Talking with Vickie Yates Brown, NUCLEUS

In the realm of science, from some of the smallest cells to the atoms that make up all that exists, the control center around whence everything revolves is the NUCLEUS. Such is a similar vision for Louisville with NUCLEUS, the city's new health and science research park.

"NUCLEUS is a portal that connects the University of Louisville to the community," says Vickie Yates Brown, the entity's president and CEO. Although NUCLEUS is not technically an acronym, the red U and L graphically "make U of L the center of everything. The community is one component, the university another."

The university, like a true NUCLEUS, existed before anything else did. In 2006, U of L president James Ramsey approached Brown, an attorney with Frost Brown Todd, to work on special projects. After acting as a facilitator in the disbanding of the Louisville Medical Center Development Corporation (LMCDC), Brown—who also serves as the president of the American Bar Association Health Law Section entity—took on the task of securing funding from public and private sources for a bold new enterprise, facilitated by the U of L Foundation.

NUCLEUS, Kentucky's Life Science and Innovation Center, is poised to become a place where bucks and brains meet. U of L, which drew up a twenty-year master plan for the health sciences campus, will invest $200 million in Kentucky-approved public infrastructure projects, turning the already-purchased Haymarket property into a sprawling two hundred ten acres. Additionally, the endeavor is backed by the Commonwealth of Kentucky for up to $350 million in tax increment financing.

"In the mid-nineties, the city brought leaders together to assess Louisville's strengths and weaknesses," Brown says of the Boyle Report—a 1996 study commissioned to weigh the community's potential future as a business and innovation center. "They found two strengths: life science and research, and logistics. The city needed to build on these strengths, and help companies build around these strengths."

NUCLEUS plans to actively recruit partners by drawing on the power of networking. Brown explains, "in a RFQ [Request for Qualifications, where bids are solicited], we're asking [potential] partners if they have expertise in building life science research parks and recruiting research companies." Greater Louisville Inc. (GLI), the Cabinet for Economic Development and the Mayor's Office collaborate on economic development projects around life sciences and logistics at the university under the NUCLEUS umbrella. "It takes a long time to commercialize research. To accelerate the process, we're recruiting companies that we may already be working with, providing them with the opportunity to locate closer to their research partners," Brown says. "We'll also populate the research park with these companies."

Life science companies are the entities that bring discoveries to the market, and Brown likes to point out that U of L has moved nearly two dozen life science startup companies to the marketplace in under a decade. The process is a proven formula designed for seamless commercialization of discoveries made right here in Louisville.

To give a hypothetical example, a NUCLEUS researcher discovers a certain protein that neutralizes HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and even reverses the infection. That researcher turns to the Office of Technology Transfer (OTT), which will then protect the researcher's intellectual property (IP). From there, former LMCDC entity Metacyte and NUCLEUS work together with IP-protected companies to help find incentive funding from angel investors or venture capitalists, and manage it wisely through the administration of savvy business plans. "Metacyte is a U of L company that works with startup companies as an incubator," Brown says. "GLI works hand in glove with Metacyte."

Or, says Brown, a better way to view the process is as a migration. "There is a lot of bench research occurring in research buildings on the U of L Health Sciences Center and Belknap campuses. Ideas are hatched there, and disclosed to the OTT. At Med Center 3 [at Jefferson Street and Brook Street], there is both wet/dry lab and office space for startup companies," says Brown. "It's a building for incubating startup companies; we're trying to make research and office space available for them. Then, the ideas learn to fly, get wind underneath them in the bioresearch park."

While ideas "get wind underneath them," they rise with the help of their employees—and elevate workers and the community along with them. "We believe there will be 8,700 knowledge-based, high-paying jobs," says Brown emphatically, "but we believe that a number of administrative and technical jobs will also be created."

NUCLEUS bases its mission on continuing success in developing and attracting life science companies, while making—and keeping—discoveries at home. Lest anyone worry that Louisville will continue to suffer from the "brain drain" of the last decade, Brown assures that the aim is to make sure locals remain local. "We don't have a quota, but I think that everyone's hopeful," she says. "The university has a very close relationship with Jefferson Community and Technical College. We work with them so we can identify and offer the right kinds of courses. Then we can place the [newly minted] technicians to work with the researchers. Once that happens, we'll have good techs with good skills and be more inclined to hire them locally."

Local researchers, technicians, physicians and support staff can depend on an exciting future ahead, as NUCLEUS encourages the exploration of some of today's most relevant health and life science frontiers by providing up-to-the-minute facilities, dedicated support and economical office space. One prospective company performs adult stem cell research with a view to cures for ailments such as congestive heart failure and paralysis, and Brown is optimistic that they are here to stay: "We try to capture these companies early on—we don't want them to leave." Another goal is keeping the team that developed the cervical cancer vaccine at the James Graham Brown Cancer Center local—and productive. "We'd be working with [these companies] to stay in Louisville, and to get them funding and incentives to keep doing research," she says. "It's where logistics and life sciences meet."

Even if some Louisvillians don't operate within NUCLEUS' immediate orbit—which, naturally, will be the case—the community at large stands to benefit from the center's commitment to building upon an already nascent infrastructure. "We want to identify and eliminate barriers between the university and the business community," she says. "A biomedical research park with leading-edge technology and leading-edge companies is a collaboration of the university and industry, and makes a stronger business community. Creation of infrastructure is an enormous asset."

As Brown continues her tenure operating at NUCLEUS' highest levels, she finds stimulating challenges each day. "I've been a health/health insurance/life sciences attorney my entire career, so I've been very steeped in that," she says. "NUCLEUS is a wonderful challenge—I take all my legal skills and apply them in a new way.

"Our long-term goals are creating and recruiting high-tech companies, and creating a bioresearch park to support these companies. This effort is an example of how the University of Louisville is an important component of the economic development effort in our community," Brown says. "We nurture and develop these companies, and that makes for a stronger university and opportunities for commercialization and entrepreneurship."