Colleges get $50 mil. for biomedical research

February 8, 2006

BY JIM RITTER Health Reporter

Four years ago, three Chicago-area universities put aside their normal competitive instincts and agreed to work together on biomedical research.

Now, the effort is paying off in a big way. A charitable trust plans to donate up to $50 million to the Chicago Biomedical Consortium.

'Expected to do great things'

The consortium includes researchers from the University of Chicago, Northwestern University and University of Illinois at Chicago.

The grant is expected "to change the research landscape in the Chicago area," said Northwestern biochemist Rick Morimoto. "We are expected to do great things, and we will."

The Searle Funds at the Chicago Community Trust plans to give the consortium $25 million over five years. If the research goes well, the trust plans to give another $25 million for an additional five years.

When the universities formed the consortium in 2002, skeptics questioned how well they would work together. The first big test came when the consortium used an earlier Searle grant to buy a Fourier transform mass spectrometer, an instrument that analyzes the structure and composition of proteins and other biomolecules.

The instrument cost nearly $1 million, and all three universities wanted it. But everyone agreed to place it at UIC because of its central location and other advantages. Researchers at the other two universities will have free access to the instrument. "A lot of people didn't think it would work," UIC physiologist Brenda Russell said. "This is a new way of doing business."

Hundreds of scientists will do dozens of studies on biological systems, including genes, proteins, cells, tissues and whole bodies. This basic research is not expected to have any immediate payoffs. But it could lead to eventual breakthroughs in preventing, diagnosing and treating complex diseases such as cancer, heart disease, arthritis and Alzheimer's disease.

To study Alzheimer's, Parkinson's

"We are emphasizing the basic science that is the foundation for everything else," Morimoto said.

A major focus will be in proteomics, the study of the role proteins play in illness and health. Proteins are big, complex molecules. In the heart, for example, trillions of proteins work in sync to contract and relax the heart. UIC researchers are studying how these molecular engines malfunction in patients with heart failure.

At Northwestern, researchers are studying how neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's are caused by damaged proteins.

The research will require huge amounts of computer power. Computers on the three campuses are connected by fiber optic cables. This grid will give researchers as much computing power as a supercomputer, said Dr. Jonathan Silverstein of the University of Chicago.

jritter@suntimes.com