Mayo Clinic's Center for Individualized Medicine -- with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Chicago -- is establishing a National Science Foundation Industry/University Collaborative Research Center called the Center for Computational Biotechnology and Genomic Medicine, or CCBGM. The goal is to study the applicability, timeliness, efficiency, and accuracy of the computational infrastructure that will address pressing genome-based challenges, through collaborative projects that include two or more of the member institutions. A key element of this NSF funding model is to recruit industry partners into the Center as a way to fund the research. The CCBGM recently hosted a planning meeting for university staff and representatives from 27 companies in primarily the biotech and computer sectors, some of whom compete in the same space. Engagement was strong and post-meeting discussions with industry partners have focused on making the collaborative projects more translational in nature. It's that time-tested "union of forces" that Dr. Will Mayo mentioned nearly a century ago resurfacing yet again. We thought the list of 27 companies was cool enough to list - note that IBM is represented by two major units.

Abbott Molecular
Abbvie
Agilent Technologies
AgReliant Genetics LLC
Argonne National Laboratory
Apervita, Inc.
BASF
BGI-Shenzhen
Cray
Dell Research
Dow Agrosciences
Eli Lilly and Company
Google
IBM Research and Watson Group
Illinois Science and Technology Coalition
Intel
Mahyco Seeds Ltd.
MATTER
Monsanto
Oracle
Perkin Elmer Informatics
Proctor and Gamble
Qiagen
RIKEN
Simons Foundation
Strand Life Sciences
Wuxi-NextCODE Genomics

Tags: Center for Individualized Medicine, Events, genomics, Innovations, People, precision medicine, Progress Updates, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign