San Diego

A major facility that will perform large-scale gene-expression analysis on tissue samples and release its findings to the public is set to be established in Phoenix, Arizona.

The board of the International Genomics Consortium — a broad group of pharmaceutical companies, universities and other backers that will operate the facility (see Nature 410, 855; 2001) — is expected to announce within the next month that the centre will be built in Phoenix and directed by Jeffrey Trent, currently scientific director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), at Bethesda, Maryland.

The consortium has already attracted more than $42.5 million from pharmaceutical companies and foundations to advance its first genomic project on cancer. And discussions already are under way to expand the work to other diseases, including Alzheimer's, multiple sclerosis, diabetes and heart and lung disorders.

In the past year, 19 major US medical centres have agreed to provide the consortium with samples of malignant and normal tissue for gene-expression analysis. Genetic data would then be available for use by any scientist worldwide — with no intellectual property restrictions attached. The concept will be similar to that of the SNP Consortium, a non-profit, public–private group set up in 1999 to provide researchers with single-nucleotide polymorphisms, the common variations in human DNA.

At the genomic consortium, microarray analysis will be done on DNA samples from tumours and normal tissue. The resultant expression records of the messenger RNA turned on in the tissue samples will be made available to researchers on the consortium's open database.

The consortium was the idea of Richard Mallery, a Phoenix-based lawyer who chairs its board, and has won support from others who want to expand research and biotechnology in Arizona. The state of Arizona and other local backers are putting together an incentive package worth tens of millions of dollars to help support the facility. The state legislature is expected to pass the necessary financing measures this month.

Other locations, including Atlanta and Baltimore, were considered for the project but Phoenix was always top of the list. Trent, the consortium's chief scientific adviser, has wanted to return to his home state to lead the venture. He says he hasn't yet given official notice that he will leave the NIH, but adds that this could happen shortly.

→ http://www.intgen.org