Montgomery County Executive Joins Institute Leadership and Industry Partners for UM-IHC Tour
Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich and team tour UM-IHC facility alongside industry partners and institute leadership.
Adapted from CMNS LinkedIn post on April 23, 2024 | Adapted by MPower Staff
The University of Maryland Institute for Health Computing (UM-IHC) hosted Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich on Tuesday, April 23, 2024, in its new North Bethesda offices. Elrich and his team were joined by representatives from federal agency National Institutes of Health (NIH) and companies Kaiser Permanente, US Pharmacopeia, and ThermoFisher.
Positioned at the heart of the third-largest life science cluster in the United States, the institute is the first step in an ambitious and visionary project to transform North Bethesda into a national epicenter of computational science-enabled biomedical research, population health, and precision medicine to improve the health of the citizens of Maryland and beyond. The visit further illustrated the power of collaboration and demonstrated the synergies that exist between federal agencies, life science companies like those mentioned above, and the UM-IHC.
Following a tour of the space, Dean of the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences, Amitabh Varshney, PhD, and UM-IHC Co-Director’s Bradley A. Maron, MD, and Sujal Bista, PhD shared an update on IHC’s progress in several areas including hiring, industry and government outreach, and research.
The UM-IHC’s new state-of-the-art facility features more than 27,000 square feet of space and will serve as IHC’s home until a planned $200 million facility is completed at the North Bethesda Metro Station. Both IHC’s current and future locations include space for federal science and industry partners to improve collaboration within the bioscience community in Montgomery County.
Since its launch in November 2022, the UM-IHC established six core research areas:
- Applied Artificial Intelligence
- Bioinformatics
- Immersive Visualization
- Therapeutic Target Discovery
- Population and Community Health
- Real-world Evidence and Adaptive Clinical Trials
Highlights of the tour included virtual reality demos for the Montgomery County team and meet and greets with Elrich and students, IHC faculty, staff, and both NIH and Kaiser Permanente, US Pharmacopeia, and ThermoFisher company representatives.
