ProNova Solutions has announced an R&D partnership with Indiana University to develop advanced proton therapy technologies (press release). The company already had a relationship with IU to provide technology for proton therapy system components.

The company had previously been in talks with the University of Tennessee for a similar R&D partnership, but the state legislature denied U.T.'s request to guarantee $98 million in bonds as part of a complicated financing arrangement for ProNova's new proton therapy center in Knoxville. The arrangement would have posed little risk for U.T., according to ProNova, and U.T. would use proceeds to create a new medical physics degree and related engineering and R&D labs.

According to news reports, Oak Ridge Republican Sen. Randy McNally said at the time that "If proton therapy was such a good thing, you'd have one at Emory and Vandy." Heaven forbid that Knoxville should be on the leading edge of anything besides truck stops, highway projects and football. Oh, wait. Never mind about the football.

Anyway, plans are moving forward for ProNova's proton therapy center at the new Provision Health Alliance at Dowell Springs outpatient treatment center in Knoxville, apparently without U.T.'s involvement. The center is expected to open early next year.

According to PHA, the "Provision Center for Proton Therapy will be the first of its kind in Tennessee and only the second in the southeast. The center will provide one of the most advanced cancer treatments in the world to patients in the region."