The use of biopharmaceutical products has increased greatly over the past twenty years and is expected to continue to increase in volume and importance in years to come. Like many other manufacturing operations, there has been a substantial increase in the globalization of biopharmaceutical production within the last five to ten years. The FDA, the Government Accountability Office, and Congress are well aware of the challenges and tradeoffs involved when industries globalize, and in response the FDA has adjusted its inspection policies and practices. Funds from this grant will support a multidisciplinary team of researchers based at MIT's Center for Biomedical Innovation and led by Georgetown University Professor Jeffrey Macher, in their work to study how globalization has changed regulatory practice surrounding the production and distribution of biopharmaceuticals.

The Ensemble Studio Theatre (EST), recently voted the leading developmental theater company in New York and the number-two-ranked developmental theater in the United States, is the flagship of Sloan's theater program. This grant will provide three more years of support for the theatre's ongoing program to commission, develop, produce, and disseminate new science plays in New York and across the country. EST continues to be a powerful engine for new science plays. In addition to three outstanding Mainstage Productions at their storied 52nd Street home-Lucy, End Days and Lenin's Embalmers-EST has presented or sponsored 16 play readings and 12 play workshops, as well as a studio production at EST and a satellite production at P.S. 122. The Ensemble Studio Theatre continues to generate an enormous volume of quality science plays that have broadened the public's understanding of science and technology and helped narrow the gap between the two cultures in innovative ways.