Winter 05

Revolution in Research

Informatics, genomics and proteomics not only are new additions to the laboratory lexicon, but also demonstrate how all-encompassing and far-reaching medical research has become.

What can Richard Nixon teach us about the impact of the Indiana Genomics Initiative at the IU School of Medicine? Well, during his presidency Nixon once famously proclaimed, “We’re all Keynesians now,” referring to the influence of economist John Maynard Keynes.

In much the same way, one could argue that at the IU School of Medicine, “we are all genomicists now.” An exaggeration, perhaps, because not everyone is in the market to find gene expression patterns associated with their disease of interest. Nevertheless, the complex genomics universe, from its tools to its data, has affected research throughout IUSM.

“Genomics, proteomics, the informatics sciences – all of these research fields and technologies have changed forever the way life sciences research is done, and they’ve permeated the IU School of Medicine,” says Ora Pescovitz, MD, executive associate dean for research affairs and the Edwin Letzter Professor of Pediatrics.

For example, take just one family of diseases, cancer:

George Sledge, MD, the Ballvé Lantero Professor of Oncology, is the lead investigator for a $10 million project to improve the treatment of women with breast cancer by making it possible to match the appropriate treatment regimen to a patient’s genetic makeup – bringing closer the promise of individualized care.

Linda Malkas, PhD, the Vera Bradley Chair in Oncology, is zeroing in on protein markers that will let physicians diagnose the presence of cancer much sooner than is possible now, work that grew out of her interest in how the DNA molecule replicates.

Mark Kelley, PhD, Jonathan and Jennifer Simmons Professor of Pediatrics, is targeting a protein that repairs damaged DNA with compounds that promise to make it easier to kill cancer cells, while protecting sensitive bone marrow cells from the damage done by chemotherapy.

This process has been accelerated, notes Dr. Pescovitz, by the $155 million Indiana Genomics Initiative (INGEN), funded by two grants from the Lilly Endowment Inc. since December 2000. Like some beneficial virus, INGEN has spread apace through IUSM research, in part because of what it was not. Unlike some institutions’ genomics efforts, INGEN was not a new building, not a new institute, not an exclusive club. IUSM has used INGEN as leverage to strengthen and expand its research infrastructure and to bring in additional top-quality researchers.

As a result, increasing numbers of the School’s research projects and grant applications are taking advantage of core services funded by INGEN. One such core, the Center for Medical Genomics, has performed more than 2.2 million genotypes – tests to detect tiny differences in genes involved in disease. That makes the center one of the nation’s largest academic users of such tests.

More than forty-five new faculty and sixty staff members have joined IU scientific research efforts since the establishment of the Indiana Genomics Initiative in 2001.

Similarly, researchers are turning to the in vivo and microscopy imaging cores for new ways to visualize data, to the proteomics core to determine what proteins – and thus what genes – are in action, to the rodent phenotyping and knockout cores, to the fruit fly genetics group, and on and on. In INGEN’s four years, more than $250 million in grants and contracts received by the School have been supported by INGEN resources, according to the Office of Financial Affairs.

Meanwhile, about forty-five new faculty have joined Indiana University with the support of INGEN resources, along with nearly sixty new staffers. And many of those new scientists will help bring additional talent.

For example, consider the new Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, created following the 2003 recruitment of its director, A. Keith Dunker, PhD, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, from Washington State University. Since then, two additional investigators have joined the center. Another eleven staff scientists and post-doctoral students also are associated with the center.

Dr. Dunker hopes to recruit a half dozen more scientists who will specialize in creating experiments on computers and then collaborate with their wet lab colleagues.

With such tools, says Dr. Dunker, “We’re going from trial and error to science. That’s why this position is so exciting, for the opportunity to be a small part of that.”