EDITORIAL
Exciting possibilities at new UH med school

In Hawai'i, we too often assume that grand, exciting projects will never happen.

Still, nothing ventured, nothing gained. And this latest proposal, by a consortium of Japanese pharmaceutical companies and a government cancer research center, for a $100 million disease research complex in partnership with the University of Hawai'i, is exactly what we've been looking for.

What this and other proposals would bring, if they come to fruition, would be a variety of research going on in Kaka'ako, attracted by and forming a critical mass around the new medical school.

"We need small companies, established pharmaceutical companies, and we need a private research institute to optimize our success," said med school dean Edwin Cadman, adding that the new consortium proposal "is part of a balanced portfolio to develop research."

Cadman said the consortium, which involves Japan's National Cancer Research Institute, hopes to expand proteomics research, a new and rapidly emerging field that goes beyond mapping the human genome by studying proteins at a molecular level in the human body. It hopes to help with prevention and treatment of diseases like cancer and diabetes.

The consortium, plus a proposed aquarium and marine research facility nearby, together with a new home for the existing Cancer Research Center, all as neighbors to the new medical school, suggest a whole new industry.

This is one opportunity that should not be allowed to slip away.