Fairfield biotech park part of 'the new frontier of medicine'
Copyright © 2001 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
BAR HARBOR — The "mapping" of the human genetic code last year was the first chapter in a new creation story.
Scientists identified the basic chemical commands that are the genesis of human life, and they are now developing techniques to alter those commands. Researchers at The Jackson Laboratory will help to write the rest of the story, as society wrestles with the promise and the peril of that awesome accomplishment.
The "C57" Black strain of mice has been a standard in medical research since the early 1900s. It was brought to Maine by Dr. Clarence Little, who founded The Jackson Laboratory in 1929.
"In the 21st century, the human genome is the new frontier of medicine," stated the Bar Harbor laboratory in its 2000 annual report. "Now that we literally have a map to that frontier, we face the challenge of deciphering major human diseases and disorders.
Photo courtesy of Jackson Laboratory
"Identifying the genes that cause these maladies will provide the means of intervening before they cause suffering, rather than just treating the symptoms of advancing disease."
Recognizing the promise offered by advances in genetics, the National Institutes of Health have increased funding for biomedical research from just over $200 million in 1995 to nearly $2 billion in 2000.
Jackson Laboratory has been a major beneficiary. The lab's budget tripled during the past decade, and employment doubled.
WANTED: LAB WORKERS
The rapid growth is exhausting the pool of workers available on Mount Desert Island. To prepare more people for jobs as laboratory animal technologists, the Bar Harbor facility recently entered into a partnership with Kennebec Valley Technical College, the University of Maine at Farmington and Husson College to train students at the Thomas M. Teague Biotechnology Park, in Fairfield.
Chuck Bates, manager of training and development for Jackson Laboratory, said the institution hopes to begin classes in Fairfield this fall. KVTC has offered classroom and laboratory space until the new biotechnology center is built.
The two-year program will consist of one instructor and about 10 students, according to Bates. It will expand on courses offered through the biological sciences program at KVTC, and credits may be transferred to bachelor's degree programs at the other colleges.
Jackson Laboratory currently has about 240 animal technologists, according to Bates, and the number is steadily growing. Students who complete training at the biotech park and hold a two-year degree can expect a starting salary of $10.25 an hour, plus health insurance and other benefits, if they take a job in Bar Harbor.
At the same time, Jackson Laboratory's decision to establish a training center in Fairfield gives a substantial boost to the biotech park.
"This is the signature on the painting," said Clyde Dyar, economic development director for Fairfield and an strong proponent of efforts to attract biotechnology companies to the region.
COMING IN FROM THE CODE
Mapping the genetic code is a milestone — but not the end point — in a long scientific journey to understand how inherited traits influence the development of disease. Much like a map of the world, it describes the location of important features but tells nothing about the role they play in human life.
That's where Jackson Laboratory enters the picture. With nearly 1,100 employees and an annual budget of more than $88 million, the Bar Harbor institution is the world's largest research facility for mammal genetics.
The laboratory was founded in 1929 by Clarence Cook Little. A Harvard-trained pioneer in the field of genetics, Little also served as president of the University of Maine and the University of Michigan.
Little's study of cancer convinced him that mice held the key to understanding the genetic basis of human diseases. The rodents are ideal laboratory animals: They are small and easy to keep, begin to reproduce at a young age, and can have many litters a year.
Years later, research would show that about 85 percent of the genetic code of mice is identical to that of humans. Most human disorders —from breast cancer to osteoporosis, epilepsy to obesity — can be found in rodents.
"The mouse has been defined as the primary platform for biomedical research, and The Jackson Laboratory has been named the nation's center for mouse genetics," said David Premo, spokesman for the Bar Harbor institution.
SAY 'CHEESE'
Employees of Jackson Laboratory maintain more than 2,700 strains of mice, many with specific genetic predispositions to such medical conditions as diabetes or hardening of the arteries.
Scientists at 12,000 labs in 56 countries have used mice from Jackson Laboratory to further their research. This year, the facility will ship about 2 million animals to researchers. Virtually every major university, medical school and research laboratory in the world uses mice produced in Bar Harbor.
In addition to serving as the world's preeminent supplier of lab mice, Jackson Laboratory conducts basic research in five broad areas: cancer, birth defects and aging, immune system and blood disorders, neurological and sensory disorders, and metabolic diseases.
"We are an institution of basic discovery," said Barbara Tennent, manager of scientific program development at the laboratory.
The National Cancer Institute has designated the Bar Harbor facility as one of nine U.S. "cancer centers" performing basic research into the disease. "The Jackson Laboratory is not only important to the national cancer effort, but critical to its success," stated NCI when it granted the designation in 1983.
Using mice, scientists at Jackson Laboratory and other research facilities can study how genes, environmental toxins and other factors interact to cause disease. The rodents also are used to evaluate potential therapies.
THE FUTURE OF MEDICINE
Little's intuition about mice has become one of the critical underpinnings of biomedical research. According to an essay in the scientific journal Nature, at least 17 Nobel prizes have flowed from his work.
The late George Snell, a researcher at Jackson Laboratory from 1935-73, helped to make organ transplantation possible by using mice to study how the immune system works. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1980.
Rapid advances in medical research are expected to follow the mapping of the genetic codes of mice and humans. Just this month, a team headed by Jackson Laboratory researcher Kevin Flurkey showed that a single gene in the "Snell dwarf" strain of mice can control life span and aging. The gene causes dwarfism and impaired immune function, but in controlled environments the mice live 25 to 50 percent longer than normal rodents.
Other examples:
"It doesn't get spontaneous cancer," Tennent said, "and it resists treatments that cause cancers (in other mice)."
It could be years before scientists finally eradicate cancer, heart disease and other scourges of modern life. But research begun more than six decades ago at Jackson Laboratory will undoubtedly have pointed the way.
To reach Andy Kekacs
Phone: 861-9239