BREWER – With one of five anticipated cancer researchers already on board and a national search under way for a director, plans are moving forward to establish a state-of-the-art genetics laboratory here.

The Maine Institute for Human Genetics and Health, a nonprofit subsidiary of Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems, is envisioned as a cornerstone of a budding research triangle in eastern Maine.

Collaborators in the project include the University of Maine in Orono and The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor.

The lab is expected to attract public and private research funds, provide opportunities for students and professional researchers, and give area residents the opportunity to participate in trials of new therapies and diagnostic techniques.

The project already has generated spinoff interest from research-related businesses and organizations and is expected to provide an important economic boost to the area.

Local researcher chosen

Janet Bayleran, Ph.D., is the first researcher appointed to the new institute. Bayleran has been conducting genetic studies at Eastern Maine Medical Center for 15 years, in both clinical diagnostics and laboratory research. For the past seven years, she has been working in a small lab at the EMHS Healthcare Mall in Bangor. Her current work is focused on breast cancer and recently was recognized with a modest grant from the National Institutes of Health – $130,000 over the next two years. It’s the first funding awarded to a researcher associated with the new genetics institute.

Bayleran is using a technique called microarray technology to test for mutations in DNA samples taken from cancerous breast tumors. She has access to preserved tumor tissue from women whose cancer has remained in remission after treatment as well as samples from women whose cancer has recurred.

Microarray technology, also known as gene chip technology, allows her to compare the genetic makeup of the two groups – up to 300 individual genes at a time – in order to identify mutations present in women whose cancer has relapsed but absent from women who have stayed in remission.

“The use of this technology – which eventually will be applied to clinical diagnostics – can determine a woman’s risk for recurrence,” Dr. Bayleran explained. Armed with that knowledge, she said, a patient and her physician can make better decisions about how aggressively to treat a cancer and how vigilant to be in watching for its return.

The identification of such a mutation for breast cancer relapse has clear implications for treating other cancers as well, she noted.

Bayleran gets a gleam in her eye at the prospect of a new lab to work in – not surprising, perhaps, from a researcher whose current setup is in an overhauled strip mall.

“Better technology, better equipment – it’s incredibly important to attracting top researchers,” she said.

Build it, they will come

Geneticist Laurent Beauregard, an EMHS administrator and associate director of the new institute, says his goal is to recruit five top-shelf scientists like Bayleran over the next five years, along with a working director with his or her own research goals.

The initial focus of research at the new lab will be cancer studies, he said in a recent interview, but as the program becomes more established, chronic conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and obesity also will be studied.

Researchers will be looking specifically for ways to apply the results of animal studies to the diagnosis and treatment of human diseases – a process known as translational genetics. They will design clinical studies for humans and recruit study participants from the eastern Maine region.

Preliminary plans for the lab called for retrofitting unused space in the five-story Cianchette Building in Brewer, which houses the corporate offices of Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems.

But it now seems likely that the new lab instead will occupy about half of one floor in the second of four contemporary professional buildings planned for the 77-acre property at the intersection of outer Wilson Street and Interstate 395. EMHS owns the land.

Because a state-of-the-art facility is essential to attracting the high-caliber researchers he wants, Beauregard said, the new lab would best be designed from the ground up.

Essential utilities for the lab – such as plumbing, lighting, climate control, ventilation and electronic connections – will be safer and more effective if designed into a purpose-built structure, he said.

The Cianchette Building, which is owned by the Cianbro Corp. of Pittsfield and leased to EMHS, will be filled with corporate offices by the end of the summer, Beauregard said.

Collaboration’s new energy

At The Jackson Laboratory, Dr. Barbara Knowles, vice president for education, training and external scientific collaborations, said existing partnerships have paved the way for the ambitious new project.

University of Maine students and faculty, as well as physician researchers in the area, already have access to Jackson Lab’s resources, she said. Additionally, though Jackson Lab’s work is primarily on mouse genetics, the relationship to human disease is never far away.

The mouse-to-human connection is well established and drives research in cancer and other diseases. For example, Knowles said, a senior researcher at The Jackson Laboratory has identified the genetic basis of a human syndrome that includes obesity, diabetes, deafness and blindness.

The genetic mutation has been established in a line of research mice, and scientists are working on ways to predict, prevent and treat the disorder. Once the work is complete in mice, geneticists can design appropriate clinical studies for human participants, Knowles said.

Every summer, The Jackson Laboratory hosts a two-week course in medical genetics, attracting human geneticists from around the world. Knowles said she intends to draw on the expertise of this year’s participants to establish a scientific advisory board to guide the planning of the Maine Institute for Human Genetics and Health.

The genetics lab is an important adjunct to the University of Maine’s plan to establish a graduate school of biomedical research. Dr. Michael Eckardt, vice president for research, said this week that the collaboration with EMHS and Jackson Lab would help attract ambitious graduate students and prestigious faculty to the new academic program, which is still awaiting funding approval in Augusta.

The university’s established leadership in using zebra fish for researching genetic disorders, along with a focus within the engineering school on developing biomedical devices, makes for a potent partnership with EMHS and Jackson Lab, Eckardt said.

In addition to attracting enhanced research funds and moving some animal studies “from the bench to the bedside,” the collaboration promises to bring physicians and researchers to university classrooms, provide valuable lab access for students and give everyone involved a broader experience, he said.

Brewer – biotech capital?

Though it’s too soon to count his chickens, Drew Sachs, economic development director for the city of Brewer, said news of the translational genetics institute already has generated significant interest among other research groups and related businesses.

Companies from the eastern Canadian provinces and southern New England states have expressed interest in locating near the new lab, he said. They include suppliers of laboratory equipment, pharmaceutical research companies, technology firms and others.

Additionally, there has been a flurry of interest from area restaurants and retailers looking to take advantage of the anticipated influx of new workers into the area – “a moneyed market of people who need to go out to lunch,” said Sachs.

The city actively is marketing the project as “the center of biotechnology” in the region, he said, and the response so far has been dramatic.