New Maine Institute for Human Genetics and Health Coming to Brewer

Date: January 26, 2005

EMHS to partner with UMaine and Jackson Lab in "bench-to-bedside" health care initiative

Brewer, Maine - In Tuesday's "State of the State" address, Governor John Baldacci announced a new public-private partnership aimed at translating breakthroughs in basic genetics research into treatments for the chronic diseases that most adversely impact Mainers, while strengthening the advanced biomedical research workforce in northern Maine.

The Maine Institute for Human Genetics and Health, to be located in Brewer, will be a subsidiary of Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems. Under a partnership agreement being developed, scientists at the University of Maine in Orono and The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor will channel promising new discoveries in mouse and model organism genetics to the new Institute.

There, clinical researchers working in the area of human genetics, will search for ways to apply basic science discoveries to patients-a process known as "translational" research. Institute investigators will draw from a patient population living in the nine-county region of northern and eastern Maine served by EMHS.

According to EMHS President Norm Ledwin, "This Institute will address some of Maine's toughest problems-chronic diseases, high health care costs and a sluggish economy-with some of its greatest strengths. These are: a state university with growing research capacity, a world-class basic genetics research institution, and an integrated northern Maine health care system that serves nearly half the state's population."

In 2001 EMHS undertook a Community Health Needs Assessment in northern Maine. That study revealed that 20-25% of the region's adult population reported having three or more chronic health conditions. "Given that this is also an aging population," Ledwin notes, "the study substantiated the very real need for comprehensive efforts to address severe chronic health conditions."

EMHS is committed to providing $1.7 million in start-up costs and $4.5 million for the first three years' operating costs of the new Institute, with some support coming from external grants and private funds.

Plans call for a 5,000-square-foot research laboratory located at EMHS' new facility in Brewer, with five clinical research scientists, a technical staff and graduate students on site within five years of opening.

In recent years UMaine has appointed several biomedical research scientists to their graduate faculty and, in collaboration with Jackson and other Maine nonprofit institutions, developed graduate programs in biological sciences and functional genomics and created a biophysics program.

"The new Maine Institute for Human Genetics and Health is an important addition to the growing list of productive collaborations already in place," states UMaine President Robert Kennedy. "This research continuum could be the nucleus for a new model of unprecedented economic success in the Bangor region."

Jackson is the world's largest mammalian genetics research institution, with a research staff of more than 450 studying cancers, heart disease, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, women's health issues, and other life-threatening conditions, as well as normal development and aging. The institution's operating budget of $130.1 million comes primarily from research grants and the distribution of genetic resources to the international scientific community.

Jackson Director Rick Woychik, Ph.D., says that the National Institutes of Health-the primary source of federal research dollars-are increasingly emphasizing the connections of basic research to immediate healthcare needs and collaborative programs in their funding priorities. "In other words, basic research institutions like ours are being encouraged to partner with other research institutions and patient care facilities to speed up the "bench-to-bedside" delivery of new treatments," Woychik says.

"This opportunity to work together with EMHS and UMaine represents an exciting new opportunity to use the genetics discoveries at The Jackson Laboratory to help improve the quality of health care delivery," Woychik adds.

EMHS already has a research program that includes a diagnostics and research laboratory focusing on cancer, cardiovascular disease, and other diseases with a strong genetic component; data collection and outcome evaluation; and an Institute for Medical Improvement for preventing and managing chronic diseases in the doctor's office. The new Institute will build on these programs by:

  • Drawing on existing regional resources such as the EMMC Clinical Genetics Program and the Center for Human Genetics in Bar Harbor.
  • Formalizing research and educational relationships with UMaine and Jackson, thereby expanding preclinical medical education within the state.
  • Collaborating with staff scientists from Jackson to identify basic research findings with potential clinical application and to translate basic research into patient care.
  • Providing research opportunities for students enrolled in the UMaine Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.
  • Identifying other sources of funding for the long-term growth of the project.

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Contact(s):

Lee Umphrey, Office of the Governor, 207-287-3531, lee.umphrey@maine.gov
Jill McDonald, Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems, 207-973-7742, jmcdonald@emh.org
Joe Carr, University of Maine, 207-581-3571,joe.car@umit.maine.edu
Joyce Peterson, The Jackson Laboratory, 207-288-6058, joyce@jax.org

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Media Relations, Communications Office
The Jackson Laboratory
600 Main Street
Bar Harbor, Maine 04609-1500
Phone: 207-288-6051
Fax: 207-288-6076
Email: news@jax.org