Jackson Laboratory awarded $4.7 million in Maine state funds for technology development

Date: August 11, 2008

In a press conference with Governor John Baldacci today, officials announced that The Jackson Laboratory has received a Maine Technology Asset Fund grant from the Maine Technology Institute. The $4.7 million grant will be used to expand the Laboratory's technology capabilities and strengthen its research services offerings, and to make commercialization opportunities for new technologies available to Maine businesses.

The nonprofit Jackson Laboratory is an international leader in biomedical research, with 37 research groups advancing understanding of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, glaucoma and many other human diseases and conditions. It is also experiencing rapid growth in the research services field, providing expertise and research support to biotech firms and other outside institutions.

The $4.7 million will enable the Laboratory to accommodate increased research and development capacity, developing several new inventions and technological innovations. According to Jackson President and CEO Rick Woychik, Ph.D., "It is imperative for the Laboratory to improve the availability, efficiency and effectiveness of research technologies, not only for the Laboratory but for the global biomedical research community as well."

Today the Laboratory distributes research resources and scientific services to more than 13,000 investigators in 42 countries. "As we develop new technologies into products for this international community," Woychik explained, "we will create needs for specific products that we cannot mass-produce ourselves, since we specialize in research, not manufacturing. These are opportunities we would pass to Maine businesses, and we will assist them to enter the international biotech services markets with their products."

For example, scientists have long been challenged by technical difficulties associated with freezing mouse sperm. Unlike cattle and other agricultural animals, for which cryopreservation (freezing and storing) sperm has been used successfully for decades, most mouse sperm has poor fertilization rates after being frozen. To maintain valuable mouse models for human diseases, more costly and time-consuming techniques have had to be employed, such as embryo freezing. Last month, however, The Jackson Laboratory announced a breakthrough in the ability to cryopreserve mouse sperm, an innovation that could greatly reduce the costs involved in developing new mouse models for human diseases. The Laboratory has entered a partnership with Maine Manufacturing LLC in Sanford to create "kits" for other laboratories to use this innovative technology.

Other Maine organizations collaborating with The Jackson Laboratory in the MTI-funded initiative include the University of Maine Advance Manufacturing Center in Orono, Masters Machine in Round Pond, Clear H2O in Portland and Lane Conveyors & Drivers, Inc., in Brewer.

The Laboratory plans to provide partial matching funds for the R&D expansion project and anticipates additional matching funds from the National Institutes of Health and private funding organizations.

With an operating budget of $168.9 million and close to 1,400 employees, The Jackson Laboratory is one of Maine's largest employers. Some 95 percent of the institution's budget comes from outside the state, mainlyl from federal and private research grants and distribution of scientific resources, while at least 85 percent is spent in Maine.

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Related information:

Maine State Government press release

Maine Technology Institute website (includes a complete list of awardees)

Contact(s): Joyce Peterson, (207) 266-5745

For information on automatic email delivery of news releases (journalists only), please send an email request for details to news@jax.org.

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