Internet Update	September 2002
Genome Research Infrastructure Partnership Receives $9 Million from Tobacco Settlement Fund Wright State University is one of the institutions comprising the Genome Research Infrastructure Partnership (GRIP), which has been awarded a $9-million grant by the Ohio Biomedical Research and Technology Transfer Commission (BRTTC). The award will support research on a broad range of diseases such as cancer, heart and lung disease, and diabetes, which have been associated with tobacco use. The commission awarded a total of $21.5 million to three of 16 proposals submitted in the first round of its Partnership Award program. The money comes from a trust fund established with part of Ohio share of the 1998 Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement. The GRIP is a regional partnership of academic, commercial, and government research institutions in southwest Ohio. It was created in 2001 to enable the partners to share high-throughput technologies needed for genome research, to help Ohio become a preeminent genome research center, and to enhance the state's biotechnology industry. In addition to Wright State, the GRIP includes the University of Cincinnati, the Children's Hospital Research Foundation (Cincinnati), Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals, Acero Inc., and the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson AFB. The GRIP will have a highly visible hub in the newly created Genome Research Institute at the University of Cincinnati. The BRTTC award will fund the development of core facilities at this hub and the partners' other research centers, including functional genomics and bioinformatics programs at Wright State. "This unique partnership provides an opportunity for Ohio to establish a national program in genomic research," says Robert E.W. Fyffe, Ph.D., GRIP co-principal investigator at Wright State. "As a regional partnership linking academic institutions, industry, and government laboratories, the GRIP can pursue significant new research directions that no single partner could manage by itself." The University of Cincinnati's Genome Research Institute has been established at a 360,000-square-foot facility acquired from Aventis Pharmaceuticals. It includes five laboratory buildings and two educational buildings. It will serve as a hub for core facilities and also provide laboratory space to investigators from academia and industry, an optimal arrangement for the commercialization of new discoveries. "The recent completion of the Human Genome Project has fueled a worldwide revolution in the biological sciences. However, the availability of gene sequences alone is not sufficient for understanding cell function, or for developing important new diagnostic and therapeutic products, explains GRI director David Millhorn, Ph.D. "To achieve these goals, it is essential for researchers to have access to high throughput technologies that are designed to identify the simultaneous expression of large numbers of genes and proteins, assess their function, and develop chemical compounds to alter their expression." "The BRTTC award will have an immediate impact on Wright State researchers," Fyffe adds. "It will enable us to continue to invest in core facilities at Wright State that can contribute significantly to the growth of the partnership. Those core facilities also will help faculty to be more competitive with their individual research projects." GRIP Specific Aims 1. Establish a comprehensive research infrastructure that will allow the GRIP institutions to successfully compete and achieve leadership roles in the post-genome era. 2. Use the infrastructure to conduct basic, clinical and pharmaceutical research which will lead to the creation of proprietary gene and protein databases, the development of new therapeutic strategies, new research initiatives, and novel drug targets, all of which will eventually lead to improved health care for the citizens of Ohio and the Nation. 3. Create a "forward-looking" educational program in the genome sciences that will provide the expertise for fueling the development of biotechnology in the commercial, academic and clinical sectors in Ohio. 4. Generate commercial products from GRIP research by new and existing biotechnology companies in Ohio, including our commercial partners. Partner Institutions Institution Principal Investigators Genome Research Institute University of Cincinnati David E. Millhorn, Ph.D. Program Director Children's Hospital Research Foundation (Cincinnati ) Thomas F. Boat, M.D. Co-Principal Investigator Wright State University Robert E.W. Fyffe, Ph.D. Co-Principal Investigator Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals Douglas W. Axelrod, M.D., Ph.D. Joseph H. Gardner, Ph.D. Co-Principal Investigators Air Force Research Laboratory Wright Patterson AFB John M. Frazier, Ph.D. Acero, Inc.   Related sites: Gene Expression Laboratory Collaboration and identifying promising new avenues of research are core elements in the mission of the Gene Expression Laboratory (GEL), the first facility in the Miami Valley region to acquire gene array technology. The GEL can provide core support at multiple levels to faculty who want to incorporate gene expression profiling in their research. Signs of Life A new study from the Brookings Institution finds that nine metropolitan areas dominate the U.S. biotechnology industry. Developing new biotech centers requires strong biomedical research and the ability to convert that research into commercial activity.
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