FLAGSTAFF (By Sherry Anne Rubiano, Arizona Republic) June 17, 2005 - Arizona State University offered a plan Thursday to use $107 million from the state's education sales tax to become a national leader in the quest for biological solutions to problems ranging from AIDS to bioterrorism.

The plan was presented at the Arizona Board of Regents meeting here.

If the regents approve, considered likely later this summer, the funds will be invested in ASU's Biodesign Institute from fiscal 2007 through 2011 with the primary goal of working to improve health worldwide through research and education.

"We're trying to figure out how nature works and use that to improve quality of life," said Jonathan Fink, vice provost for research and economic affairs at ASU.

The strategy was part of an overall proposal by ASU, the University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University to spend a portion of educational funds approved by Arizona voters in 2000.

Overall, the regents expect about $322 million in Technology and Research Initiative Funds for fiscal 2007 to 2011.

"This is indeed serious money," Regent Fred T. Boice said.

Other ASU Biodesign Institute goals include positioning metropolitan Phoenix as a major force in attracting research dollars and promoting new commercial uses for products developed by ASU researchers. The institute would work closely with the Translational Genomics Research Institute in downtown Phoenix, the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, the proposed UA medical school in downtown Phoenix and other organizations.

Plans in the works for the Biodesign Institute, on the eastern end of ASU's campus, include developing a universal cancer vaccine and tools to detect odorless gases in the environment that could be used for bioterrorism attacks.

UA's plans include investing more money in its Water Sustainability Program, its optics program and its efforts to promote science literacy. NAU would use its money for such purposes as increasing access to higher education to prepare the state's workforce to meet the needs of a technologically advanced society.

The funds are available thanks to the passage of Proposition 301 in 2000, which approved a six-tenths-cent increase in the state sales tax for education. At the university level, the regents dedicated part of this revenue for Technology and Research Initiative Funds. The first five-year budget cycle began in 2001. This is the regents' second wave of TRIF budgeting.

Kimberly Ovitt, the Biodesign Institute's communication director, said the initial funding helped build the infrastructure. The first building was completed in December 2004, and the second one is scheduled to open in early 2006, officials said.

So far, the institute has received a grant from the National Institutes of Health for research into an oral vaccine that stimulates the production of antibodies known to block HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Institute researchers also are developing tools to help physical rehabilitation. These include a device that allows people with lower-body paralysis to stand and a robotic arm to help stroke survivors regain hand-arm function, Ovitt said.

The institute also produced 47 undergraduate students with research experience and 17 graduate students and eight postdoctoral students who are in the workforce.

"Students actually get to do things they will be doing in the real world," Ovitt said. "They are researching. We don't have classrooms. It's all in the lab."