Louisiana Gene Therapy Research Consortium: Ten Years of Momentum and Progress

March 15, 2010 - PRLog -- NEW ORLEANS — Ten years ago, The Louisiana Gene Therapy Research Consortium (LGTRC), a 501c3 non-profit corporation, was created by the State of Louisiana as a partnership among Louisiana’s public and private health sciences centers including:  Louisiana State University Health Sciences Centers in New Orleans and Shreveport, and Tulane University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans.  It was designed to recruit leading researchers in the field of cell and gene therapy; establish core technology labs at the sites of the member institutions; manufacture cell and gene therapy technologies for clinical applications and provide education in the biosciences.

The State of Louisiana is among a few states in the nation who understands and supports research as a cornerstone of its economic development strategy. Over the past ten years, the state’s investment and commitment has created lucrative new jobs, drawn increased federal research funding to the state, educated both students and teachers in the field of biosciences and shown a spotlight on the commercialization opportunities that exist right here in Louisiana.

An example of a biotech opportunity that has successfully come to fruition is the recent cooperative agreement between Repair Technologies, Inc., a biotech company out of Palo Alto, CA and the GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) Laboratory at Tulane University’s Tidewater Building in New Orleans, LA, to develop and manufacture adult stem cells from bone marrow. The facility, developed in partnership with the Louisiana Gene Therapy Research Consortium (LGTRC), was created to meet the stringent requirements for manufacturing adult stems to be used in humans. It is funded primarily by the State through the Louisiana Board of Regents.    
 
“Louisiana clearly recognizes the importance of funding gene therapy research at universities throughout the state,” says Dr. Bruce Bunnell, Director of the Center for Gene Therapy at Tulane University.  “In fact, Louisiana has invested heavily in biotechnology and gene therapy research infrastructure and initiatives over the past 10 years.”  

Since its creation in April 2000, the LGTRC has received approximately $2.8 million dollars annually, which researchers at LSU Health Sciences in New Orleans and Shreveport and at Tulane University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans have parlayed into over $100 million of research dollars won in national competition from NIH (National Institutes of Health) to help support the development of the Consortium’s work. This, in turn, has attracted world-class research faculty and research trainees to the State of Louisiana and created over 200 new, high-paying knowledge-based research jobs. LGTRC scientists continue to have significant successes attracting grants, even while researchers in the United States are currently experiencing incredible competition for research funding.

INVESTMENT IN THE FUTURE
Someone dies every hour in Louisiana from cancer. For the past ten years, LGTRC scientists have been striving to understand how gene therapy can be applied to target cancer and other diseases that affect the lives of people everywhere—particularly those in Louisiana.

“The most exciting area of biomedical research is human genetic medicine, where disease is treated by modifying an individual’s genes, correcting abnormal genes, or by adding foreign genes to stimulate the body’s systems, including the body’s immune defense system,” says Alistair Ramsay, director of the Gene Therapy Program at LSU Health Sciences Center - New Orleans. “But, it takes funding. LGTRC funding not only benefits the development of outstanding, state-of-the-art Research Core Facilities that benefit the entire local biomedical research community , but through partnering with other State and Federally funded enterprises, we are creating many new jobs in the region along with infrastructure for the testing, and ultimately the commercialization, of new, locally developed therapies for human disease."

Towards the goal of instilling an appreciation of the biosciences in young people throughout Louisiana and creating economic development opportunities for the State, LGTRC has created short research experiences for Louisiana high school and undergraduate students, to help cultivate their interest in gene therapy research and as a means of encouraging them to remain in Louisiana after graduation. Summer Internships, lectures to healthcare and professional students and presentations to area high school students throughout southeast Louisiana are among the many tools in the LGTRC’s education outreach arsenal.

“Through hands-on lab activities and lectures on topics including gene therapy and stem cell research, LGTRC has had the honor of reaching more than 2,000 high school students and numerous professionals over the past ten years,” says Paula Gregory, PhD, director, LGTRC Education Outreach Program. “By educating the next generation of researchers and doctors, the LGTRC is able to ensure that the fight to understand many different diseases and discover possible treatments will be carried ably and well into the future.”

THE NEXT 10 YEARS AND BEYOND
According to Dr. Michael Mathis, director of the Gene Therapy Program at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center – Shreveport, “In spite of the state of the nation’s economy, including recent cuts by the State of Louisiana to healthcare and education programs, the field of gene therapy continues to evolve rapidly with a growing number of impressive therapeutic successes. Program researchers have developed many new research directions using state-of-the-art research technologies that will ultimately lead to the testing of new therapies of vaccines for cancer, infectious diseases, inherited diseases and asthma.”

“The State’s investment in the Louisiana Gene Therapy Research Consortium will continue to be critical in allowing researchers the continuity and stability to compete for further large-scale Federal funding, so that research into new preventives and therapies for human disease can continue, and lives ultimately bettered or saved,” adds Steve Moye, president & CEO of the LGTRC.

For more information on the research being done by the Louisiana Gene Therapy Research Consortium’s member institutions—L SU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans; the Tulane University Health Sciences Center; and the LSU Health Sciences Center in Shreveport—please visit online at www.lgtrc.org or call
504-598-1557.