A surgeon at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City and a professor of textiles and apparel at Cornell's Ithaca campus have partnered to create a biodegradable artificial skin for burn victims.

This innovation is the direct result of combining the expertise from each campus, and it is one of the early synergies achieved by tapping the vast potential of two campuses more than 200 miles apart. Working together, Cornell administrators and faculty are bridging the two campuses in two significant ways:

"There is incredible intellectual horsepower that drives activities at each campus," said Richard Coico, vice provost for intercampus affairs. "The opportunities for intercampus collaborations are as diverse as the collective expertise of the faculty serving on these committees."

The four areas selected for collaboration are biomedical engineering, nanomedicine and systems biology; multidisciplinary approaches to cancer biology; chemical biology and experimental therapeutics; and global health and infectious diseases. For each area, a faculty committee with members from both campuses is hammering out research and educational priorities and needs.

Faculty committee discussions began in December 2005 and continued in early March with video conferences to establish specific priorities. When completed in May, reports will be presented to Cornell Provost Biddy Martin and Weill Cornell Dean and Provost for Medical Affairs Antonio Gotto.

"Both campuses have extraordinary resources and expertise in areas that overlap and complement one another," said Martin. "We are committed to identifying areas of strength on each campus, understanding how expertise and resources at one might enhance the other, and then collaborating in ways that link the campuses and make the whole greater than the sum of its parts."

While the Ithaca campus is strong in chemistry, engineering and nanotechnology, the medical college offers expertise, facilities and resources for clinical and biomedical research.

"Students in Ithaca will now have access to biomedical research training," said David Hajjar, dean of Cornell's Graduate School of Medical Sciences.

Added Stephen Kresovich, vice provost for life sciences at Cornell in Ithaca, "Excellence in computational and information sciences and chemical biology [in Ithaca] will improve our ability to provide high-quality, effective personalized treatments and therapies" at Weill Cornell.

"There are clear areas for synergy, particularly if one considers the way science is moving," said Harry Lander, associate dean for research administration at Weill Cornell. In nanomedicine, where engineering at minuscule scales may impact medicine, Lander added, "the Ithaca campus has the 'nano,' and we have the medicine, so it makes sense we should connect the two."

With all these synergies, it is only fitting that Cornell's next president, David Skorton, and his wife, Robin Davisson, will both have joint appointments at Weill Cornell and in Ithaca.

"By example, I think David and Robin will serve as catalysts for intellectual exchanges between Ithaca and New York City," said Kresovich. "Their unique experiences and skill sets will add to the momentum already under way at Cornell."

The intercampus initiative started with high-level discussions in 2004 to strengthen connections between the two campuses. A symposium in the fall of that year attracted some 70 faculty members from both campuses, bringing researchers in biomedical imaging, computational biology and nanomedicine together; a similar symposium in New York City in the spring of 2005 attracted more than 110 researchers.

In 2005, $250,000 from each campus and $100,000 from Cornell Board of Trustees Chairman Peter Meinig funded seed grants; in 2006, each campus split the $600,000 budget equally. Early feedback has deemed the seed-grant program a great success; four of the 12 recipients in 2005 already have submitted papers for publication based on the data generated by these studies.

For example, C.C. Chu, a biomedical engineer in the Department of Textiles and Apparel in Ithaca, teamed up with Roger Yurt, a surgeon at Weill Cornell's William Randolph Hearst Burn Center, to develop a biodegradable artificial skin that promotes a burn victim's healing. Chu used his expertise in fibers to create a synthetic dressing made from amino acids.

"We are material-oriented researchers, and Dr. Yurt is a clinician with a lot of knowledge of artificial skin," said Chu. "He suggested the physical, biological and mechanical properties we needed to design the artificial skins." Once the dressings are created, Yurt will test them on pig models, whose skin is similar to humans.

Also, an expanded Cornell graduate linkage program initially allowed Ithaca-centered graduate students to work one or two semesters at Weill Cornell. Since late February, this program has been working in both directions.

"It now gives students in the program full opportunities for housing at both the medical college and here," said Coico, noting that previously, students who wanted to work at both campuses had trouble finding housing, a special challenge in New York City.

Biomedical Engineering, Nanomedicine and Systems Biology:
Harel Weinstein (WCMC) and Kelvin Lee (Cornell-Ithaca)

Global Health and Infectious Diseases:
Carl Nathan (WCMC) and David Russell (Cornell-Ithaca)

Chemical Biology and Experimental Therapeutics:
Fred Maxwell (WCMC) and Bruce Ganem (Cornell-Ithaca)

Multidisciplinary Approaches to Cancer Biology:
Katherine Hajjar (WCMC) and John Schimenti (Cornell-Ithaca)