Together, the scientist from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and his corporate partner warily straddle the barrier between academia and industry, and in the process, develop new treatments that may someday save lives. "Our situation with AstraZeneca is very focused on a number of targets, discrete compounds, and what they do in a specific system," says Greenberg, an associate professor of molecular and cellular biology. "It really helps us in the long run because we're going to make better models, we're going to know more about them, and how to use them. AstraZeneca benefits too, because they learn more about what their compounds do."
Observers of such academic-industry alliances say the agreements can create ethical minefields distort or corrupt the mission of academic science or result in the commercialization of university research departments and the exploitation of students as a de facto labor force. "There are conflicts of interest ...
