As a dynamic destination for education, a robust research institution, and the largest, most comprehensive health care provider in the state, the Woodruff Health Sciences Center (WHSC) impacts Georgia in a variety of ways.

• It helps make Emory University the largest employer in DeKalb County and the largest private employer in the 20-county metro Atlanta area.

• With $2.2 billion in operating expenses, the WHSC’s annual economic impact on metro Atlanta is estimated at $4.8 billion.

• Two major new buildings opened in 2007, including a 162,000-square-foot medical school building and a 110-bed joint-venture hospital off campus (Emory Johns Creek Hospital). Emory also acquired a 120-bed hospital, christened Emory University Hospital Northlake, also off campus. Construction planned for the coming decade calls for new research buildings, a new public health building, a Yerkes Field Station facility, and new clinic and hospital space, including expansion of facilities on Emory’s campus in midtown Atlanta.

• Emory is a member of the Georgia Research Alliance (GRA), a partnership of business, research universities, and state government that fosters economic development in the state. Through the GRA, the state invests in research in the WHSC in molecular screening for new drugs, nanotechnology, vaccines, genomics, biomedical and tissue engineering, cancer, imaging, and neuroscience.

• The WHSC attracted $358.7 million in research funds last year. Major recent federal grants include $32.8 million to establish a National Center of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance, $31 million to fund the Atlanta Clinical and Translational Science Institute to spur new treatments for patients, $25.5 million to lead a local component of the landmark National Children’s Study, $12.5 million to the Winship Cancer Institute to fund research in head and neck cancer, and $10 million to Yerkes National Primate Research Center to compare aging-related changes in human and nonhuman primates.

• The WHSC is a major player in technology transfer, with eight licensed therapeutic products in the marketplace in addition to 23 in various stages of development or approval. Emory has launched 43 start-up companies over the past decade, some with help from EMTech, a biotech incubator developed with Georgia Tech.

• The Winship Cancer Institute is a key participant in the Georgia Cancer Coalition, a statewide program working to make the latest advances in cancer care available to all Georgians and investing in research at Emory. Winship also works with the Georgia Center for Oncology Research and Education to partner with community-based physicians to make more clinical trials of new treatments available to patients throughout the state.

• The WHSC is the lead partner in the Southeastern Center for Emerging Biologic Threats, a regional consortium addressing natural and human-caused biologic threats, such as West Nile virus and pandemic flu. The WHSC also helps lead Emory’s Office of Critical Event Preparedness and Response, created last year to improve the university’s ability to deliver a coordinated and effective response to catastrophic events.

• The Emory Vaccine Center is one of the largest academic vaccine centers in the world, with scientists working to develop vaccines for AIDS, malaria, hepatitis C, avian flu, and other infectious diseases. Emory’s Hope Clinic, which conducts clinical trials for promising vaccines, is part of the premier network in the country for HIV vaccine prevention trials. The Vaccine Center recently partnered with the International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology to establish a vaccine center in New Delhi, India, to develop vaccines against infectious diseases disproportionately affecting the developing world.

• Emory provides medical direction of Grady Health System’s Ponce Center, one of the largest, most comprehensive AIDS treatment centers in the country, and was recently designated a primary site in the nation’s premier NIH-funded clinical trials network.

• WHSC’s physicians provide $53.6 million annually in charity care through Emory Healthcare and $26.3 million in uncompensated care at Grady Memorial Hospital. Through Emory-Children’s Center, Emory also is the preeminent provider of specialty care to indigent children in Georgia. Nursing faculty and students support major volunteer efforts for homeless Atlantans, migrant workers, and people with AIDS. Public health faculty and students influence health policy affecting the community’s most economically vulnerable, and they partner with the state Division of Public Health to train workers in dealing with infectious diseases and to help prevent cancer, HIV infection, and adolescent pregnancy.