Connecticut plans to "pony up" $291 million to get its own branch of the Maine-based Jackson Laboratory, reports ScienceInsider's David Malakoff. Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy says the collaboration is part of a plan to turn Farmington, Conn., into a personalized medicine hub. The Jackson Lab had originally hoped to build the offshoot in Florida, but dropped that plan when the state's budget problems precluded the possibility of amassing the start-up funds, Malakoff says. "The next month, Connecticut came calling, asking whether JAX would be interested in creating the new research center as part of Malloy's Bioscience Connecticut initiative, which calls for spending $850 million to build the state's biomedical industry," he adds. "State legislators approved the initiative earlier this year with the goal of creating jobs and attracting new investment." The new 16,000 square meters of lab space — called The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine — will house 30 PIs, and is to employ a total of 300 people within the first 10 years, and 600 employees plus an additional 7,000 square meters of lab space within 20 years. "In addition to research, plans call for the center to dedicate space and staff to translating discoveries into commercial products and services, with hopes it will also spin off companies that create more jobs," Malakoff says.
Daily Scan's sister publication GenomeWeb Daily News has more on the new center here.