UCI gets FDA approval

Alicia Robinson

After working together for nine years, UC Irvine and the U.S. Food

and Drug Administration cemented their relationship on Wednesday with

a formal pact.

A friendly footing and the FDA’s high-tech facility, which opened

in June, will allow the two to work together on research and training

and to share resources. Officials with the university and the

government agency said they are thrilled with the partnership.

“We’re really excited to have the facility -- and more important,

the people, as immediate neighbors of the campus,” said William

Parker, UC Irvine’s vice-chancellor for research.

A memorandum of understanding that spelled out the partnership was

signed by both organizations Wednesday and tours of the FDA lab and

office facility were given.

“This is not the last step but just the next step in what we have

to do,” said Alonza Cruse, director of the FDA’s Los Angeles

district. The FDA and UC Irvine have been collaborating since 1995,

when the government agency created a new Irvine office as part of a

reorganization of its offices. In 1996, their partnership produced

EPINET, a fax broadcast system to alert public health officials about

dangers such as lead in candy wrappers and mercury in face cream.

They have co-sponsored five conferences.

The two are now working together to bring lab techniques for food

sampling into the field so scientists can identify contaminated food

more quickly.

Having a formal partnership creates a bridge between the two

agencies, and that will help UC Irvine as a research university, said

Jonathon Ericson, chairman of UC Irvine’s school of environmental

health, science and policy.

“The FDA is 95% scientists,” he said. “There are very few agencies

that have that many scientists under one roof.”

Those scientists can share their expertise with UC Irvine

students, potentially teaching courses for the school, he said.

To date, the FDA has hired 14 former UC Irvine students and

offered several student internships each year.

The FDA building’s concrete walls and high ceilings enclose labs

that screen food for pesticides and pathogens and test drugs to check

for counterfeits.

“This is a first-class facility,” Parker said. “We need to attract

quality scientists to Orange County, and this is going to help.”

Collaborations could include using the university’s graduate

school of management to help streamline FDA operations and using

computer science to create a database for assessment of food and drug

risks.