Importantly, too, the area has increased its ability to attract nationally known researchers from across the country and around the world. Sandra Willsie, D.O., vice president for Academic Affairs of the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences, affirmed that “KCALSI has made it more attractive to recruit and retain” top people.

Michael Helmsetter, senior vice president of MRI, explained the dynamics of this enhanced recruitment. It helps MRI talent search, he noted, when its staff can show new recruits MRI’s partnership with area universities, the collaborative grants that are in place, and the very work of KCALSI itself. “This has helped us attract talent,” added Helmstetter, “and influenced us to focus our direction on life sciences.”

Just as important as recruitment, as John Baumann, Ph.D., associate vice chancellor for research at UMKC, observed, “KCALSI has helped create individual-to-individual collaborations across the area.” David Franz, Ph.D., chief bioscience officer of MRI and affiliate of K-State, has been impressed not only with the organization, but also with the region and its people. “You come to the Midwest, and you have that collaborative spirit,” said Franz. “I’m pleased to be back.”

“KCALSI is a wonderful focal point to bring people together and push the region,” agreed Jim Coleman, Ph.D., vice provost of research for Missouri University (MU). “We see the effort over time as very positive,” added Linda Lynch of Saint Luke’s Hospital. “People get together who would not have gotten together otherwise.”

Its ability to spur research is perhaps the greatest influence the Life Science initiative has had on the area. “KCALSI has created an environment of excitement about research,” observed Ben McCallister, M.D., the director of the Mid America Heart Institute (MAHI) at Saint Luke’s Hospital. “When someone new looks at what we are doing, they can see that Kansas City is really moving.” At MAHI 26 out of the 50 staff are now doing clinical and translational research, a five-fold increase in the last several years. “I can’t give you all the credit,” said McCallister to Duncan, “but I have to give you a lot of credit. Kansas City can be a great place for scientific endeavors.”

“KCALSI has brought a degree of public visibility and recognition to the importance of research,” affirmed Ralph Kauffman, M.D., chair of the medical research at Children’s Mercy Hospitals and Clinics. He pointed out that Children’s Mercy has long been recognized as a wonderful children’s hospital, but there has been no awareness of its research component. “That,” he added, “has changed dramatically.” He believes there is now a degree of connectedness and collaboration among investigator scientists on an individual level that never existed before and has been responsible for a real growth in research activity.

“We’re seeing a lot of changes on how we approach research,” noted Betty Drees, M.D., dean of the UMKC School of Medicine and Kauffman’s Hospital Hill neighbor. UMKC, in fact, is concentrating its efforts on Hospital Hill with one new research building going up and a second one contemplated. UMKC is one of fewer than 30 universities in the nation to have schools of medicine, dentistry, pharmacy and nursing all located together. “KCALSI has been good for collaborations,” noted Drees. “There has been a lot of progress, but the best is yet to come.”

“The entire environment for research has changed in a very few years,” noted Joan Hunt, Ph.D., vice chancellor for research and president of Kansas University (KU) Medical Center’s Research Institute. “We have changed with it,” Hunt added. “We’ve learned to do team science and research.”

Jim Guikema, Ph.D., associate vice provost for graduate research at KSU, also spoke highly of “team science” as a likely area of investment. He cited KSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine and its Center for Basic Cancer Research as two prime candidates for collaborative efforts.

“We’re at least getting people’s attention,” KSU’s Vice-Provost for Research, Ron Trewyn, Ph.D., observed. He spoke wryly of a national conference he attended at which the Governor of Texas lamented that seemingly lesser states were passing Texas on the bioscience front, including, “Kansas, yes, Kansas.” Jim Roberts, Ph.D., vice provost for Research at Kansas University, joked that perhaps the state should change its slogan to “Kansas, yes, Kansas.”

On a more serious note, Roberts told of how a San Francisco audience gasped when it heard the size of the Stowers’ contribution to the biosciences in Kansas City. “There is opportunity here,” he noted. He added that the “turnaround” came at Kansas University when Bob Hemenway assumed the presidency and “put his money where his mouth was.” This kind of encouragement matters. “When people feel like they can go after big things,” he noted, “that’s the real difference.”