At the heart of this transformation is the new campus for the John A. Burns School of

Medicine, which school officials hope will help build a new high-tech/science-based workforce for the state.

"It's not just about a new medical school, it's about jobs and dollars and the revitalization of Kaka'ako and nurturing a new industry," said medical school dean Ed Cadman, who has been key to the creation of the new campus, along with former UH president Evan Dobelle and former Gov. Ben Cayetano.

"The med school will be the catalyst for the new Life Sciences biotech industry in Kaka'ako," Cadman said. "New companies have emerged, and the outlook is bright for several more to get started here in the near future."

Then there's its impact on Kaka'ako at large.

"There's a symbiotic relationship between what (Victoria) Ward has created (in Kaka'ako) and the medical school," said Victoria Ward general manager Jeff Dinsmore. He is overseeing more redevelopment in the area that will create 160,000 square feet of new retail space, 215 new rental apartments and 1,100 more parking stalls by the end of 2006.

"You already have the pieces for a live/work environment," Dinsmore said. "We're the 'live and play,' and the med school provides the 'work.' "

In addition, a 247-apartment, 40-story luxury condo project next to Borders bookstore, developed by The MacNaughton Group and Kobayashi Group, has sold all but five suites and will be complete by December 2005.

"The first attraction here was its location," said Karl Heyer, project broker for the Hokua development.

The meeting Jan. 13 and 14 will be held both at the Hawai'i Convention Center and the new medical school, and showcase five eminent UH researchers: Ryuzo Yanagimachi, Richard Yanigahara, Duane Gubler, Maria Berry and Ken Ward.

But even as it expects a bright future, UH is wrestling with a new set of questions and problems.

Should the new area be its own, separate, self-supporting campus, or should it be lumped together with Manoa to help support all research programs?

A stand-alone campus would pay for itself through the return of lucrative "indirect cost" payments that could amount to about 50 percent more in funding on every federal grant, or as much as $7.5 million annually to pay for programs and research, officials said.

And what about the new Cancer Research Center of Hawai'i that could be built on 5› acres of state land next door, and financed partly through federal dollars and a private developer partnership?

The task force also has recommended that this office be the "single contact point for all development projects at Kaka'ako Biomedical Complex." The task force was headed by regent Alvin Tanaka.

But the task group pulled back on recommending whether the campus should be autonomous within the UH system, or part of Manoa. And it only obliquely addressed the persistent question of how a new Cancer Research Center would work with Hawai'i's hospitals.

According to Jan Yokota, UH director of capital improvements, plans call for a new Cancer Research Center to include a clinical component, which some local hospitals feel would compete with their services. However, cancer center director Dr. Carl-Wilhelm Vogel has said a clinic could work hand-in-hand with the hospitals, as at some Mainland institutions.

A Request For Proposals for developers to build the cancer center could go out as early as January if university regents approve several necessary steps beginning at their October meeting.

"With the medical school coming on line or being completed next year, the CRC will really add to the critical Life Sciences research component that would help drive that industry in the state," said Yokota.

"That will become the nucleus. The medical school, the CRC and the research projects that both are involved in, will become the core of the life science industry in Hawai'i."

While early estimates put the cost of a new cancer research center at about $100 million, that figure did not include a clinic or a parking structure. "If you add those," said Yokota, "the costs will be higher than that."