IBRI Stretching Out Statewide

David Broecker was named CEO of the IBRI in 2015.

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The chief executive officer of the Indiana Biosciences Research Institute says the organization’s first satellite office, launched Thursday in South Bend, as part of an effort to grow the IBRI footprint throughout "the four corners of the state." David Broecker says the new location at Innovation Park will allow the IBRI tap into the researchers, entrepreneurs and innovators at the University of Notre Dame campus. He says the IBRI has existing academic and research relationships with Indiana University and Purdue University and he hopes to add more partners down the road to enhance the state’s already strong life sciences reputation.

In an interview with Inside INdiana Business, Broecker says the doors are open for collaboration. "I love to say that entrepreneurship and innovation is a contact sport and so you’ve gotta facilitate contact," he said. "We don’t expect our people just to be in the lab 24-7. We want them to be getting out, having conversations, establishing a network and being physically in different places is an important aspect of that." Broecker says in order for innovators associated with the IBRI to be able to take ideas from the white board to the real world, "you’ve got to be in places where people congregate and create an environment where you’re going to share ideas and roll up your shirt sleeves."

The IBRI began having a presence at Notre Dame last October by adding Notre Dame computer science and engineering professor Nitesh Chawla as a visiting fellow. IBRI Research Fellow and Single Cell Bioanalytics Center Director Mike Pugia will split time between IBRI headquarters in Indianapolis and the Innovation Park office.

The institute launched in 2013 with an initial $50 million in funding from sources including the state, Lilly Endowment Inc., Eli Lilly and Co (NYSE: LLY), and the Indiana University School of Medicine. It will be the anchor tenant of the massive 16 Tech Innovation District near the IUPUI campus in Indianapolis.