An MSU professor and her team of scientists might have developed proteins to help treat HIV positive patients, arthritis and people with respiratory problems - if they had the money.
Surgery Professor Elahé Crockett-Torabi proposed a project with all three goals to the state Life Sciences Corridor leaders, who not only turned down the idea, but all of the 14 project proposals submitted from MSU.
The other rejected proposals included projects that could have found less expensive ways to manufacture prosthetic limbs and developed means to prevent cancer.
“We didn’t receive a good score in how we would market it,” Crockett said. “But we’re scientists. We don’t have that much experience with that.”
MSU received $6.5 million of the $45 million in grants that were given to Michigan scientific research projects this year - the second lowest amount of funding doled out by the group.
The Van Andel Research Institute in Grand Rapids received the lowest amount of money with $2.9 million.
The Life Sciences Corridor is a grant program funded by part of the state’s tobacco settlement money that aims to spend $1 billion on biochemistry projects in the course of 20 years.
The program links the research efforts of Wayne State University, the University of Michigan, MSU, and Van Andel. This is the program’s third year.
MSU’s share of corridor funding came from $14.7 million budgeted to the Core Technology Alliance, an effort to increase the level of technology in Michigan that partners four research institutions that link Grand Rapids and Detroit.
MSU is spending most of its portion of the funding on the purchase of a nuclear magnetic resonance instrument to learn about the structure of proteins that cause damage in the human body. It will be the state’s largest instrument of that kind.
Seventeen out of the 53 projects submitted were awarded funding by the corridor. Van Andel had one project approved, Wayne State University four, and U-M had five projects approved.
“This year we didn’t do as well as we would’ve liked,” Bob Huggett, vice president for research and graduate studies, said. “I was hoping we’d get a couple funded.”
Crockett had hopes of growing a protein called secretary leukocyte protease inhibitor in mass quantities. The protein is found in bodily fluids, such as saliva, nose mucus and vaginal secretions. It helps protect the body from inflammation, viruses, and fungi.
The researchers would have used corn leaves for their project because they are a similar to the human body in the way they host the protein cells in question.
The protein Crockett hoped to mass produce currently costs $500 per microgram and only has one producer, Amgen pharmaceutical company.
The total estimated cost of the project was $1.9 million.
“This proposal was very highly recommended,” Crockett said. “But I also knew and I had heard from my colleagues that it was very political.”
The proposals were read by fellow researchers and rated in several categories, such as the ability to produce more money than the project would cost, potential to bring in employees, and scientific quality of the proposal.
Crockett said she received high marks from the reviewers in every category except how it could be promoted and if the project will produce more money than what was donated.
If she chooses to submit the proposal again next year, she said she will handle the marketing portion differently and possibly make changes to the structure of her research team.
“I’d seek some advice on how to do that,” she said. “But we had a very strong scientific group to work on this project.”
Huggett described the funding as sort of a contest, and many times the outcome is unpredictable.
“You don’t expect in this game,” he said. “You just play the game, and you play by the rules. Last year we got more than anyone else.”
Horticulture Professor David Dilley submitted two proposals, but also failed to score with the Life Sciences Corridor.
“I understand the review process,” he said. “This is very competitive. It’s just that there are very many good ideas.”
His first project was designed to develop a way to produce penicillin cheaper. And the second would have researched proteins found in the nutrients of fruits and vegetables in hopes of using them to ease chemotherapy treatments.
Dilley said he plans to submit his proposals again next year.
MSU President M. Peter McPherson said he wished MSU could have received more money, but as with other state budgets, money was tight and that is just the way the funding game goes.
“Of course, we always want to win,” he said.
Amy Bartner can be reached at bartnera@msu.edu.
