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Thread: Another Silver Bullet Misses The Target?

  1. #1
    Member LaNdReW's Avatar
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    Another Silver Bullet Misses The Target?

    Ed. in the Buffalo News today:
    The bioinformatics dream gets a wake-up call

    http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial...19/1050013.asp

    So whaddya think, another silver bullet biting the dust?
    "When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross." - Sinclair Lewis (1935)

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    Member 300miles's Avatar
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    I think it's too early to label this a failure.

    It really needs a few years for things to get going. Once they get a few successes under their belt, things would get rolling more quickly.

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    Give it some time this is the wave of the future. It is an up and coming field.
    May you live forever.....and the last voice you hear.....MINE!

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    The link doesn't load.

    Could you copy the text right into a post?
    Truth springs from argument among friends.

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    Originally posted by Chancellor Qu'noH
    Give it some time this is the wave of the future. It is an up and coming field.
    agreed

    lars
    "... the world is full of educated derelicts..." Calvin Coolidge

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    Member Linda_D's Avatar
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    I agree that the "jury is still out" on bioinformatics.

    From what was in the article about how most of the commercialization from bioinformatics seems to be concentrated in 3 parts of the country, it seems that there really isn't much chance of this project creating the several thousand jobs that were envisioned for it in 2001, which means, as a "silver bullet", it may be much a dud as the rest of the arsenal.

    That doesn't mean that the project is a failure, though. It may produce several hundred jobs, perhaps as many as a thousand, over the next decade, and these would be first class jobs, mostly semi professional (lab techs) or professional jobs with good salaries, benefits, etc.

    If, of course, something in the research being done at the bioinformatics center hits big time, the entire scenario could change. Buffalo could then become a bigger player on the bioinformatics scene and attract more outside money.
    Your right to buy a military weapon without hindrance, delay or training cannot trump Daniel Barden’s right to see his eighth birthday. -- Jim Himes

  7. #7
    Member LaNdReW's Avatar
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    OK

    Originally posted by biker
    The link doesn't load.

    Could you copy the text right into a post?

    Here ya go......

    FOCUS: BIOINFORMATICS
    The bioinformatics dream gets a wake-up call


    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Center has yet to meet high expectations as an engine of economic development

    By STEPHEN T. WATSON and FRED O. WILLIAMS
    News Staff Reporters
    6/19/2005


    Derek Gee/Buffalo News
    "It is about saving jobs as well as creating new ones....it is not something that is going to happen overnight."
    Bruce A. Holm, the center's executive director.

    Click to view larger picture



    Click to view larger picture



    On an unusually warm December morning in 2001, Gov. George E. Pataki came to this old steel town to pitch a new economic elixir for the region: a high-tech, biomedical research center.
    Surrounded by politicians, business leaders and scientists, Pataki pledged $50 million from the state to help launch a Center of Excellence in the emerging field of bioinformatics.

    Corporations promised $150 million more. The federal government pumped $27 million into the project. And construction soon began on a glimmering new home for the center.

    But the bioinformatics center has yet to meet this region's high expectations as an engine of economic development.

    In the last 31/2 years:

    • Jeffrey Skolnick - introduced as the "dream candidate" and a "rock star" of bioinformatics - went from executive director of the center to his new role as a professor and researcher with no administrative duties.

    • Scientists directly employed at the center have won just $9.5 million in federal grants.

    • The center has attracted little private investment in recent years. Much of the initial $150 million came in the way of computer software and equipment from companies that are no longer active partners.

    • The center missed initial projections of creating 4,000 or 5,000 spinoff jobs.

    "With regard to the initial investment, I think the question is, was it worth it?" said Dr. Michael E. Bernardino, University at Buffalo vice president of health affairs until 2003.

    Still, boosters of the bioinformatics center say the venture has not lost momentum.

    They note that scientists with ties to the center have won $131 million in grants, a first step in boosting the area's economy.

    The new bioinformatics building on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus should be completed and opened by year's end.

    And UB officials point to research collaborations already sparked by the center and say such ventures will become more common with the new building.

    "It is about saving jobs as well as creating new ones," said Bruce A. Holm, the center's executive director. "It is not something that is going to happen overnight."





    Some progress noted

    Bioinformatics was a little-known concept when Pataki unveiled the Center of Excellence program in his 2001 State of the State address.

    Under the governor's plan, UB, Roswell Park Cancer Institute and industry partners would join together on a center using supercomputers to sift through genetic data in a search for new drugs.

    Center officials say UB and the community grabbed onto the concept immediately, and they point to progress on several fronts.

    For one, UB's 150,000-square-foot new research center on the medical campus in Buffalo is set to open in December or January. The state is spending $54 million - plus $9 million for computer equipment - on the new facility.

    Roswell Park and Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute also are putting up new research buildings on the campus - with major state support.

    UB reports that 13 faculty have been hired for its center since 2002 but lists a total of 103 faculty affiliated with the center.

    Between 2002 and 2004, affiliated scientists disclosed 88 inventions, applied for 72 patents and received 24.

    And UB officials cite federal grants as another bellwether of the center's research.

    The $131 million touted by officials includes money obtained between 2001 and 2004 by researchers linked to the center but working elsewhere at UB.

    Holm and other officials said the center is prompting collaborations among scientists - in different parts of UB, at Hauptman-Woodward and at Roswell Park - who otherwise wouldn't have worked together.

    Scientists affiliated with the center, in just the last year, applied for $142 million in federal grants, Holm noted.

    But critics say UB officials are counting work that would have gone on without the center.

    Scientists working directly at the center won $9.5 million in federal awards over those years, or 7 percent of the bioinformatics-related total.

    Several faculty and officials, most of whom asked not to be named for fear of angering top UB administrators, said the $9.5 million is a poor return so far on the large public investment.

    "My impression is that it's a colossal boondoggle. And I say that because it was decided from on high that this is something the university should be involved in," said Robert W. Noble, UB professor of biochemistry.





    Successful projects

    Scientists working on bioinformatics-related projects, however, say the research already is breeding successes and has immense potential to improve people's lives.

    One scientific team looking for underlying links behind gum disease, heart attacks and diabetes illustrates how cross-disciplinary groups can pursue big projects with the aid of bioinformatic tools, Holm said.

    UB's Dr. Robert J. Genco and collaborators have examined links between gum infection and heart attacks in a 10-year study, looking at 800 heart patients in Erie County and recording their weight, habits and other information.

    "We have all that DNA in a freezer," Genco said.

    Using gene-examining techniques, team member Norma J. Nowak, scientific planning director of the bioinformatics center, seeks telltale similarities in the DNA of heart patients.

    Genco suspects a tiny - and possibly widespread - genetic variation boosts production of inflammation agents called cytokines, deepening the risk for heart attacks and diabetes.

    "Using bioinformatics, you can look at hundreds of genes in thousands of people," he said.

    Nowak said she hands off mounds of data to a bioinformatician who can correlate genetic differences with health problems, with the help of high-powered computing. "It's more than one gene - it's a much more complex story," she said.

    In addition to helping pinpoint the harmful variant, bioinformatics tools should help design tests to screen people for risk and determine the shape of molecules that would cancel the gene's destructive effects.

    The inflammation research also highlights the difficulty of harnessing the economic payoffs of lab discoveries.

    In return for initial grant support, Sunstar in Japan has first rights to license technology resulting from Genco's research. But the deal could carry the potential commercial-spinoff benefits far from Buffalo.

    That's common in the biotech industry, said Joseph Cortright, an economist at Impresa consulting in Portland, Ore.

    Cortright was the author of a widely watched Brookings Institution study in 2002. Looking at research funding, patents and other factors, he found that biotech centers such as Boston, San Francisco and San Diego dominated the industry, while 28 "median" cities, including Buffalo, vied for relative scraps.

    Buffalo's share of funding from the National Institutes of Health actually shrank slightly from 1985 to 2000 - although the dollar amount rose - while its 129 patents in life sciences came in behind 41 competing cities, he found.

    In recent years, the top cities have become more dominant.

    "All the commercialization we see is really coming from these centers," Cortright said.

    The main reason is the presence of capital, from big pharmaceutical companies and venture capital investors.





    Less corporate funding

    Buffalo's center opened with the promise of $150 million in support from major local and national corporations. The backing of companies such as Compaq, Veridian and InforMax leant credibility and provided potential commercial outlets for research results.

    In recent years, corporate support largely has involved financing for individual research projects, like the kind provided by Sunstar.

    Some early partners have dropped out, following mergers and acquisitions, and the dollar value of their largely in-kind contributions of software and equipment is difficult to verify.

    Compaq, for example, was swallowed by Hewlett-Packard in 2001, and H-P said a $10 million capital fund Compaq pledged for local spinoff ventures has expired. University officials said the center used only $500,000 of that fund.

    The bioinformatics project was sold in large part as an engine of job growth.

    Backers remain enthusiastic about those possibilities but say the venture can't be expected to transform Buffalo into a national biotech center.

    "We're not trying to convince anybody we're San Diego or Boston - they'll laugh in our face," said Angelo M. Fatta, president of BuffLink, a local booster of life sciences.

    Buffalo should reach more modest goals of 5,000 to 7,000 spinoff jobs in life sciences over eight to 10 years, he said.

    BuffLink has tracked over 1,000 new jobs in life-science businesses in the past few years, although not necessarily linked to the bioinformatics center.

    Holm backed off initial job projections, including one from UB that predicted 4,350 spinoff jobs by 2006. "I think all of those were pulled out of a hat. I certainly would like to aspire to those numbers, but my projection is we're going to do as many as possible," he said.

    Efforts to commercialize science from area research institutions need improvement, Fatta and others said.

    "We'd like to see the commercialization start to take place a little bit more quickly. But we always knew that this was a long-term commitment," said Assembly Majority Leader Paul A. Tokasz, D-Cheektowaga.





    Concept has changed

    The center has evolved since its conception. What was once the Buffalo Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics is now the broader New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences.

    This restructuring includes a smaller role for Skolnick, hired with much fanfare in 2002.

    Several officials said Skolnick tried to leave but did not find a comparably rewarding job. Skolnick did not return messages seeking comment.

    Some observers say the center investment was a gamble that has yet to live up to its billing.

    "They have a tendency to understate the costs and overstate the potential benefits. (But) once you try it, you must give it a run for the money," said John C.G. Boot, former UB union president and Faculty Senate chairman.

    Supporters of the center see a brighter future.

    "I think we're at a cusp now," said George T. DeTitta, Hauptman-Woodward's chief executive officer. "The question is, where do we go from here?"
    "When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross." - Sinclair Lewis (1935)

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    I thought this was a rediculous article. The buildings are not even complete and it is called a failure? This is the typical Buffalo negativity that has landed the region in the place that it is in.

    Buffalo has so much catching up to do it will be years before this thing starts generating a major industry. The amount of money invested by the state and feds sounds like a lot but it is pennies when compared to places like Mass. and Cal.

    The state should be pumping $150M a year into the Bioinfo center if they really want Buffalo to be a player.

  9. #9
    Member citymouse's Avatar
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    There are no magic silver bullets.
    When are people going to figure out that succes or failure is not going to come to Buffalo on one fellswoop.
    When every unemployed person dosen't have a job with medical benefits and people aren't flocking to live here are we going to say Bass Pro was a faliure.
    Faliure is a relative term.
    If bass pro sells lots of what ever they sell and makes their owners lots of dough, then the owners won't think it's a faliure.
    If the bioinformatics comes up with some earth shattering nobel winning advance in medicine, but dosen't generate a lot of jobs or spin off industry for Buffalo, is it a failure?
    "If you want to know what God thinks of money just look at the people he gave it to."

    By the way, what happened to biker? I miss the old coot.

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    Originally posted by leets
    I thought this was a rediculous article. The buildings are not even complete and it is called a failure? This is the typical Buffalo negativity that has landed the region in the place that it is in.
    This is the first time I have agreed with Leets!!

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    When Pittsburgh, Pa. area went from steelmills to Hightech it took over 5 years for the idea to really take off. What it's only been 3 and more will come. Sometimes you just have to let the pot boil for awhile.

    If the county would act responcibly it would probably would already be showing a turnaround. I for one Hope that is brings more businesses to this area. At least the High Tech jobs pay well and bring much needed growth.
    May you live forever.....and the last voice you hear.....MINE!

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    No slam to you, but "hope" just doesn't cut it.

    Success on Wall Street is the formula "under-promise and over-deliver."

    Success in government is "over promise and grab all the money you can."

    Results are irrelevant.

    Just read the preceding discussion.
    Truth springs from argument among friends.

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    Zeptometrix developing anthrax vaccine
    Annemarie Franczyk
    Business First

    ZeptoMetrix Corp. of Buffalo and a New Zealand laboratory have formed a joint venture to bring to market a vaccine that fights anthrax infection.

    Officials from the local biotech company and Virionyx Corp. of Auckland are heading to Washington next month to get the attention of a big potential customer: the U.S. government.

    The partners have created a vaccine called Trithrax that is composed of a cocktail of antibodies produced by immunized goats. The vaccine attacks deadly toxins that remain in the bloodstream after antibiotics do their job.

    The process to create the vaccine nearly mirrors that used to create emergency treatments for snake and spider bites in which patients are injected with sheep antibodies.

    Trithrax has cleared initial clinical trials and is poised to begin a second round, pending adequate funding. The new company, Buckler Biodefense Corp., is looking for public and private sources for the $2 million and $4 million needed for the next testing phase, said company president Christopher Collins. He serves as chairman of ZeptoMetrix.

    Funding the trials will be among the topics of the company's Dec. 7 meeting, arranged by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, with more than two dozen scientists from the federal Health and Human Services Agency.

    "Ultimately, we want them to buy the vaccine, whether we get the funding from them or not," Collins said.

    According to ZeptoMetrix President and CEO James Hengst, the government wants to have 70,000 doses on hand. At a price of about $5,000 a dose, the payoff could be significant, he said. Hengst is serving as head of research and development for Buckler.

    The vaccine is being created in collaboration with researchers at the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute and New York state's biodefense laboratory.

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    its only a "silver bullet" if you belive it is. I think its nice and will work out I doubt anyone 1 industrty, shop, store, or attraction, will be the be all and do all of the region.

    Who made the determination that its a silver bullet? I didnt.
    People who wonder if the glass is half empty or full miss the point. The glass is refillable.

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    Stem-cell research

    Originally posted by leets
    I thought this was a rediculous article. The buildings are not even complete and it is called a failure? This is the typical Buffalo negativity that has landed the region in the place that it is in.

    Buffalo has so much catching up to do it will be years before this thing starts generating a major industry. The amount of money invested by the state and feds sounds like a lot but it is pennies when compared to places like Mass. and Cal.

    The state should be pumping $150M a year into the Bioinfo center if they really want Buffalo to be a player.
    I agree that it is too soon to call this a failure. Things take time. Buffalo was late out of the gate, so a lot of this field may already be anchored elsewhere. But Buffalo can surely pick up some of it.

    If Buffalo still wants a silver bullet, it should be looking to the next "new" thing. Consider California, which last year approved a bond to fund $3 billion for human embryonic stem-cell experiments -- the biggest-ever state-supported scientific research program in the country.

    That should generate some well-paying jobs.

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