Trial run | Janet Hock, the executive director of the Maine Institute for Human Genetics and Health, is laying the groundwork for her nascent cancer lab
Since December, the lab's executive director, Janet Hock, and six staffers have been working out of borrowed space at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor and the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor. In the meantime, Hock, who was hired in late December, is laying the groundwork for a lab, a collaboration between EMHS, the Jackson Lab and the University of Maine that she hopes will not only discover new cancer treatments, but also create a thriving biotech hub in Brewer. "We're creating this center for anybody that's got an interest in doing cancer research, or who wants to get the latest care in cancer," she says. "We're the magnet they come to."
The lab may be closer to reaching that goal: In early January, Congress earmarked $1.8 million for the lab in the 2007 federal budget. That brings its total federal appropriation to $3.8 million following $2 million in 2005 funding from Congress. Hock expects to receive both amounts this summer, after an extensive application process.
While there may be high expectations for the institute, Hock says the challenge drew her to the position in the first place. "I'm fairly senior in my career and I was looking for something that was fairly difficult to do," she says. For the past 30 years, she's worked in academia, and in clinical settings with biomedical research firms. Most recently, she was at Indiana University, leading a study of osteosarcoma, a form of bone cancer.
Hock will continue that research at the new lab. But more importantly, she wants to be able to develop clinical trials for human patients, based on research that scientists at the Jackson Lab are doing on mice, for example. The Jackson Lab currently researches cancer in mice for the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute of Health's cancer research arm. However, NCI hoped the Jackson Lab would begin doing trials with human patients, as well. The Maine Institute for Human Genetics and Health will provide that setting."We want to try and have Maine patients go on big trial protocols, so they can have access to the latest ideas in care. They'll be living the future," says Hock.
In a state where the cancer rate is higher than the national average, researching early prevention and cancer awareness at the institute could help lower health care costs, she says.
Hock's task now, just over a month into her job, is to recruit other scientists. In two years, she'd like to have a staff of 20. In 10, she wants to have hundreds. And to support the clinical trials, she's also going to have to recruit related companies to the area, everything from companies that research molecular biology and want a place to test their findings, to companies that make lab equipment. The area will need at least 60 companies to develop a strong cluster, she says.
She'll also need to raise more money. While the federal funds will help, the project will need at last $40 million over the next 10 years, coming mostly from grants, philanthropists and the other partnering organizations. The money will go to a good cause, she argues. "The ideal scenario," she says, "is for us to get together so we have critical mass and say, 'How do we all solve this problem together?'"
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