MDI Biological Laboratory

The recent wave of expansions demonstrates that Maine’s life sciences sector is not only growing, but putting down long-term roots.

The redesign will accommodate year-round operations, with an open-plan, more bench space and a bio-secure procedure room for sensitive experimental work.

The Bar Harbor-based lab is considering cost-cutting, budget rewrites and possible collaborations with other institutions.

At Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory, establishing endowed faculty positions provides stability to attract and retain scientists, especially in today’s uncertain funding environment.

Millions of federal dollars have been frozen from grant programs at research labs across the state, and the Univ. of Maine has had funding terminated from a number of programs. Some of the grant dollars have been restored, others are tied up in legal action.

The Maine IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence, led by MDI Bio Lab, is a consortium of 17 education and research institutions that collaborate to strengthen Maine’s competitiveness in biomedical and biotech research, feed students to biomedical and biotech careers and improve research infrastructure.

In Maine, National Institutes of Health grants and contracts support 1,468 jobs and $286 million in economic activity. 

“In a state like Maine with a small population and a vast geography, it’s our willingness to work together that makes us competitive in the global biomedical world, that helps us to punch above our weight,” Hermann Haller, MDI Bio Lab’s president, has said.

The network, led by MDI Biological Laboratory in Bar Harbor, has already provided more than 2,600 Maine students with hands-on biomedical research experience over the past two decades.

The Jackson Lab’s $8 million will help build a facility dedicated to rare disease research. MDI Bio Lab’s $1.6 million will support regenerative medicine research.