State grant will allow school to expand research programs in medicine, agriculture

         A $2.5 million state award will help create a major biotechnology research institute at the College of Staten Island, state Sen. John Marchi and Dr. Marlene Springer, the college president, have announced.

        Dr. Springer heralded the award - garnered with Marchi’s help - as " a momentous occasion for the College of Staten Island". The new center, called the Macromolecular Assemblies Institute, will contribute to advances in medicine and agriculture, and may even be important to efforts to combat bioterrorism.

        The money comes from a $225 million state fund, called The Gen-NY-sis (Generating Employment for New York Science), which is designed to expand the state’s biotechnology-research industry.

        "I think it speaks well of the Senator and I that we are supportive of an institute it took a while to learn to pronounce," Dr. Springer laughingly told a room of scientists, administrators and deans gathered Wednesday at the Willowbrook campus. On a more serious note, she said the award is a formal recognition of the value of the research already under way at CSI, and will help the college fund and extend that research.

INVESTMENT IN FUTURE

        The investment in biotech research will bring many local profits, but has implications and Staten benefits, but has implications beyond Staten Island’s border, Marchi said. "This is an area of maximum concern and sensitivity," he said, "not only in the ,but federally."

        The $2.5 million is only the first installment of a larger commitment he hoped to ex-tract from the state, Marchi told Dr. Springer. You ain’t seen nothing yet,he said.

        Dr. Ruth E. Stark, a veteran researcher at CSI and head of its nuclear magnetic resonance facility, will head the institute. She earned her Ph.D. in physical chemistry at the University of California, San Diego, and obtained postdoctoral training in molecular bi-ophysics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge. She teaches genneral and physical chemistry at CSI, and has co-directed the City University of New York’s Center for Applied Biomedicine and Biotechnology.

        The money will give the college the momentum it needs to build a world-class research facility, Dr. Stark said. The simple thing would be to take the money and to make good use of it, she said. But the better thing is to build on it for the future. While the money is ear-marked for capital costs, such as laboratories and equipment, it will also enhance CSI’s reputation, which will bring in more funding and attract scientists who are leaders in their fields, Dr. Stark said.

THE MACHINES OF LIFE

        As its title implies, the new institute will focus on the interaction of large molecules which in the body or a test tube assemble themselves into organized structures. These assemblies are the basic machines that drive all life: The cell itself is an as-sembly of molecules that in-teract in specific ways.