reagents, which are used in the discovery and production of biotherapeutic drugs.

Bowsher, whose consulting business is located on the south side of Indianapolis, has clients large and small around the globe. He said he’d been looking for an opportunity to partner with a school with a dedicated science staff, and Franklin’s intimate size and south-side location make it a good fit.

“We connected very informally and it went really, really well. This spring we’re going to offer a lecture series for the students there.”

The advanced bioscience courses are only part of the relationship. B2S will provide internship opportunities for Franklin students, and Bowsher is in the process of formalizing a relationship with the school that could lead to some funding for both Franklin College and B2S Labs.

Companies that apply for National Institutes of Health small business grants need an academic partner to qualify. “We

hope to leverage that relationship to get some support from NIH,” Bowsher said.

“For the city of Franklin and Johnson County, if you’re trying to diversify your economy, it takes a company like B2S to seed that,” said Bowsher. “We feel like Johnson County is primed for growth in the life sciences sector, and we’re excited to be a part of it. Franklin College makes an ideal academic partner for developing future scientists and science business professionals.”

Cheryl Morphew, president and CEO of Johnson County Development Corp., is encouraged by the budding partnership between B2S Labs and Franklin College and what it could mean for the county. “Biotech has been a subsector target of ours for a number of years,” Morphew said. “I can’t tell you how very excited we are about the work B2S Labs wants to do here.”

Browder, the Franklin College professor, thinks the partnership with B2S Labs can serve as a model for other partnerships between the school and businesses in the community. And it can’t hurt the ongoing effort to renovate and expand the school’s science facilities, which are now in a 1927 building that was last renovated in 1987.

BSA Lifestructures was retained to design the new facility, which will cost about $25 million to build and maintain.

The public portion of the school’s fundraising campaign is yet to begin.v

Reprinted with permission of Indianapolis Business Journal, IBJ Media, copyright 2015.