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Jeffrey Houpt, the dean of the University's School of Medicine, recalled
how three years ago Carolina did not have a dollar to spend on genomics.
The kitty's a little bigger now.
Houpt spoke at a Feb. 22 ceremony held to announce a $245 million
public-private investment in a campuswide genome sciences initiative. Included
in that investment are a $25 million anonymous gift and a $2.25 million federal
appropriation, also announced that day.
Genomics involves the study of the sequence of DNA, which is the genetic
material of living organisms. Knowledge of genes and their role in human
disease may ultimately prove instrumental in cures for a wide variety of
diseases. Internationally renowned scientists - including Francis Collins,
director of the National Human Genome Research Institute and a medical school
graduate - announced on Feb. 12 the first "map" of the human genome.
The $25 million gift to the School of Medicine will support the Michael
Hooker Center for Proteomics. Proteomics is the area of specialization in
genetics that catalogs the proteins expressed in cells. Proteins are
instrumental in the processes that keep the body healthy or, when they go
wrong, can lead to diseases such as cancer.
Hooker served as the University's chancellor from 1995 until he died of
cancer in 1999.
The University received an anonymous gift of $1 million for genomics to
honor Hooker the year he died. This gift was used to establish an endowed
professorship in biology with a focus on genomics.
The new $2.25 million appropriation from the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services was secured last December with the support of the N.C.
Congressional delegation, including Sen. Jesse Helms and Rep. David
Price.
Chancellor James Moeser, in announcing the University's $245-million
commitment, said Carolina has positioned itself to become a driving force in
the genomics revolution. It will be a revolution, he said, that holds the
promise of changing the way doctors treat diseases, researchers find and design
breakthrough drugs and farmers grow crops.
"We aim to do our part in leading this breathtaking revolution spurred by
DNA and the book of life," Moeser said.
The genesis of genomics at Carolina
Houpt and others at the University have been pushing to gain a toehold in
the field of genomics for several years now.
In 1999, that toehold was secured when the University was awarded two
important grants. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute gave the School of
Medicine $2.6 million, to be distributed over four years, to help develop and
staff a new genetics center. The University received a $5 million grant over
five years from the National Institutes of Health to establish one of two
"Regional Mutant Mouse Resource Centers" in the nation.
By 2000, the toehold Houpt had hoped for grew rapidly into a beachhead as
the result of a series of sweeping developments.
The first was the arrival in July 2000 of Terry Magnuson, one of the
world's most renowned scientists in mammalian genetics, along with the 15
members of his laboratory group and their 10,000 research mice.
Magnuson came from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland to become
the founding chair of the Department of Genetics in the University's School of
Medicine. Some of the money used to recruit Magnuson and his team came from the
more than $400,000 that the North Carolina Biotechnology Center gave the
University for its genome sciences initiative.
The second major development came Oct. 12 when Moeser announced his
intention to add new faculty positions in this area. The University has
committed more than $50 million in recurring funds for 40 new faculty positions
associated with genomics.
Moeser's announcement reinforced what Magnuson and others knew from the
beginning: that to be cutting edge, genomics research at the University must
cut across academic and medical disciplines and draw upon the expertise of
many.
The new positions range across five health science schools - dentistry,
medicine, nursing, pharmacy and public health - as well as the College of Arts
and Sciences, the School of Information and Library Science and the School of
Law.
Magnuson has said it was this atmosphere of collegiality and collaboration
that was one of the things that attracted him to Carolina and would be one of
the things he would use to attract others to Carolina as well.
Moeser said such collaboration would not be possible if not for the
willingness of deans across campus to reallocate funds and faculty positions to
the genome sciences initiative.
"The fact that deans are putting their own money behind this initiative
shows how much they believe in what we're doing and how much they want to help
this campus succeed," Moeser said.
Magnuson organized the Carolina Center for Genome Sciences as the place
these professors and others from the various schools and disciplines can pursue
their collaborative work.
"It's a special environment here," said Magnuson, who also is Sarah Graham
Kenan professor. "Our goal is to achieve interaction and coordination across
campus. In the opportunity we have to integrate the basic sciences with health
affairs, we are uniquely positioned for the challenge of the post-genome era, a
time after scientists have determined the sequence of DNA and are looking to
provide meaning to it."
Since Magnuson's arrival in July, he has hired seven top assistant
professors in the field. They are:
* David Threadgill from Vanderbilt University;
* Fernando de Manuel de Villena de L'Epine from Temple University and the
Fels Institute for Cancer Research;
* Charles Perou from Stanford University;
* Deborah Threadgill from Vanderbilt;
* Frank Conlon from the National Institute for Medical Research in Mill
Hill, United Kingdom;
* Larysa Halyna Pevny from the University of Sheffield, United Kingdom;
and
* Shawn Ahmed, who will begin work in April, from the Medical Research
Council in London.
At the same time, a number of faculty whose appointments are outside the
Department of Genetics will be involved in research that will have key
implications for genomics and genetics. Among them are:
* Jeffrey Dangl, John N. Couch professor in the Department of
Biology;
* Patrick Flood, dean of the Dental Research Center;
* Alexander Tropsha, associate professor in the School of Pharmacy;
* Ed Davis, chair of the department of biostatistics;
* Gary Marchioni, Boshamer professor in the School of Information and
Library Science;
* Steve Downs, associate professor of pediatrics; Susan Lord, professor of
pathology and laboratory medicine and director of the Curriculum in Genetics
and Molecular Biology;
* Larry Churchill, professor of social medicine;
* Richard Boucher Jr., Kenan professor of medicine;
* Shelton Earp, professor of medicine and pharmacology and director of the
UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center; and
* Dianne Holditch-Davis, professor in the School of Nursing.
Magnuson, in his remarks at the Feb. 22 ceremony, said the assembly of
talent over the past year has moved the University to what he described as "the
end of the beginning" in its genome sciences initiative.
The emerging challenge for the University now will be to maintain its focus
and mobilize its forces in a coordinated way.
Magnuson also said a teaching component will be critical if the University
is to fulfill the promise of becoming a leader in this emerging science. Toward
that effort, the Department of Genetics has already established a human
genetics minor and, in conjunction with the clinical departments, recently
accepted its first medical genetics resident.
Room to grow
As genomics research grows in both scope and intensity, the building space
it will need to flourish will grow in equal proportion.
A significant chunk of money that will be needed to meet that need has
already been secured as a result of a third major development from 2000: state
voters' approval in November of the $3.1 billion bond package for state
universities and community colleges. The bond will pay for $499 million worth
of construction at the University over the next decade.
Some of the University's share of the money will be used to help build four
buildings affiliated with genomics research. Each of them will be paid for with
various combinations of bond money, prior state appropriations, and money the
University will raise from private gifts or state and federal grants.
Already under construction is the Medical Biomolecular Research Building,
which will house the Department of Genetics and the Carolina Center for Genome
Sciences. Bond money and prior state funding will account for $34 million of
the $64 million needed to pay for the building.
The Science Complex, estimated to cost more than $400 million, will receive
$88 million in bond money. The Bioinformatics Building, a $30 million project,
will get $2 million in bond money. Finally, the Research and Teaching Building,
a $39 million project, will receive $13 million in bond money.
At least some of the genomics enterprise could eventually be located on
what is now the undeveloped Horace Williams tract off Airport Road.
Jack Evans, part of the four-member University team spearheading planning
efforts for the property, said it is "both possible and likely but not
definite" that Horace Williams could become the eventual home for genomics
research.
Still, Evans said, it is clear that genomics has become a point of
intellectual emphasis for the campus. It is equally clear that the Horace
Williams property, with nearly 300 acres of its 1,000 acres to be developed,
presents an opportunity for the University to grow. It would be logical, at
this point, to use some of that land for this exciting new area of research, he
said.
Where will it all lead?
The genomics revolution envisioned on this campus will have economic and
medical implications that reach far beyond Chapel Hill.
The media attention that the genome sciences initiative received during the
past two weeks only hints at the magnitude.
The News & Observer, in a Feb. 28 editorial, talked of how the Triangle
will likely be a center for genomics research not only because of the
University's commitment but also because of the $200 million that Duke
University is putting in its own genome sciences project.
There will be competition between the two universities in this area, but
Moeser has been quick to say that there should be and will be collaboration
with Duke and N.C. State University as well. Such collaboration will only serve
to strengthen the universities' competitive position with schools elsewhere,
Moeser has said.
U.S. Rep. David Price, speaking at the Feb. 22 ceremony, recalled how it
wasn't that long ago that the state of North Carolina was not known for being
first in anything, in the South or anywhere else.
That's not true anymore, Price said.
Anywhere in the country he goes, everybody knows about the dynamic economy
of the Triangle.
The foundation of that economy has been the intellectual capital of the
three research universities, a foundation that past University leaders such as
Frank Porter Graham and Bill Friday helped to build through their vision and
leadership, Price said.
We cannot forget that we stand on their shoulders today, Price said, or
that it's "our duty to build on that legacy."
"It's hard to think of anything more visionary than mapping the human
genome."
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