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Kelly Gillespie, MOBIO Executive Director
By all accounts, it's been a rough summer for Missouri's biotech sector. Amidst reports of giant life science subsidies in
various other states, Missouri has had trouble even retaining some of our resources. From the
MOBIO website, a list of the recent setbacks includes (Their words):
- The MOHELA plan was emasculated of any life sciences play involving any human health research. This exclusion is clearly unacceptable for the long-term good of our research base, and ignores the excellent core competency of our biomedical researchers spread across our institutions.
- The expected expansion of the Stowers Institute for Medical Research has been put on hold based on a perceived harsh, anti-science political climate emanating from Jefferson City.
- Key state board appointments have been made for political reasons rather than with pro-research science advocates.
- Washington University did not make the Department of Energy’s final biofuels selection, although it did announce the I-CARES initiative.
- University of Missouri was eliminated from consideration to host the Department of Homeland Security’s National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility.
- MU’s Vice President for Research and Economic Development John Gardner will leave the Show-Me state for cooler climes at Washington State. Dr. Gardner was an outstanding MOBIO board member who provided critical and consistent leadership to bringing success to this young organization.
- MU’s Provost for Research Jim Coleman heads south to Rice University.
- Gov. Blunt vetoed the 2007 economic development bill that included positive incentives for capital investment in knowledge based economic markets. Uncertainty swirls as to whether the legislature will be able to reach consensus and pass an economic development bill again that includes both of MOBIO's priorities: a strong Missouri Quality Jobs Act and the proven, successful New Markets provisions.
Ouch. As soon as I get the chance, I'd like to delve a little deeper into the reasons behind some of these (especially the two federal centers). In the meantime, though we need to stop the bleeding.
Kelly Gillespie, for one, isn't taking this sitting down. Since taking the helm at MOBIO in 2005, Gillespie has been a tireless advocate for the state's growing life science sector. Continuing the vocal role he played in last year's Amendment 2 debate, this week he lashed out at segments of the state legislature for their, ahem, regressive views concerning biotech:
Clearly, one of our wheels has caught the edge of the pavement. The precipice is rocky and the bottom looks like it would hurt. It’s time to deliver a unified and unrelenting call to policy influencers and decision makers to support Missouri’s biotechnology sector. Now.
I urge the MOBIO membership to convert our discontent into fuel, which will drive a caravan of activity designed to educate the people plotting our state’s future about the benefits of our industry.
To successfully influence this population, we must connect the dots and demonstrate how Missouri’s biotechnology base benefits all Missourians. We can assume nothing and must understand that memories are short.
In his release, Gillespie announced several MOBIO initiatives aimed at promoting life science around the state. Some of these, such as the BIO Benchmarking forum, will seek to educate legislators of the benefits life science research can bring to a state through tours of local and national facilities. These will be combined with a MOBIO political action committee to try and enact direct change at the state and local level.
All of these announcements are superb and I encourage everyone to check out the MOBIO webpage and look over the new programs. Fantastic though these new programs are, though, I still have some questions:
- The recent Amendment 2 debate ended in a win for researchers, but in some aspects the win remains somewhat pyrrhic. The negative ads run by conservative special interest groups portrayed scientists and doctors as selfish opportunists, an image that managed to sway at least some of the electorate. How much damage control is required before the research community regains the public trust?
- Missouri has always had a strong rural-urban conflict, so it doesn't help things that the state life science infrastructure is headquartered in St. Louis and KC. It may be that true that biotech enthusiasm is especially slow at spreading into rural areas as compared to other technical disciplines. After all, what does it do for me? Civil engineering builds bridges and dams, electronics brings power stations and cell phones. But life science? Improved health care is an obvious answer, but fancy new pills look pretty much the same as the old ones. How many people do you see tinkering in biology labs in their garages? Even if they did, how many would be arrested on suspicion of meth production?
- In what ways have we tried to partner with other out-of-state resources to bring in the big federal projects? One of the defining characteristics of many of the recent DOE and DHS project finalists was their inclusion of regional and federal resources. Does St. Louis dream of becoming a leader of Missouri biotech, or that of the entire Midwest?
Here goes nothing. Get involved, guys. This impacts all of us.
(...more from MOBIO.org)
Fun article in the Post-Dispatch this morning about Anheuser-Busch's recent efforts to leverage their agricultural stock for energy. As might be expected for a company who's inputs are grain and outputs are diluted ethanol, their main focus is on biofuels - especially cellulosic ethanol. Interestingly, AB seems pretty adamant about not jumping on the corn-based ethanol bandwagon - and for good reason. Corn is a staple ingredient in several of the company's brews and the last thing they need is to contribute to its rising price by burning the crop in their trucks.
Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine report this month in the journal Nature of the discovery of a gene linked to itching in mice. Gastrin-releasing peptide receptor (GRPR) is a well-studied gene known to code for a particular type of pain receptor in the spinal cord. However, when scientists working in the lab of Dr. Zhou-Feng Chen unregulated GRPR in lab mice, they found that the animals began scratching uncontrollably. The reverse seems true as well - GRPR knockout mice seem resistant to the types of irritants that would normally cause normal mice to scratch. Severe itching can be a serious problem for people afflicted with a variety of dermatological conditions, so the research team is hopeful their discovery can be translated into a treatment.
Sigma-Aldrich announced this morning that Dr. David Smoller, formerly VP of Research Biotechnology, has been promoted to President of that business unit. Smoller joined the company in 2004 after founding and selling two life science startups: Genome Systems, Inc., and Proteoplex, Inc. He holds Ph.D. and B.S. degrees in biology from Emory University and completed post-doctoral fellowships with Washington University in St. Louis and Monsanto Company. Smoller replaces former Research Biotech President Shaf Yousaf, who has left the company to pursue other interests.