RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – When it began 60 years ago, Research Triangle Institute, as it was called then, was the first fixture in Research Triangle Park – the fledgling institute was given 185 acres in the new research park.
“When we got to the park, there was nothing here but pine trees and ‘possums,” remarked one early employee.1
But oh, what it’s become in 60 years: RTI International, as it’s now known, is a contract research institute with 5,000 employees worldwide who work in 70 countries and generate nearly $1 billion in annual revenue.
The idea behind RTI, President and CEO Wayne Holden says in the accompanying video, was to create a landing pad for graduates from the Triangle’s three research universities.
“At that point in time, the three Triangle universities were creating really high-level, trained individuals in science who were leaving the area and going to other parts of the country for employment,” Holden says.
An early success was the discovery of Taxol®,2 a compound from an endangered yew tree in the Pacific Northwest that has became a major chemotherapy drug still used to treat breast, ovarian and lung cancer.
RTI’s mission statement centers on “improving the human condition.”3
“Improving the human condition is something we’re very serious about here,” Holden says. “It’s the reason people come to this organization. It’s the reason people stay at this organization. It defines what we do in terms of the problems that we’re interested in.”
RTI relies on local universities not just for talented employees, but for collaboration in research.
And it’s the breadth of RTI’s work that’s a challenge to grasp – everything from social science surveys to advising local governments in Nepal.
Jacqueline Olich, RTI’s senior director of University Collaborations, outlines some of the areas in which RTI scientists and researchers work: Pharmaco-epidemiology. The opioid crisis. Chemistry. Engineering. Water safety and sustainability. Economics. International development.
“It’s remarkable, impactful work in a variety of areas,” Olich says.
Lisa Gehtland, M.D., an RTI research public health analyst, works in partnership with the state and academic groups to offer screening for two additional health conditions in North Carolina newborns.
“The thing that really is meaningful is that you think about your neighbors … your North Carolina neighbors – that a family might be able to get this information earlier and that ultimately, their child might be helped and be able to be treated earlier and have a better life,” Gehtland says.
RTI’s Jennifer Hoponick Redmon, a senior environmental health scientist, and Keith Levine, senior director of analytical sciences, discuss how the state of North Carolina had neither data nor regulations on lead in drinking water at child-care centers and schools – which can cause devastating long-term damage to a child’s developing nervous system.
And public health scientist Phillip Graham discusses how solving the opioid epidemic involves much more than addressing prescriptions.
Holden further outlines the impact of RTI’s international work, including an effort to combat neglected tropical diseases in 20 countries and an effort to build early-grade literacy among 40 to 45 million children across multiple countries in the developing world.
“Our organization has done fantastic over the last 60 years, and we really look forward to all the changes and all the opportunities as we move ahead into the future,” he says.
1 Russ Banham, Impact on a Changing World: RTI International at 50, Greenwich Publishing Group, 2008, p. 30.
2 Now owned by Bristol-Myers Squibb Company.3https://www.rti.org; https://www.rti.org/living-our-mission.
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