Posted: 02/04/2011 12:00:00 AM MST

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The Medical Center of the Americas -- which could create significant economic and health benefits for this binational region -- is preparing to launch.

Next week, a team of companies from around the country is set to begin creating a detailed plan, which will include local universities and medical facilities as well as the city and county of El Paso, Fort Bliss, White Sands Missile Range and New Mexico State University.

The $300,000 community development plan, which will be used to raise money for construction of an 80,000-square-foot building in Central El Paso on 10 acres leased from the city, should take about eight months to complete. It is the first step in a 50-year plan that envisions a 140-acre "world class" biomedical business park in El Paso. "We have one shot at doing this and making it happen and making it successful for El Paso," said Emma Schwartz, president of the Medical Center of the Americas Foundation.

The building site is near the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, which is expected to provide one of the anchors for the medical research complex. Inside the building's walls, researchers and business people will find ways to commercialize basic university research, Schwartz said. Likely areas of interest include border health problems and combat injuries.

"It's the talent and partnerships in the research park," she said. "A lot of this is about sharing ideas when they are having coffee. It's about taking something to the next level."

Proponents would like to see the entire cycle of research, design and manufacture take place in this region. "That commercialization is where we can create jobs," Schwartz said.

Economic benefits could include gainful jobs for El Pasoans, the use of manufacturing capabilities in Juárez and El Paso, and the revitalization of the neighborhood around Texas Tech's Paul L. Foster School of Medicine and University Medical Center. The plan will estimate economic impacts, Schwartz said.

And clinical trials for new techniques, medicines and equipment could provide cutting-edge health-care options for some El Pasoans.

Ultimately, the project will depend on creating a mutually beneficial relationship be tween academics and business people.

Universities often patent their discoveries. If a product or idea finds a commercial application, the university and the researcher receive royalties.

And the relationship is beneficial to companies that find pure research -- with its inevitable dead ends -- too costly and time-consuming.

At the university, dead ends have value, said Dr. Charles Miller, associate dean of research at Texas Tech in El Paso. Results are published and future research builds on that information, he said.

Both Texas Tech and the University of Texas at El Paso are expected to have a presence that will attract businesses, Schwartz said. Also included, she said, will be the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez. Universities generally do not fund commercial projects, and publicÐprivate partnerships open up that possibility, said Miller who, with another Texas Tech professor, plans to lease space at the center.

"We're a state institution and so we have a limited budget," he said. "It has a great deal of potential." Current research that could qualify involves new vaccines and biotechnology devices, Miller said. In one case, researchers are experimenting with ways to replace bone fragments in shattered limbs that otherwise might be amputated, he said.

The Medical Center plan will identify tenants in the business world that would make good matches, Schwartz said. Hospitals in the area, which could conduct clinical trials, have been invited to participate, she said.

"Building prestige around the life-sciences community here will help them recruit" medical professionals, Schwartz said.

As the center grows, two other planned buildings would fit on the 10-acre parcel, Schwartz said. A measure of success, she said, would be whether a large health-care company will step up to pay for that additional construction.

After the plan is completed, Schwartz said, the first job will be to negotiate a land lease with the city. Funding sources could include foundation grants, federal tax-credit investment programs for low-income communities and debt financing, Schwartz said.

"In a time that the entire country and the world is kind of grim, we are excited," Schwartz said. "We see a few hurdles, but we can overcome them."

Chris Roberts may be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ; 546-6136.