University plans $300 million biomed project

ST. LOUIS -- Washington University plans to spend more than $300 million on an effort to help move advancements in human genetic research from the laboratories to the bedside.

The strategic research initiative is called "BioMed 21," a reference to its potential to redefine how biomedical research will be conducted and medicine will be practiced as the century progresses, university officials said Monday.

The program will include faculty from the university's Schools of Medicine, Engineering and Arts and Sciences. Funding will come from federal research grants, gifts and other sources.

The effort includes plans for a 250,000-square-foot research building that will cost about $150 million.

About 50 new faculty members will be hired for the center.

Washington University Chancellor Mark Wrighton and School of Medicine Dean Larry Shapiro said more than $200 million in endowment, construction and program funding already is committed.

"We are enthusiastic that BioMed 21 will represent a step forward for the greater St. Louis region as it sustains its efforts to remain an international leader in plant and life sciences and especially in biomedicine," Wrighton said.

University officials said as part of the announcement that the School of Medicine's Genome Sequencing Center will receive new funding of more than $130 million over three years from the federal government's National Human Genome Research Institute.

The genome grant money will allow for researchers to decipher the genetic code of some species, including chimpanzees, chickens, a type of opossum and flatworms. The genetic makeup of the animals will give researchers insight into the diseases that affect people, officials said.

More than a third of the human genome was decoded at Washington University School of Medicine's Genome Sequencing Center with financial support from NHGRI, a part of the National Institutes of Health.

BioMed 21 will look for clues into such diseases as diabetes, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, neuropsychiatric, cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases, plus a wide range of cancers and infectious diseases, officials said.