Winter 03

Innovation Fuels INGEN Effort at IU

In 2000, the public learned that the working draft of the long-awaited Human Genome Project, the biological primer for the so-called “book of life,” had been deciphered. Meanwhile, back in Hoosierland, scientists at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis and collaborators in Bloomington were diligently drafting a plan for a more daunting task. Their aim was to put into place a scientific and technological system to help researchers interpret the data from the genome, namely, how to use these data to decipher the mechanisms and thereby improve the treatment of disease.

The cornerstone of this ambitious goal was placed in December 2000 with the establishment of the Indiana Genomics Initiative. This visionary
initiative could not have occurred without a groundbreaking $105 million grant from the Lilly Endowment Inc., the largest single grant ever received by IU and largest ever awarded by the Indianapolis-based philanthropy.

Now beginning its third year, INGEN has achieved many of its initial goals, including:

• Establishment of the IU Center for Bioethics and recruitment of its director
• Recruitment to a number of leadership positions, including the chair of the Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics
• Implementation of the Biotechnology Training Program
• Fostering of collaborative research between the Indianapolis and Bloomington campuses
• Recruitment of clinical research coordinators, data managers and lab technicians
• Creation of an information technology and management system within INGEN core programs, including the expansion of its supercomputer system at Bloomington, and the University’s links to the Internet2 and other high-speed networks.

IU School of Medicine projects it will leverage the $105 million
Lilly Endowment grant to generate an additional $243 million in research. In addition, based on an initial analysis from Batelle Memorial Institute, IU anticipates the initiative will create five hundred basic genomics jobs – seventy-four within the university, one hundred twenty-seven in private sector biotechnology firms, and about three hundred other positions throughout the state.

INGEN leaders believe the IUSM campuses at Bloomington, Gary, Evansville, Muncie, Terre Haute, Lafayette, South Bend and Fort Wayne all will be able to develop strong research programs by leveraging the INGEN initiative. These campuses comprise the “spokes” of a biomedical wheel with Indianapolis at its hub.

“IU is in a unique position to leverage the Indiana Genomics Initiative into a statewide life sciences initiative,” notes IUSM Dean D. Craig Brater, MD. “The INGEN program is the catalyst for this broader initiative because we have the intellectual, creative and technical resources in place and continue to build on them.”

For more information about the Indiana Genomics Initiative, go to www.ingen.iu.edu.