Columbia Genome Center Signs Big Deal—
Moves to Berrie Pavilion

A lab in the The Berrie Pavilion

Columbia University and VIMRx Pharmaceuticals have signed an agreement in which VIMRx will provide $30 million in funding for research at the Columbia Genome Center (CGC) in exchange for an option for exclusive licensing of that research. The collaboration will capitalize on the explosion of new technology and information that has permitted the localization and identification of novel human genes associated with many genetically based diseases. Since 1988, the Human Genome Program at Columbia has advanced the technology used in fine mapping of human chromosomes. CGC consists of a group of laboratories that had been spread throughout the University, but will now be based at the Russ Berrie Medical Science Pavilion under Co-Director Dr. T. Conrad Gilliam.

“Beyond the extra power you get from funding, this collaboration is important because of the flexibility an open-ended funding program gives us,” says Dr. Isidore S. Edelman, director of CGC. “It gives us the flexibility to pursue in the fastest possible way any new discovery that leads to genetic analysis. It lets us, without time delay, investigate the most important medical genetic problems that come under our scrutiny.Working in concert, these labs provide efficient gene discovery capability.” VIMRx hopes to tap into that productivity by way of any current investigations and future discoveries that offer diagnostic and therapeutic potential. “The most rapidly growing area in the biotechnology industry today is in genomics. With this collaboration, VIMRx is getting a portfolio of projects,” says. Dr. Edelman, who also points out that the projects licensed to VIMRx were selected by Columbia investigators, thereby preserving the academic process.

VIMRx is a development-stage company. VIMRx’s collaboration with Columbia will be pursued through a new company called VIMRx Genomics Inc. (VGI). VGI will initially be owned 90 percent by VIMRx and 10 percent by Columbia. The collaboration will extend for a five-year period with an option to be continued indefinitely thereafter upon mutual consent. VGI’s offices are located in Audubon Park at the Mary Woodard Lasker Medical Science Building.

[Go to start of Contents]