After months of targeted campaigning by Texas cities, universities and science advocacy groups, Dallas has become one of three U.S. sites for the $2.5 billion federal biotechnology research agency, and a major biotechnology research center across the country. This will solidify North Texas' position as a science hub.
The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, known as ARPA-H, announced Tuesday its decision to establish one of its three headquarters in the Lone Star State as part of the Biden administration's push to accelerate biomedical and health research. . This hub will focus on customer experience, access, and clinical trial diversification for the ARPA-H project.
Pegasus Park in Dallas will be the company's physical headquarters, but the Texas hub will extend far beyond the sprawling 26-acre biotech campus. Austin, San Antonio and Houston make up the remainder of the consortium, which is managed by Advanced Technology International. Officials in El Paso and College Station are also supporting teams across the state.
Pegasus Park is located across the Stemmons Freeway from Dallas' expansive medical district. Located approximately 8 miles from downtown, we offer easy access to major airports in North Texas.
This campus will house project managers who will be responsible for leveraging the diversity that Texas offers in both demographics and research types.
“One of the things that the Dallas group was really able to show was that they were able to unite communities across the state and across the country,” said Craig, director of ARPA-H's Office of Project Accelerator Transition Innovation. Gravitz said. “And we've seen that it's not just big cities, it's small communities as well. It means to us that the group in front of us really has the convening power that we were looking for. It was a very important signal that we were there.”
Tuesday's announcement also launched ARPANET-H, a new name for the agency's “hub-and-spoke” model, which includes spoke sites across the country in addition to specialized headquarters. The name comes from his original ARPANET project at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the public computer network that eventually became the Internet.
“When ARPA-H first began in 2022, one of our first goals was to promote the health ecosystem,” said Renee Wegrzyn, ARPA-H Director. “We can’t do it without people from every part of America’s health ecosystem, and we can’t do it without people from all walks of life in America and those involved in transitioning those health solutions. .”
The initial list of spoke sites spans the United States, including California, Alabama, Alaska, and Wisconsin. There is no cost to our partners, including hospitals, health systems, and universities, to become spokes. The closest spoke site to Dallas is Cherokee Nation Health Services in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, about 4 1/2 hours north.
Tom Luce, director of biotechnology initiatives at Lyda Hill Philanthropies, said the website will open on Wednesday to accept applications for additional spoke locations. The Dallas organization dedicated to funding life science discoveries led Dallas' application to host ARPA-H.
Luce said he believes major players in Dallas' health care industry, including UT Southwestern, Baylor Scott University and White Health University, will give a good voice. He specifically cited UT Southwestern Medical Center in Redbird, located south of downtown Dallas, as a potential spoke site.
North Texas has long fought for its rights in the biotech world, facing off against coastal research giants like Boston, Silicon Valley and North Carolina's Research Triangle. Home to major medical institutions UT Southwestern in Dallas and the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth, Washington D-FW's life sciences workforce has grown by 17%, or 20,000, since 2019, according to a study by real estate firm CBRE. The number of people increased by 6,000. .
“We wanted to make the statement that Lyda Hill has been working towards for more than a decade: that North Texas can and should truly become the biological life sciences capital of this country. It’s about telling people,” Ruth said. “And in our minds, the existence of ARPA-H is a statement that Texas is now the third coast alternative for biolife sciences.”
The construction of ARPA-H's new location is a major victory for Dallas, which lost the bid for Amazon's second headquarters after being selected as a finalist about five years ago. The tech giant's second headquarters eventually located in Arlington, Virginia.
“North Texas is home to some of the brightest researchers and innovators, and the selection of Dallas to host the ARPA-H Customer Experience Hub shows that we can still do great things when we work together as Texans. “U.S. Congressman Colin Allred said. , D-Dallas. “Today’s announcement further solidifies our region’s position as a national leader in healthcare research and breakthrough new treatments. This hub will also bring great employment to our already growing region. and foster economic development.”
ARPA-H bid designers initially submitted an open-ended application detailing the unique benefits of each major Texas city.
Wegzin announced in March that the agency would have three headquarters, one of which would be preemptively allocated to the Washington, D.C., area to focus on partnerships. The exact location of the hub in the Capitol area has not yet been determined.
Another hub, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, will serve as an “investor catalyst” dedicated to bringing discoveries to market.
A Houston consortium led by the Texas Medical Center also competed for a customer experience hub. Ruth said the Dallas and Houston coalitions were selected to host the ARPA-H team's on-site visit, and Houston's bid was subsequently defeated.
“It was disappointing. I wish they hadn't made the decision. We wanted Texas to come from the beginning, but Houston decided it would be better to go on its own,” Ruth said. Told. “But we would definitely welcome them back. They have a lot to offer.”
Lyda Hill Philanthropy played a key role in shaping the bids of Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio, as well as establishing North Texas as an incubator for biotechnology research.
The company's namesake founded the UT Southwestern School of Bioinformatics in 2015 with a $25 million gift. More recently, her organization partnered with her Research Bridge Partners to invest her $4 million to help medical center researchers develop their research findings into full-fledged companies.
Hill and J. Small Investments purchased the 18-story tower that once housed Mobil Corporation's headquarters and surrounding buildings in 2015 to create Pegasus Park, a mixed-use office campus housing life sciences and nonprofit companies. It has been renovated. In June, the Dallas City Council awarded BridgeLab nearly $8 million in incentives for a $110 million expansion of its campus.
North Texas politicians also joined the effort, with several across the ideological spectrum writing letters inviting Wegzin and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra to visit Pegasus Park in person.
Texas' ultimately winning bid was a statewide effort, requiring coordination from groups such as the Dallas Regional Chamber and the Cancer Prevention Institute of Texas. Ruth said he and his team had a list of more than 600 application stakeholders to call after Tuesday's announcement.
