[January 04, 2009]

Genomics partnership has 46 projects, six patent filings

(Post-Bulletin (Rochester, MN) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Jan. 3--Researchers say the investment in the Minnesota Partnership for Biotechnology and Medical Genomics is paying off.

After three years of significant funding, 46 research projects have either been completed, approved or are ongoing. And from that, applications for six patents have been filed -- ideas that could attract industry attention if it sees them as having commercial potential.

The partnership gets $8 million in annual funding from the Minnesota Legislature, but now the state faces a $4.8 billion deficit and is looking at cuts everywhere.

Some ideas are already in the commercial pipeline, said Eric Wieben, director of the Mayo Clinic Genomics Research Center. Antibodies to help treat multiple sclerosis have been created in partnership facilities and "has made it to the commercial level," he said. Private industry is also supporting and pursuing "on a small scale" research begun by the partnership. Wieben declined to be more specific due to the confidential nature of the collaboration.

Research on new viral therapies for mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer caused by exposure to asbestos, is also being explored that could help to cure that devastating disease, Wieben said.

The partnership has held talks, some of which have gone beyond the exploratory, with representatives and delegations from India and South Korea to Sweden and the Czech Republic.

"We're attracting attention from the world that we didn't have in 2003. Now we have serious things from people who are willing to spend some of their dollars on how we can work together to do big things," Wieben said.

Wieben says the partnership is at a critical phase, comparing it to a toddler who has learned to walk but still needs to be fed if it is to continue to grow. He says it is also important to remember that even though the partnership received its first $2 million in funding in 2003, it didn't start receiving the lion's share of its $60 million until 2005. And it wasn't until February 2006 that those dollars were awarded for research projects.

"We have done good things with the dollars the Legislature has given us, and we've turned their investment into more dollars that are supporting more activities and more jobs. And if that gets yanked away, the partnership winds up hurting," he said.

The partnership has not been free from growing pangs. The U created consternation among some area legislators when earlier this year it decided to trim $3 million from the $25 million in one-time money for the partnership to deal with budget cuts enacted by the Legislature.

Legislators say the U was able to make the decision unilaterally, because the funding came through higher education committees. Rep. Kim Norton, a Rochester Democrat, said she is considering a bill that would prevent such diversions in the future unless jointly agreed to by the U and Mayo Clinic.

"I was quite distressed, as I'm sure were other area legislators, to learn that that money had been touched, particularly in light of President (Robert) Bruininks' focus on making the university one of the top three research institutions in the country. I hear him say that repeatedly," Norton said.

Mary Koppel, assistant vice president for public affairs in the Academic Health Center at the University of Minnesota, said those cuts were made in consultation with legislative leaders. But the outcome could have been worse. At one point, legislators were investigating raiding as much as $10 million to $20 million from the partnership when they discovered that $40 million of that money hadn't been spent yet. That didn't happen and the money has since been encumbered or spent.

Koppel said the U is enthusiastically committed to the partnership.

"It is a real bright spot for the state of Minnesota, because the potential coming out of this and the discoveries coming out of this stand to make (Minnesota) great in the next century," she said.

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