Small Steps Big Impact

In 1939, a group of Franciscan monks had a bold vision: to bring higher education to the underserved. It was an act of innovation and service, laying the foundation for an institution that would continue to push boundaries for decades to come.

Eighty-five years later, that spirit of innovation lives on at the University of New England as it emerges as a leader in Maine’s growing biotechnology industry.

Today, far removed from its humble beginnings as a friary along Maine’s rugged coast, UNE has grown to become one of the leading research institutions in the Northeast. The University brings in millions of dollars in federal funding annually to support novel scientific initiatives, and studies on topics from cancer detection and treatment to protein synthesis and drug discovery are happening at a remarkable pace.

“I wanted to see the ocean,” said Peter Swanson, B.S. ’24, about his choice to attend UNE for his undergraduate degree in chemistry.

Swanson works in an immaculately clean lab on UNE’s Portland Campus for the Health Sciences, a name recently chosen to reflect the next generation of health professions education and research. This space is poised to contribute to Maine’s next big biomedical breakthroughs.

Swanson is part of a research team utilizing dynamic light scattering to analyze E. coli particles. However, the team’s focus isn’t on studying E. coli itself. Instead, they aim to use the bacteria — typically associated with gastrointestinal illness — to manufacture proteins for biotechnology purposes.

Now graduated, Swanson spent the latter years of his undergraduate career as a research assistant in the lab of Eva Rose Balog, Ph.D., a professor of chemistry at UNE, whose work represents a new generation of UNE researchers whose studies are moving beyond the life sciences and into biotechnology, the practical application of biomedical research through the integration of technology.

Balog is one of several researchers at five academic institutions nationwide who are sharing a $6 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s EPSCoR program to advance quality control for cell and tissue biomanufacturing. Their work is paving the way for the development of a biosensor — an innovative tool designed to enhance efficiency in quality control for biomanufacturing purposes, potentially saving lives and conserving resources.

The BIO-SENS project is a collaboration led by the University of New Hampshire with partners at UNE, Auburn University, the University of Maine, and the University of Wyoming. Researchers at each university aim to develop the components of a sensor that will be integrated into a single device to support quality control in biomanufacturing and biotechnology.

The goal is to create “smart” bioreactors that can continuously adjust conditions to ensure optimal cell growth, leading to higher-quality products, Balog explained. This work reflects UNE’s evolution from exploration of the basic sciences to industry-focused research with implications to improve human health.

It wasn’t always this way. With a strong grounding in the basic sciences, medicine, and health, UNE began its foray into biotechnology research with the help of researchers like Balog, who are marking the start of a new era for the university in technology transfer.

“There’s never been a better time to be a biochemist,” Balog reflected. “The enormous scale-up and mobilization of resources that COVID-19 drew upon for the vaccine development showed us that we can do biochemistry at scale. It’s really in the water now to be able to discuss the meaningfulness of molecular sciences and biochemistry.”

UNE’s evolution to becoming a leader in biomedical and biotechnological research can be traced to 2012, when UNE was awarded its first Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) grant. The center was supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health, to establish the Center for Pain Research on UNE’s Biddeford Campus — marking the beginning of a biomedical boom whose resonance would usher in an epoch of unprecedented growth in this field of research.

Headed by Ian Meng, Ph.D., a professor of biomedical sciences and director of the Center for Excellence in the Neurosciences, the center aims to bolster the scientific understanding of the neurobiology of chronic pain and facilitate the discovery and development of novel therapies, including new drugs and non-pharmaceutical treatment options.

The first phase of the grant increased UNE’s capacity for biomedical research by expanding research facilities, recruiting new neuroscience faculty, and establishing two research cores. Since its establishment, federal support for the center has grown north of $25 million.

“The Center for Pain Research had a big impact in elevating the University in terms of developing research infrastructure and providing research opportunities for subsequent faculty hires,” said Derek Molliver, Ph.D., who joined the University as a center researcher in 2014. “One of the things that attracted me to come here was the really great research community.”

A Shift from Industries of the Past

According to the Bioscience Association of Maine, there are currently more than 9,800 life sciences jobs in Maine, and demand for jobs in the sector has grown 31% in the last five years.

The figures show that bioscience jobs are far outpacing the growth in all of Maine’s industries, which have increased just 3% in the same time period. The fields of pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing and scientific research and development dominate Maine’s bioscience landscape.

What’s more, UNE represents a significant portion of this growing industry — the University has been awarded $18.6 million in NIH awards in the past five years and has consistently ranked as the No. 1 college or university in Maine for NIH funding, including $4 million in 2022 alone.

Left to Right: Eva Rose Balog, Scott Wood, Karen Houseknecht, Gwendolyn Mahon, and Derek Molliver

UNE responded to this unprecedented growth by expanding research capacity in the biomedical sciences and engaging students in novel, faculty-led projects that aim to better understand and treat human disease — directly aligning with its strategic priority to make UNE a powerhouse of research innovation in Maine.

In line with this vision, UNE inaugurated the Portland Laboratory for Biotechnology and Health Sciences last year. Housed on UNE’s Portland Campus for the Health Sciences, the lab fosters collaborative, interdisciplinary research to address local and global needs while facilitating opportunities for strategic research partnerships in industry, contributing to workforce development in one of Maine’s fastest-growing research sectors.

And, in January, the University announced that it was the recipient of $10.8 million from the NIH to fund a second COBRE grant, which will form the basis of a new Center for Cell Signaling Research, directed by Molliver. Faculty affiliated with the center will study the cellular mechanisms behind human disease with the goal of developing novel treatments for some of the most pressing health issues of our time, including diabetes, osteoporosis, and cancer.

Investing in Maine’s Biomedical Workforce

Today, as a result of these investments, UNE is a Carnegie-classified R2 institution for high research activity, and dozens of researchers peppered across the University are using their talents and engaging students in meaningful research experiences that have the potential to save lives and make an economic impact far beyond Maine’s borders.

Such strategic ventures have increasingly become integral to UNE’s mission, a shift that aligns with the foresight of new leadership. This leadership recognized the importance of addressing the ongoing work-force challenges faced by Maine and the nation, particularly in the health professions.

Gwendolyn Mahon, Ph.D., M.Sc., UNE provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs, said the University’s agility in developing programs to meet workforce demand invokes Maine’s cornerstone entrepre-neurial spirit.

“We have an opportunity to start afresh, to differentiate ourselves from our peers and provide a really forward-thinking education for our students,” she said. “In order to grow the biotechnology industry in Maine, we must have a future-thinking and innovative workforce with skills not only in biomedical science but also in innovation, artificial intelligence, and business. We’re making a bold move to serve Maine in helping create that workforce.”

Mahon, an esteemed biomedical scholar in her own right, added that the transformation of UNE’s Portland Campus for the Health Sciences — capped by the relocation of UNE’s College of Osteopathic Medicine to the new Harold and Bibby Alfond Center for the Health Sciences — represents a new era of opportunity to engage students in the health disciplines in impactful research.

She cited the new Portland laboratory as an example of that, adding that the lab’s new director, Scott Wood, Ph.D. — a biomedical engineer who has a long history of NSF-funded research — will also serve a valuable role as entrepreneur-in-residence, and she said UNE’s new School of Computer Science and Data Analytics, under the leadership of leading computer scientist and entrepreneur Sylvain Jaume, Ph.D., will provide an advantageous convergence of disciplines.

“We’re very excited about this new laboratory because, with the medical school moving to Portland, we will have all the health disciplines on one campus, where this state-of-the-art space is located,” said Mahon, who noted that all four inaugural researchers hold biotechnology patents. “Undergraduate, graduate, and professional students are going to have hands-on experience in biotechnology, from the generation of an idea in a lab to the development of a product to starting up a new business.”

Balog, the protein biochemist, said it’s an opportune time for these developments. As employers cast a wider net for qualified applicants, they can draw from universities like UNE that are embracing emerging industries.

“I want to encourage my students to be entrepreneurial in biotechnology because they will be the next ones to run these kinds of labs,” she said. “I think, with UNE’s new College of Business and with Scott as entrepreneur-in-residence, everything is kind of coming together to make that more of a reality.”

UNE is rare in that 46% of its undergraduate students complete faculty-advised research experiences — nearly twice the national average.

Swanson, who is now enrolled in a chemistry doctoral program at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, said the ability to work on an NSF grant as an undergraduate was an invaluable experience that set him up for early career success.

“To be able to work on a project of that caliber as someone who had yet to even obtain a bachelor’s degree was so exciting,” he said, adding that when he presented at conferences he was often mistaken for a graduate student. “It really gave me a leg up on my peers that I was fortunate to have.”

Mahon emphasized that, while there is tremendous momentum in Portland, research on the University’s Biddeford Campus will also only continue to grow. UNE plans major renovations to modernize and expand research laboratories and core facilities in Biddeford once the medical school relocates to Portland.

“We are very intentionally investing in our research infrastructure so as to provide the best possible environment within which our researchers and their students can thrive and our graduates can be best prepared to serve as Maine’s future biotechnology workforce,” she said.

A Web of Strategic Partnerships

As UNE’s research capacity has steamed ahead, a dedicated group of strategic partners have helped lay the track.

For over 15 years, UNE has fostered a dynamic and productive research relationship with the MaineHealth Institute for Research (MHIR). It’s a deep-rooted connection that highlights the alignment of research goals and efforts between the institutions, encompassing a range of activities from investigator-initiated projects to the shared oversight of COBRE programs.

“MaineHealth is one of our strongest and deepest strategic partners — not just for medicine but for all of our health professions,” said Associate Provost for Research and Scholarship Karen Houseknecht, Ph.D., a pharmacologist with over a decade of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, whose research focuses on novel drug discovery and therapeutic development.

And the relationship goes beyond research alone, extending into strategic leadership and collaborative initiatives across various domains, including a dedicated leadership committee that explores strategic alliances in areas such as graduate research, medical education, interprofessional education, and clinical placements.

The relationship is symbiotic, said Doug Sawyer, M.D., a cardiologist and chief academic officer at Maine-Health — the state’s largest network of hospitals and health care providers — in that UNE brings a breadth of interprofessional expertise to MaineHealth’s otherwise narrowly focused team of researchers.

UNE’s collaborative spirit was on display this past August, as U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine announced $19.4 million in federal funding to continue expanding Maine’s biomedical research capacity for five years through the Maine Idea Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (Maine INBRE), which is led by the MDI Biological Laboratory and includes 17 institutions across the state.

UNE joined the Maine INBRE network in the spring of 2020, and the University’s contributions are part of a broader collaboration that includes institutions such as MHIR and The Jackson Laboratory.

The renewal allows UNE undergraduates to become INBRE research fellows and gives UNE faculty access to pilot funding. In 2023, UNE’s Jennifer Garcia, Ph.D., assistant professor in the School of Biological Sciences, became the first UNE faculty member to receive INBRE research project funding to study yeast enzymes and cellular growth.

Houseknecht said this and other recent awards underscore UNE’s growing status as a key institutional partner in an industry that will only continue to expand.

“One of my key goals is to be a good partner,” she said. “Real partnerships need to be a two-way street, focused on helping each other succeed, which is crucial for long-term growth and impact.”

A Bold Course for the Future

“You only need a small amount of a catalyst to have a sweeping change,” Balog said. “Like proteins, a small number of people can make a big difference.”

What started as a small number of dedicated research faculty has today ballooned into entire new departments, schools, and colleges across the University. And while the landscape may look very different from the friary of the past, the University’s ethos is still the same: do what is necessary, do what is possible, and achieve the impossible.

“There is something really special about UNE,” Mahon said. “We have world-class researchers here who compete on an international stage but whose hearts are fixed squarely here in Maine, where they are pas-sionate about teaching the next generation of scientists, innovators, and entrepreneurs. There is a strong culture of collaboration, a sense of camaraderie, and a heavy dose of grit.

“We’ve got a good formula here,” she added.

Molliver said the formula isn’t a secret. It’s actually quite simple: build it, and they will come.

“We’ve come so far in building a critical mass of researchers who can support each other, grow synergisti-cally, and be successful in performing the research, getting out high-impact papers, and writing success-ful grant applications,” he said.

Molliver said he is excited to enter UNE’s next era — whatever it may bring.

“There’s a lot of enthusiasm in the air at UNE now in terms of the opportunities and resources that we have available,” Molliver said. “It’s really a palpable atmosphere of excitement about research that I think has never been so strong.”

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