Summer 03

A New Frontier for Research

The 21st century has been described as the era of biological revolution. IUSM scientists are taking their place on the front lines at the Biotechnology Research and Training Center.

Research at the Indiana University School of Medicine follows many directions, but all pathways lead to one important destination: improved quality of health through better treatments and prevention. The journey to this lofty goal reached a new milestone last April with the opening of the Biotechnology Research and Training Center.

The $27 million center, designed by BSA LifeStructures, has more than 26,000 square feet of laboratory space with an additional 18,000 square feet for advanced imaging and other services. It will be able to offer current and future generations of scientists and biotechnicians the most modern training facilities.

The BRTC’s importance, though, goes beyond spatial abundance; it’s what goes in that space that really counts, notes IU Interim President Gerald Bepko.

“In order to attract the very best people you must have various kinds of support,” he noted. “Research is no longer conducted by individual scientists working in secluded labs. Research is a large-scale multidisciplinary team effort. That’s why the Biotechnology Research and Training Center is so important.”

The three-story building, located a short distance from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, houses more than forty core laboratories and support areas. It also complements and goes a long way toward meeting the burgeoning research needs of the Indiana Genomics Initiative, better known as INGEN, established in December 2000 with a $105 million grant from Lilly Endowment. INGEN’s progress recently has been assured with an additional $50 million grant from the Endowment (see story here).

The opening of the BRTC also heralds a significant opportunity for the science community throughout Indiana, observes IUSM Dean D. Craig Brater, MD, Walter J. Daly Professor.

“Not only is the center an important addition to the School’s research and education efforts, its core services are available to public and private scientists across our state,” Dr. Brater says. “Moreover, the location promises to serve as an anchor for life sciences research developing in the Indianapolis area.”

Certainly those goals are in line with a visionary plan shared by others in Indiana. More than a year ago, IU became a major partner in the Central Indiana Life Sciences Initiative, a public/private coalition designed to transform the region into a hub of research and education. IU joined Purdue University, the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership, the City of Indianapolis, Indiana Health Industry Forum and others in a partnership to invest more than $1.5 billion in expanding biomedical research and biotechnology enterprises throughout the state.

How We Express Ourselves

The long-term goal of the Center for Medical Genomics at the BRTC is to improve health by studying gene expression (the process by which proteins are made from the instructions encoded in the gene’s DNA) and genetics. Advances in the human genome project provide the foundation for a new way of studying health and disease, in which differences in the sequence and expression of thousands of genes can be analyzed.
This lab uses microarray technology – the rapid study of large numbers of genes using advanced computing and scanning microscopes – to provide diagnoses and prognoses of diseases, treatment choices, drug design and fundamental understanding of biology. The center also takes advantage of advanced genotyping to study how genes influence disease and treatment in large populations.

To learn more about the center, go to http://cmg.iupui.edu/cmg/home.html.

The Puzzle of Proteins

Proteomics, the study of proteins, is one of the newest and fastest-growing areas in biomedical research. Although the human genome has been mapped, it needs further definition and more refinements, such as how proteins interact in cells to make life possible. IU researchers in this special core are working to unlock the chemical mysteries of disease.

The Proteomics Core facility is a service and collaborative research resource that balances applied proteomics research with the development of new and improved methods for protein identification and quantification. The facility encourages collaborations that apply the tools of proteomics to cutting edge biomedical research.

To learn more about this core, visit its web site at http://149.166.207.11/index.htm.

The Origin of Other Species

Researchers at IUSM have invested years of research and significant resources to animal studies demonstrating molecular activities that tell us more precisely why and how cancer, diabetes and other diseases manifest and progress in humans. Such activities are found within the Animal Cores.

Ting-Kai Li, MD, distinguished professor at Indiana University and former associate dean for research who now directs the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism at the National Institutes of Health, produced groundbreaking research in many areas, including alcohol metabolism and mouse models of alcoholism. This has provided scientists with clues to the genetic determinants of human alcohol use and alcoholism.

Zebra fish also are being studied in this core, and most recently IUSM researchers have developed a colony of the fish to study the roles of stem cells in developing antibodies.

DNA You Say?

The Biochemistry Biotechnology Facility, operated by the School’s Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, has been around for more than fifteen years. Its scientists offer a range of analytical services to IU investigators, local industry and other universities.

When researchers need to generate a special or vital section of DNA or create multiple copies of genetic material using highly advanced processes, they can turn to the BBF labs. The facility’s staff has provided expertise to the IU Diabetes Research and Training Center, Indiana Alcohol Center, Walther Oncology Center, Indiana University Cancer Center, Center for Diabetes Research and the Center for Medical Genomics.

Scientists at IUSM and throughout Indiana also have access to these and other services at the facility, which are funded in large measure by the Indiana Genomics Initiative and the IU Cancer Center.

More information about services at the BBF can be found at www.bbf.iu.edu.

Imaging at Lightning Speed

Scientists often need to look beyond what the naked eye and bench microscopes can tell them about disease. The In Vivo Imaging Core serves as the primary resource for advanced biomedical imaging for academic and private-sector research initiatives.

This core will provide resources and expertise for larger-scale imaging of humans and animals in order to promote understanding of relationships between gene expression and genotypes, and the physiological and biological characteristics of tissues and organ systems. The In Vivo Core will develop new biomedical imaging processes ideal for transfer to the private life sciences industry.

Supporting the In Vivo Core and other imaging is the cyclotron facility. Cyclotrons are a kind of particle accelerator, a machine that creates charged particles and accelerates them at high velocities to bombard target substances. The cyclotron produces isotopes, which then are attached to glucose-like molecules.

The primary clinical product is fluorodeoxyglucose or FDG, which is utilized in cell metabolism. FDG is injected into patients as a “marker” in positron emission tomography (PET) scanning to identify and locate cancerous cells. Because tumors and malignancies are characterized by rapidly growing cells which have a high rate of glucose utilization, they take up more of the marker and appear as “hot spots” on the PET scan.

Also being developed is a sophisticated means to send PET radiopharmaceuticals made at the BRTC to the Research II building on the IUPUI campus where imaging systems are located. A pneumatic tube system will facilitate minutes-only transfer of less-stable radioactive materials, eliminating the need for vehicle transport and thereby reducing the risk of accidental exposure. The system also will be able to transport samples from the RII facility back to the BRTC for specialized analysis.

PETNet Indiana

A joint venture between IUSM and PETNet Indiana, LLC, benefits patients and institutions in Indiana. PETNet, a privately owned firm headquartered in Tennessee, is one of two companies in Indiana with the capability to manufacture radioisotopes for hospitals to use
in PET imaging, an approach (described above) commonly used for cancer diagnosis and to test a patient’s response to treatment.

Location of this firm at the BRTC is ideal because isotopes have a half-life (the time in which half the atoms of a radioactive substance become disintegrated) of only a few hours and must be shipped in lead-lined containers. If hospitals are too far away, the delivery becomes more complicated. The distribution process in Indiana and contiguous states is monitored closely by the U.S. Department of Transportation.