Senators Coons and Carper and Congresswoman Blunt Rochester toured Nemours’ research labs at the Dupont Experimental Station Tuesday.
The Nemours biomedical research facility is one of the anchors of the reimagined Experimental Station site.
Nemours started renting the space from Dupont in January. The company now has almost 70 scientists and support staff at the Experimental Station, and rents 40 lab rooms, an auditorium and other spaces in a building shared by Incyte and the Delaware Innovation Space.
Nemours sees a benefit to being in a space with like-minded businesses. Vicky Fananage of Nemours’ research says the move has already facilitated collaboration.
“So here we do a lot of the discovery piece and find new therapies and understanding of diseases,” she said. “And then we partner with biotech and pharma to take those new drugs and treatments to our patient population.”
Funanage says Nemours has already started working with Delaware-based pharmaceutical company Incyte on pediatric cancer treatments.
Besides collaboration, Funanage hopes the new location will help Nemours recruit leading scientists and secure more funding.
Funanage says Nemours’ new research home includes some new initiatives, including work on ‘precision medicine.’
“We’re looking at the factors that determine your overall health, and that can include genetic factors, environmental factors and lifestyle factors,” she said.
Delaware’s Congressional delegation met with doctors and researchers working on pediatric rheumatology, urology and cancer.
Nemours is a major recipient of federal funding. According to company officials, it was ranked 11th in the nation last year for National Institutes of Health (NIH) pediatric research funding.
The company announced its move to the Experimental Station a year ago, after Dupont began work on a $200 million effort to refurbish the campus.
The Innovation Space was launched there a year ago by the state, the University of Delaware, and Dupont with hopes of catalyzing new science-based business ventures in Delaware.
