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V O L . X X I N O. X I I J U N E 1 5 , 2 0 1 5 14 W hen University of Maine, Orono, alumni knocked on Peter Brooks' laboratory door at New York University in 2001 to tell him he'd won the inaugural Maine Alumni Association Spirit of Maine Achievement Award for work refl ecting the high standards of the university, the scientist was both surprised and pleased. at initial contact led to more eff orts to try to lure the talented researcher back to his Maine roots. Brooks, who holds a Ph.D. in cellular and developmental biology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, already had published a couple dozen peer-reviewed scientifi c papers examining various aspects of cell and cancer growth while at prestigious research institutes like e Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., and the Keck School of Medicine of USC. He also had co-founded his fi rst biotech company, Cell-Matrix Inc., which was subsequently acquired. "I always wanted to do research here in Maine," says Brooks, 50, who hails from Pittsfi eld. " e biomedical research environment here is grow- ing now. Some 10 to 15 years ago I questioned it." Prompted by the alumni, he visited both the Maine Medical Center Research Institute and e Jackson Laboratory, and decided on Scarborough-based MMCRI, as he likes the southern part of Maine. He also saw great potential in its focus on both basic and translational research, the latter of which applies discoveries from basic science to enhance human health. Now a senior researcher and lab head, he has been at MMCRI since 2007. MMCRI is an anomaly in Maine. Hospital-affi liated research institutes typically also have a third leg, a uni- versity or medical school, such as the Harvard Medical School and Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, which has both a hospital and research institutes. MMCRI has affi liations with both Tufts University and the University of Maine, Orono. Brooks is not the only talented researcher MMCRI has attracted. Michaela Reagan, a Harvard Medical School postdoctoral candidate study- ing multiple myeloma (a blood cancer) at Dana-Farber, will become MMCRI's 13 th principal investigator, or PI, when she starts her laboratory there at the end of September. She brings with her some existing grant money. She says she also is close to signing a collaborative agreement with a small biotechnology company that has offi ces in Cambridge, Mass., Arizona and Texas, which could bring in more funds. She holds a Ph.D. in biomedi- cal engineering from Tufts University. "I think it's a great environment," Reagan, 31, a native Vermonter, says of MMCRI, where her title will be fac- ulty scientist. "You don't have to be at Harvard to do good science." In fact, she says one of the major draws of MMCRI is the strength of the PIs. " ey are really world class," she says, adding that too much collabora- tion and competition, as exists in the Boston area, can inhibit deep thinking and space to do things. One anomaly of her lab: initially it will be an all-women lab, a rarity in scientifi c research, though she says she wants to diversify it in the future. She'll initially have two interns from the University of Southern Maine, one technician and eventually will hire postdoctoral researchers. Ironically, Reagan had never heard of MMCRI and had never visited Portland or Scarborough before meet- ing Dr. Cliff ord Rosen, director of the Center for Clinical and Translational Research and a senior scientist at MMCRI. ey both spoke at a confer- ence in Brugge, Belgium, in April 2014. He quickly worked to recruit her. "She's using a silkworm to generate the protein matrix in multiple myeloma," Rosen says. "She's a huge recruit for us, and she's bringing grants with her." Grant money is critical to MMCRI's PIs, who must raise all of the money to P H O T O / T I M G R E E N WAY Maine Medical Center Research Institute 81 Research Drive, Scarborough Director: Dr. Donald St. Germain Founded: 1991 (became division of Maine Medical Center) Activity: Basic biomedical research, clinical trials, fee-for-services Budget: $22 million (nonprofit) Employees: 200 Contact: 396-8130 www.mmcri.org Peter Brooks, a senior researcher and principal investigator at the Center for Molecular Medicine, is working on cancer therapies. Here he uses a 'pipet' to feed cancer cells in a tissue culture hood at Maine Medical Center Research Institute in Scarborough CUTTING-EDGE RESEARCH Maine Medical Center Research Institute attracts top scientists, licenses discoveries B y L o r i V a l i g r a

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