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The Sbarro family brought their pizza-making know-how to the United States, set up shop, and grew their fast food franchise nationally and then throughout the world. The Sbarro Health Research Organization (SHRO), initially funded by the Sbarro family, seems to be emulating this model, only with scientific research. Antonio Giordano, director of the Center of Biotechnology at Temple University as well as the SHRO-funded Sbarro Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine (ICRMM), both in Philadelphia, has been establishing a network of affiliated labs throughout the world to leverage cultural differences and untapped talent for ICRMM projects. An impetus for the approach was to side-step bureaucracy and costs associated with growing an organization within its home base, he says. The approach also keeps talented researchers in their native countries to build up local science, says the Naples, Italy native.

We "target young investigators in the early stage of their careers, where creativity and productivity is higher," says Giordano. They give the researcher lab space and negotiate partial payment of their salary with their home university. Any researcher can then decide to work in other ICRMM locations, which include the University of Siena and the Hospital of Nairobi in Kenya. "There is less bureaucracy in Italy, but less money and opportunities for research," says Giovanni Abbadessa, who came to Philadelphia from Italy to work on a cancer gene therapy project. "My aim is to get initial results here and expand the project in Italy," he says. The collaborations also address tech transfer, helping to build international IP expertise in-house. For additional information about the ICRMM program, go to www.shro.org or contact Antonio Giordano at president@shro.org