Mixture of talent promises stunning results

Institute opens its doors as forum for research, discovery

Researchers working at the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology will be encouraged to put their noses to the grindstone by leaning in doorways, strolling the halls and chatting at the coffee machine.

Close proximity for biotech companies and nonprofit researchers is a key feature of the new institute. That mix of talent and technology will include:

Machines that can count a billion DNA sequences in a few days, blazing through a job that used to take months or even years.

Open Biosystems, which boasts the largest collection of short-fragment DNA and RNA used by researchers around the world. The material must be stored at minus-80 degrees. HudsonAlpha has a "freezer farm" with some 100 units to store the materials.

Scientific director Rick Myers, who will bring equipment and team members from a human genome sequencing center now at Stanford University. That move will make HudsonAlpha the world's fifth-largest genome center.

Expression Genetics, which has an ovarian cancer drug in its second round of clinical testing. The DNA-based drug delivers a gene that enhances the body's own immune defense system.

Fully equipped lab space for teachers and students to learn new biotech techniques and room for teachers to develop their own experiments and curriculum.

Applied Genomics, which has developed a test that can help determine if breast cancer is likely to recur in a patient.

Huntsville biotech pioneer Jim Hudson's idea is to mix smart people and top facilities to change medical care - and have a good time doing it.

"I really do believe we've created an environment where companies and academic researchers can work together and have fun," said Hudson, the institute's president. "They'll be excited to talk about what might have happened in the lab yesterday, excited about an idea they get over lunch and want to go try in the lab."

Treating disease

The labs will afford dreamed-of space for top research scientists and hundreds of for-profit company employees, all recruited by Hudson, to find new ways to identify and treat disease on the genetic level.

The Illumina sequencing machines, which determine the DNA sequences at unheard-of speeds, let researchers analyze much larger numbers of gene samples, say, of different women with breast cancer against a healthy control sample.

By studying differences or honing in on changes over time, researchers will look at how DNA contributes to disease and how it can be stopped.

The sequencing power Myers is bringing also will invite a new world of study, Hudson said.

"Rick has developed a method to run a pattern across the whole genome for some $400," Hudson said. "That's crazy - it's two orders of magnitude cheaper, and it allows all kinds of new techniques."

The technology isn't just dazzling, it may save lives.

"We can now sequence where we never could before," said Neil Lamb, director of education and outreach for HudsonAlpha. "We can look at pathogenic bacteria - tens of thousands of people die in some part of the world because of it. We'd like to know its genetic sequence, how it gets into the human body and how to find its potential weaknesses."

Getting started

Lamb said geneticists describe the human genome as an instruction manual and its sequencing as a parts list.

So far, however, the world lacks a guide for how the parts fit together and how to troubleshoot the system. HudsonAlpha and the biotech companies have jumped into that space, examining how the pieces fit, finding ways to work on them and pushing to fix the problems represented by human disease.

The human body has about 10 trillion cells, each containing DNA.

The order of those bases provides our genetic makeup.

The DNA of one human cell contains some 3 billion bases. The amount of material is daunting, but the 13-year Human Genome Project provided a map. It identified all the genes present in human DNA - about 20,000 - and the basic A,T,C,G sequence that guides it.

Hudson and Myers both worked on the Human Genome Project - it was completed in 2003 - and say it's the basis for the institute's work.

Work ahead

Hudson said he is committed to recruiting stars and promising younger scientists.

He wants principal investigators who have worked successfully for years on complex problems. They work at the molecular level, finding ways to inhibit a protein that seems to lead to disease, or introducing an agent that can counter a given condition.

Among those doing the work will be Tom Hodge, a principal investigator, who has worked on AIDS research and other viral pathogens, and Jian Han, founder of Genaco, where he developed a testing system for a variety of infectious diseases using only a swab from a patient.

The institute also will include the work of Shubhash Mukherjee, a chemist who is developing a library of small molecules that can be used as the chemical basis for drug development.

The lab work eventually will move from the electronic tools and computers to living organisms such as roundworms and mice to determine if an approach slows the rate of seizures or growth of tumors.

Personalized medicine

Hudson's dream is to tailor medical treatments for people based on their DNA. The task is both large and small, but the differences among all humans reside in only 0.01 percent of our bases, the A,C,T,G sequences.

Hudson and Myers will stress collaboration, but it won't take much of a push, said Open Biosystems CEO Brian Pollock, who will move 60 employees into the institute.

"As individual companies we've been scattered all over Huntsville. Now all of a sudden, we're together," he said. "I can't overstate enough what it means to be next to your peers. If you're facing a crisis or problem, or a new technology, everybody is together, and you can talk about it.

"That kind of interaction is vital for companies like this to grow."