As the Human and Molecular Genetics Center (HMGC) completes its fifth year of operation, it has met its initial goals for faculty recruitment, creation of technology platforms and recognized leadership in the field of molecular genetics. These successes have been produced by an extremely talented and dedicated faculty appointed in the Departments of Dermatology, Medicine, Pediatrics, Physiology and Urology, as well as the Health Policy Research Institute. As the Center evolves to meet new challenges, our faculty are developing strategic plans to guide our growth including a planned expansion in the area of cancer genetics next year.

Programmatically, the HMGC continues to grow. A source of great excitement is the creation of the new Individualized Medicine Institute (IMI) in conjunction with the Department of Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin (CHW), and Children’s Research Institute (CRI). The IMI will position MCW and CHW for the coming of individualized medicine and position genetic research here to begin translating basic research to clinical medicine. Already, the IMI’s Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) program has made new diagnostic tools available to clinicians.

This year we have welcomed the Max McGee National Research Center for Juvenile Diabetes into our group. The Max McGee Center was founded in 1999 through the efforts of the Hall of Fame Green Bay Packer Max McGee, to combine clinical with basic research on Type 1 diabetes. Two McGee Center faculty are already HMGC members: Drs. Martin Hessner and Xujing Wang. Other Max McGee Center faculty now joining us are its Director, Dr. Soumitra Ghosh, and Drs. Sun-Wei Guo and Victoria Magnuson. More information on both the IMI and the Max McGee Center can be found later in this report.

The HMGC continues to exceed research funding expectations. Research funding (direct costs) remained at the high level we achieved last year: over $7 million, with the vast majority of support coming from successful National Institutes of Health (NIH) applications. In this time of nation-wide reduced research funding availability, our faculty’s success is a direct indication of the cutting edge research underway within the HMGC and leaves us optimistic about our future funding success. We have now secured $43,752,779 in direct costs to the HMGC since it began in October of 1999. The cumulative total funding impact (defined by HMGC faculty participation on a grant) on the Medical College is $136,155,594, compared with cumulative Medical College development fund expenditures of $13,999,263: a nearly 10-fold return on MCW’s investment in the HMGC. This year again we compared our funding level with the 2004 NIH rankings for US Medical School Genetics Departments. Based on the total amount of research funding (not counting training grants), the HMGC would be ranked 13th in the country, if it were a department.

We look forward to the approaching year with optimism that HMGC will continue on its road to successfully creating new knowledge and applying this knowledge to developing new medical applications to improve health care.

   Jacob, Howard Ph.D.
   Professor of Physiology
   Director, Human and Molecular Genetics Center
   Warren Knowles Chair in Genetics
   Associate Section Chief of Genetics, Children's Hospital of Wisconsin
   Medical College of Wisconsin