Minnesota Partnership Announces New Research Projects

Medical science aimed at boosting state economy

MINNEAPOLIS/ROCHESTER, Minn. -- The Minnesota Partnership for Biotechnology and Medical Genomics is awarding $15 million in state-funded research support to nine new research teams and infrastructure support for five teams of successful applicants.

The nine research winners will share roughly $9 million and conduct research on pancreatic cancer, tuberculosis and brain tumors, as well as cardiovascular, neuromuscular and autoimmune diseases. Other projects will focus on transplant rejection, drug addiction and cancer drug development. The remaining $6 million will support equipment, software and other infrastructure needs to enhance molecular research, genomics, proteomics and bioinformatics.

"We are excited by the strength of these research projects. They represent top-level science as well as a high degree of potential in the marketplace," said Frank Cerra, M.D., Senior Vice President for Health Sciences at the University of Minnesota. "This is a clear example of how state investment in the Minnesota Partnership will make a difference for all Minnesotans - in health care and in economic development."

The $15 million was the first installment of a state commitment to the Partnership, which leverages Minnesota's leading medical research institutions to enhance economic development in the state. An initial contribution of $2 million appropriated by the Legislature in 2003 and augmented by another 1 million from each institution launched the Partnership's pilot projects on Alzheimer's disease, prostate cancer, heart disease and obesity. Those projects have already resulted in several journal articles, grant applications, a patent application and strong interest from industry.

"This second round of awards will triple the amount of research going on and help position Minnesota as a leader in this quickly expanding field of genomics-related discoveries," said Glenn Forbes, M.D., CEO of Mayo Clinic in Rochester. "We have already accomplished much in a short time but expect even greater things from this new, larger group of excellent projects."

Applications for the projects were requested last fall from University and Mayo researchers. Each research proposal has a principal investigator from each institution and must be a project that could not be completed by either organization on its own. The field was narrowed and then final selection was made with input from an outside panel of national experts and consideration was given to the potential commercialization potential of the research. The funding will be for two years, with the goal of developing intellectual property or attracting additional research support from federal or private sources. Similarly, the infrastructure requests had to come from a partnering team and represent a need that neither institution could meet under its existing budgets.

In total, more than $70 million in funding requests were received for the $15 million available. Partnership leaders say this exemplifies the level of research ideas that potentially could be brought forward to help Minnesota's health and economy.

The Partnership has requested the next installment in research support of $18 million be appropriated in the upcoming legislative session. If funded at a rate of $70 million over 5 years, moderate economic projections show an impact of the Minnesota Partnership of over 4,300 direct and indirect jobs in 2010 and $319 million in revenues annually by 2010.

Collaborative research conducted as part of this next round of funding will have an advantage. The Partnership's new genomics research facility will be completed in Rochester by the end of this year. The three-story facility on the Mayo Clinic campus will provide laboratory space for continued collaborations as well as facilities for state-of-the-art equipment for Partnership use. The building expansion was the result of $21.7 million in state bonding support.

As part of its commitment to biosciences in Minnesota, the Partnership, along with the BioBusiness Alliance of Minnesota, is sponsoring a series of conferences around the state. Recent events held in St. Cloud and Worthington each attracted well over 100 people interested in learning how best to leverage bioscience discoveries into economic development. Other conferences are planned for later this spring in Mankato and Bemidji.

For more on the Minnesota Partnership, visit www.minnesotapartnership.info.

Round II Research Awards

Neuromuscular Diseases

Project Title:
Development of Ultra-Small Sensors for Accurate Quantification of Muscle Forces in Neuromuscular Diseases

Principle Investigators:
Rajesh Ragamani, Ph.D., University of Minnesota
Kenton Kaufman, Ph.D., Mayo Clinic

Muscle strength is assessed by measuring electrical activity in muscles, and is important in treating neuromuscular diseases. A more reliablemeasure of muscle force is intramuscular pressure (IMP). Researchers expect to develop needle-sized fluid pressure sensors to measure IMP and design a cover for the sensor that will allow accurate measurement of fluid pressure, leading to better treatments.

Brain Tumors

Project Title:
Neuro-oncology Genetics

Principle Investigators:
David Largaespada, Ph.D., University of Minnesota
Robert Jenkins, M.D., Ph.D., Mayo Clinic

Early detection and effective treatment of brain tumors is very difficult. Particularly troublesome are malignant glial cell tumors that occur in the brain. A better understanding of how these tumors develop will help predict patient prognosis. This project aims to develop a new method to find cancer genes, design treatments and develop new therapies, setting the stage for testing new drugs and new therapies for malignant glial cells.

Cancer Drug Development

Project Title:
Selective, Small-Molecule Inhibitors of JNK2 as Anti-Cancer Drugs

Principle Investigators:
Yuan-Ping Pang, Ph.D., Mayo Clinic
Zigang Dong, M.D., Ph.D., University of Minnesota, Hormel Institute

This project will use genetic code, high-performance computing, modern chemical synthesis and cancer biology to develop chemicals that can selectively block the function of a cancer-related protein called JNK2. The goal is to yield new chemicals that can be used as research tools to further the study of the role of JNK2 in cancers and to ultimately develop anti-cancer drugs.

Tuberculosis

Project Title:
Medical Genomics Applied to an Ancient Disease: Real-time PCR for the Diagnosis and Direct Drug Susceptibility Testing of Tuberculosis

Principle Investigators:
Nancy Wengenack, Ph.D., Mayo Clinic
Dean Tsukayama, M.D., University of Minnesota

After 30 years of decline, the incidence of tuberculosis (TB) has been increasing due to many factors, including failure to maintain a public health infrastructure. This project aims to develop an affordable diagnostic test that measures tuberculosis, quickly recognizes a TB infection and can rapidly determine if the patient has antibiotic resistance that requires a pharmacologic intervention not achieved by the standard antibiotics used to fight TB.

Autoimmune Diseases

Project Title:
Biomarker Discovery in Autoimmunity

Principle Investigators:
Timothy Behrens, M.D., University of Minnesota
Ann Reed, M.D., Mayo Clinic

Autoimmune diseases result when the body's immune system turns against a person's own tissues. New technologies allow scientists to look at the level of expression of thousands of the genes within a tissue on a single silicon chip, similar to computer chips. Using this technology scientists have identified gene expression "signatures" observed only in people with certain diseases and levels of dozens of proteins in blood. This project will apply blood cell chip technology to several diseases, resulting in better diagnosis and identification of new and improved therapies for these diseases.

Pancreatic Cancer

Project Title:
Combinatorial-Based Chemistry and High-Throughput Screening Methods to Identify Rac GTPase Inhibitors

Principle Investigators:
Steven Patterson, Ph.D., University of Minnesota
Daniel Billadeau, Ph.D., Mayo Clinic

Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the United States and is virtually incurable. Rac proteins are critical for pancreatic cancer cell proliferation and survival, and studies have identified Rac proteins in other human malignancies, making Rac an attractive target for therapeutic intervention in multiple human cancers. This project will use highly sophisticated techniques to synthesize and identify novel compounds that can inhibit the activity of Rac proteins in hopes of ultimately creating new treatments for pancreatic cancer.

Transplant Rejection

Project Title:
Identifying Factors Influencing the Survival of Kidney Allografts by Genomic and Proteomic Analysis

Principle Investigators:
Fernando Cosio, M.D., Mayo Clinic
William Oetting, Ph.D., University of Minnesota

Kidney transplantation is the best treatment available for kidney failure. Several issues compromise the long-term outcome of this therapy, including acute rejection and chronic allograft nephropathy - a progressive deterioration of kidney function. The goal of this project is to use advanced genetic and protein studies to improve the long-term outcome of kidney transplantation.

Drug Addiction

Project Title:
Towards a Gene Therapy for Cocaine Addiction

Principle Investigators:
Stephen Brimijoin, Ph.D., Mayo Clinic
Marilyn Carroll, Ph.D., University of Minnesota

Cocaine addiction is one of today's most serious health problems. The risk of addiction after even a brief period of casual use is high and recovery from addiction is extremely difficult. Researchers have already engineered "cocaine-eating" enzymes -- new enzymes that destroy cocaine so quickly it cannot act on the brain or other targets. Gene transfer of these enzymes is possible. This project aims to make this technology safe for humans and significantly improve drug cessation efforts.

Cardiovascular Disease

Project Title:
Progenitor Cells as Biomarkers: Developing Diagnostic and Prognostic Profiles for Cardiovascular Disease

Principle Investigators:
Doris Taylor, Ph.D., University of Minnesota
Amir Lerman, M.D., Mayo Clinic

The best indicator of self-repair to a person's blood vessels and heart associated with cardiovascular disease is the number and type of stem cells circulating in blood. By measuring these stem cells, researchers hope to develop a simple blood test and other novel tools that allow them to diagnose and assess severity of cardiovascular disease, predict its progression and ultimately determine if various treatments are working to minimize damage to the body. These biocellular markers will predict a person's susceptibility to disease progression and their capability to respond to various treatments.

2006 Research Infrastructure Funding

MINGEN - MINnesota GENomics Infrastructure Initiative
Vivkek Kapur, BVSc, Ph.D., University of Minnesota
David Smith, Ph.D., Mayo Clinic

X-ray Crystallography Infrastructure: A Mayo Clinic/University of Minnesota Partnership to Solve Novel Macromolecular Structures Important to Human Health and Disease
Caroline Wilmot, Ph.D., University of Minnesota
James Thompson, Ph.D., Mayo Clinic

Development and Manufacturing of Biotherapeutic Proteins
John Wagner, M.D., University of Minnesota
Larry Pease, Ph.D., Mayo Clinic

Advance Proteomics Instrumentation and Bioinformatics for Biomarker Discovery
Gary Nelsestuen, Ph.D., University of Minnesota
H. Robert Bergen III, Ph.D., Mayo Clinic

Collaborative Workflow Environment for Bioinformatics: Implementation and Integration of Data Workflow Technology to Accelerate the Development and Deployment of Customized Bioinformatics Applications
Jean-Pierre Kocher, Ph.D., Mayo Clinic
Donald Truhlar, Ph.D., University of Minnesota

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