RESEARCH
Port St. Lucie Magazine 21
renown, he said.
In Cleveland, Lerner Research boasts
1,400 researchers and support personnel
in 180 labs across 10 departments.
The Lerner website says: “The Lerner
emphasizes translational research that
has the potential to improve patient
care. Our scientists work closely with
Cleveland Clinic physicians to transform
groundbreaking discoveries made
in the laboratory to the bedside.”
The plan in Port St. Lucie is to focus
on research in neurosciences and cancer
and to create a translational vaccine
immunotherapy institute. Translational
means to take an idea from the lab
bench to the bedside.
“We should expect this investment
to return translational research that improves
people’s lives and transformational
change in our economy that lifts
up our community,” Oravec said.
Lord said he is optimistic that Cleveland
Clinic’s reputation and brand will
attract other medical and research organizations
and help grow the economy.
He added that he is already in talks
with three scientists who are considering
moving here.
Discussions are underway with
Vaxine, a vaccine research institute in
Australia, to co-occupy the building,
creating its North American headquarters
here. Florida International University,
a public research university in
Miami, is also in talks to co-occupy.
Vaxine, founded in 2002 by Flinders
University professor and researcher
Nikolai Petrovsky, is internationally
recognized as a global leader in vaccine
research, according to Pete Tesch, president
of the EDC. With 50 employees, it
is one of the top recipients of National
Institutes of Health funding. The company
develops vaccines for infectious
diseases such as influenza, cancer and
allergens, Tesch said.
The new research center has Port St.
Lucie officials rejoicing. After long years
of crushed dreams of a bio-tech center
forming in the city — and millions of
dollars in expenses —that dream, hope
and wish is finally crystalizing and
becoming reality, Blackburn said.
“In the early 2000s, the council was
looking to create a new pillar of our
economy and Florida’s economy,”
Blackburn said of the city’s efforts to
attract biomedical research companies to
the Tradition Center for Innovation, also
known as its jobs corridor. Two failed
businesses bailed out of Port St. Lucie
since then: Digital Domain, which created
digital effects for movies, and VGTI.
One research company, Torrey
Pines Institute for Molecular Studies,
survived the Great Recession and a
reduction in state grant funding and is
now merging with Florida International
University. The university is taking
ownership of the building and adding
the research institution to its collection
of specialized research facilities. The
city owns the land under the building.
“VGTI ultimately left town and left
the city holding the bag,” Blackburn
told the council in November.
“All things happen for a reason and
here we are today with a world class
research entity wanting to lease the
building and build the job base we
originally thought we would get from
the (VGTI) investment. All of a sudden
we have this synergy we didn’t have
before,” he said.
The new facility will be known as
the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research
Institute.
“I look forward to seeing that big
Cleveland Clinic sign up there, not
just on the (Cleveland Clinic Tradition)
hospital, but on this building,” Oravec
said. E
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