By BENNETT HALL
Corvallis Gazette-Times | Posted: Sunday, April 19, 2009 12:00 am
If the backers of the Oregon Genome Project have their way, the mid-valley could soon be in the forefront of the emerging field of personalized medicine.
Building on the work of the Human Genome Project, an international scientific effort to create a roadmap to the genetic makeup of mankind, several U.S. biotech companies are preparing to roll out a new generation of sequencing machines that can quickly and affordably map the genetic makeup of an individual, opening new vistas in the diagnosis and treatment of disease.
"Right now the state of the art on human sequencing is around $350,000 and three months," said Rich Carone of Korvis Automation, a Corvallis manufacturer of automated factory equipment and one of several partners in the Oregon Genome Project.
"The technology is aiming at a $5,000 genome that can be done in a day or two. We believe one of our clients has this technology now."
Korvis already is building some of these high-speed gene sequencers for its client, a company that Carone declined to name. The next step is to scale up production and build a processing center with the computer power to produce individual gene maps in commercially viable numbers.
But that takes money - and that's where the federal stimulus package comes in.
Korvis and its client are teaming up with mid-
valley hospital operator Samaritan Health Services on a proposal for $100 million in federal grant funding to get the project off the ground.
"We would build the equipment and set up a factory to run the equipment," Carone said. "The hope is to do that in Corvallis."
The factory would have 64 gene-sequencing machines, each equipped with a powerful microscope to read the genetic material in slide-mounted tissue samples. An on-site computer center would analyze the information and record it on CD for medical use.
With five hospitals and numerous clinics throughout the mid-valley, Samaritan Health Services would likely be a major customer of the new venture as well as a partner.
Samaritan physicians would use gene mapping to help diagnose ailments and determine the most promising course of treatment. With the consent of patients, individual data would be gathered for use in large-scale studies to improve scientific understanding of gene-based medicine.
"This is an area of research that's huge," said Larry Mullins, CEO of Samaritan Health Services.
As this new body of knowledge grows, Mullins added, it will need to be incorporated into medical training on multiple levels. To that end, another partner in the venture would be Western University of Health Sciences.
The Pomona, Calif.-based institution is already partnering with Samaritan in the development of an osteopathic medical school in Lebanon. Mullins envisions faculty members working to incorporate all aspects of personalized medicine into the curriculum, from therapeutic advances to ethical considerations. Part of the federal funding also would go to expanding Samaritan's institutional research board, which supervises clinical studies conducted by the health care network.
The partners would bring some of their own money to the table - Korvis, for instance, would kick in about $5 million - but the federal government would provide the lion's share of the financing in the hope of creating jobs and jumpstarting the economy.
If the proposal survives the highly competitive application process, the Oregon Genome Project would generate an estimated 175 to 200 jobs to start with. But its backers hope it would also create a new mid-valley economic cluster that would take on a life of its own, attracting support services and spinning off yet more startup ventures.
"This is a significant enterprise," Mullins said.
"It's an opportunity for us to become, perhaps, part of this economic recovery effort, create new jobs and possibly enhance the quality of life for this region. We'll take a shot and see where it goes."