Following the final rejection in August of its long-running application to extend facilities at its genome-sequencing site at Hinxton, Cambridgeshire ( http://www.nature.com/nm/breaking_news/), the Wellcome Trust indicated last month that it is preparing to take the £100 million development overseas. Potential sites are those involved in the Human Genome Project in France, Germany, Japan and the US.

The UK's share in sequencing the human genome is done at the Genome Campus at Hinxton, and the Trust had envisioned adding facilities to the site that would enable widespread commercialization of the sequencing effort. Michael Morgan, chief of the Genome Campus at Hinxton explained to Nature Medicine that the Trust is trying to develop a new model as an engine for science business, "rather than a real estate part, which is what Science Parks have been traditionally."

In addition to business, financial and legal offices, the expansion would include incubator and nursery laboratories—where spin-off companies could become established and grow—plus space for mature companies that already have genomics expertise. However, Cambridgeshire authorities rejected the Trust's argument that a critical mass is needed to make the site effective.

"What was flatly denied was to put any mature companies on-site," says Morgan. One such mature company, which provided scientific evidence in support of the extension at a public inquiry last summer, is Third Wave Technologies of Wisconsin, which has developed a non-PCR-based DNA analysis for genotyping and gene expression applications.

If money and progress are directed elsewhere, Morgan concedes that then this may weaken the Cambridge site. "Looking at the European Bioinformatics Institute as an example, this Institute [which is part of the Hinxton group] has had a number of people leave and set up their own company because they can't do this at Hinxton."

Morgan says the Trust remains committed to its vision of an integrated campus. "If planning regulations were to be changed, then clearly that would be a fresh start," he says, adding, "...in terms of technology transfer and helping biotechnology to thrive in the United Kingdom, for the moment we're thwarted."