look + feel / wellness
Medical innovations WELLNESS
Pandemic can’t slow rate of collaboration, new discoveries. BY JESSE O’BRIEN
While the world has been busy with other health concerns, it was easy to miss some of the impressive and innovative medical advances that have taken place outside of the public’s attention — even when it’s happening right under our noses. For many years West Michigan has built a strong reputation as a leader in the health care industry and that work has not slowed despite the “new normal” that has enveloped the past 24-plus months. Medical research and innovation in the field has continued to flourish, guided by some of the usual stalwarts, like biomedical research and educational nonprofit Van Andel Institute, but also by relative newcomers to the Medical Mile, like Michigan State College of Human Medicine’s rapidly expanding Innovation Park. MSU opened the first phase of its Innovation Park, the Grand Rapids Research Center at the intersection of Michigan and Monroe, in 2017. The sixstory building houses 33 research teams that focus on improving treatment of diseases like cancer, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, in addition to searching out innovations in women’s health and reproductive medicine, as well as stroke prevention and treatments. The university broke ground on the second phase of its Innovation Park, the seven-story 205,000-square-foot Doug Meijer Innovation Building, in fall 2019. The building will house both private industry and health care teams that will carry 26
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on the mission set forth by Dr. Norman Beauchamp, MSU executive vice president for health science, to continue to bring hope and healing to West Michigan. When complete, the Innovation Park will comprise four buildings and about 675,000 square feet of space totaling about $300 million in new construction. Beauchamp cited the university’s close partnership with clinical practice groups in the region as an example of how MSU already had laid inroads that would eventually provide a roadmap for the Innovation Park’s mission. “We’re incredibly proud of our collaboration and research efforts and the next challenge became how to bring up a building that would collocate industry partners to join you in this mission of inventing and disseminating discovery,” Beauchamp said. The university already has a pair of high-profile tenants to bolster Innovation Park’s reputation and health care and research output. Pharmaceutical manufacturer Perrigo is relocating its North American headquarters to the Innovation Park, taking over the top three floors of 430 Monroe Ave. NW. Beauchamp said the company’s focus on home health care and self-care provides “great alignment” for what the university is looking to build in Innovation Park. Additionally, in May 2021, the university entered a partnership with precision medicine company Bold Advanced Medical Future (BAMF) Health, leasing about 35,000 square feet of space at building for its headquarters. “The strength of the approach by BAMF is it treats just the cancer instead of the other therapies that have to treat the whole person,” Beauchamp said. “And what I love about this is just the idea that it adds to the innovation ecosystem because MSU has the No. 1 grad particle physics program in the country thanks to the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) in East Lansing. “It creates this incredible hub in West Michigan that can also draw on our strengths in East Lansing.” An economic analysis of the four buildings that make up Innovation Park estimated the university will provide an economic impact of roughly $339 million annually over the next 10 years for a net output of $3.39 billion, creating a little more than 2,000 new jobs in the region. With the challenges presented by COVIDLAB COURTESY OF MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF HUMAN MEDICINE
3/29/22 3:38 PM
