The Jackson Laboratory--West moves to larger Sacramento site
| Date: April 24, 2009 |
The Jackson Laboratory has expanded its footprint in California, home to the world's greatest concentration of biomedical researchers. The newly renovated, 85,000-square-foot facility in Sacramento is twice the size of Jackson's previous space in West Sacramento.
According to Jackson President and CEO Rick Woychik, Ph.D., about twice as much biomedical research is conducted in California than in the entire East Coast corridor between Maine and the Research Triangle area of North Carolina. "The West Coast biomedical research community is an exciting community, and we're becoming a bigger part of it," Dr. Woychik says. "This means The Jackson Laboratory, and Maine, will benefit from a tremendous income opportunity for many years to come."
Based in Bar Harbor, Maine, The Jackson Laboratory is a private, nonprofit research institution, with 38 research groups focused on understanding the genetics of human health. Over its 80-year history, Jackson also developed a special role of supporting the world's biomedical research community through its JAX® Mice & Services (JMS) offerings.
Each year JMS provides close to 2.5 million genetically defined mice to some 16,000 research laboratories in more than 60 countries. Jackson scientists have also developed unparalleled expertise in monitoring mouse models for a wide range of physiological characteristics, including disease symptoms. This approach is known as in vivo (Latin for “within the living”) because it uses noninvasive technologies to observe the effects of a drug or therapy in a whole, living organism, not just cells in a petri dish.
"Through this in vivo approach," says Jackson V.P. and Chief Operating Officer Chuck Hewett, Ph.D., "scientists can track how cancer and other diseases progress throughout the lifespan of a mouse and also how these diseases respond to various drug compounds. This promotes better understanding of human disease processes and enables the development of new treatments."
In 2001 the Laboratory established a small facility in West Sacramento, known as The Jackson Laboratory--West, and started offering mouse models and research services to the academic laboratories and pharmaceutical and biotech companies in the Western United States. "Today the Laboratory's sale of mice on the West Coast is growing rapidly and its in vivo services are in demand throughout the scientific world," Dr. Hewett says. The new JAX--West space in Sacramento will enable more extensive in vivo service offerings, including cancer and stem cell research collaborations.
The move to the new Sacramento site began late in 2008 and is now complete, with about 100 employees on site. Providing a pathogen-free environment for the laboratory animals, the facility meets the highest federal, state and voluntary standards for animal care, genetic quality control and health status.
Dr. Hewett adds that JAX--West can now provide research services to Jackson scientists that were formerly contracted to outside companies, reducing bottom-line costs for the institution.
A formal opening ceremony for the JAX--West facility is planned for May 6.
Along with the newly expanded West Coast operations, the Laboratory is continuing to recruit new scientific teams to the Bar Harbor headquarters campus. Plans are to grow from the current 38 research groups to 45 to build on the institution's strengths in cancer, neurological disease, bioinformatics and other research areas.
The Jackson Laboratory's mission is to discover the genetic basis for preventing, treating and curing human diseases, and to enable research and education for the global biomedical community. The Laboratory is the world's source for more than 4,000 strains of genetically defined mice, is home of the mouse genome database and is an international hub for scientific courses, conferences, training and education.
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Contact(s): Joyce Peterson, 207-288-6058
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Media Relations, Communications Office
The Jackson Laboratory
600 Main Street
Bar Harbor, Maine 04609-1500
Phone: 207-288-6058 (journalists only)
Main Jackson Laboratory phone: 207-288-6000
Fax: 207-288-6076
Email: news@jax.org
