The Jackson Laboratory – which will receive $291 million in state subsidies for a new building on the Farmington campus of the University of Connecticut Health Center – announced Thursday a joint venture in New York City will go forward with support from the city and private funders.
The New York Genome Center is a joint venture between 20 research institutions. The 120,000 square foot facility is expected to begin operations in 2012.
According to Jackson officials, the New York project will complement their genomics lab in Connecticut.
“The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine will be the anchor for translational medicine for the JAX enterprise and, together with The Jackson Laboratory in Maine, will provide the comparative systems genomics that can identify the complex genetic factors causing a range of human diseases,” Jackson CEO Edison Liu said in a statement.
“In direct partnership with the University of Connecticut Health Center, we will be working with clinicians and patients to develop the tools and strategies to deliver personalized disease management such as comprehensive diagnostics that can tailor the selection of efficacious therapeutics for each individual patient. Going forward, JAX and our clinical partners at UConn will deeply engage the New York Genome Center and sister member institutions in building and strengthening our collective enterprise,” Liu said.
In return for state subsidies, Jackson has committed to create 300 jobs in 10 years and 600 in 20. Over the next 20 years Connecticut will pay Jackson more than $42,000 per employee per year if the nonprofit follows its hiring projections.
Jackson is the only NYGC participant not based in the city. The other participants are: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Columbia University, Cornell University/Weill Cornell Medical College, Memorial Sloan- Kettering Cancer Center, Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York-Presbyterian Hospital, New York University/NYU School of Medicine, North Shore-LIJ Health System, The Rockefeller University and Stony Brook University. The Hospital for Special Surgery is an associate founding member.