Medical campus synergy helped students to success

By Annemarie Franczyk
Business First of Buffalo
10/12/2007

Science has a better understanding of the inner workings of cystic fibrosis, tuberculosis and other diseases and conditions thanks in a big way to the neighborly existence of researchers on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.

The local scientists said their professional bond, which resulted in a significant protein-related discovery, is an example of the synergy that comes from simply being located near each other. They believe their joint success is the first of its caliber to come from the budding medical campus -- and it began during a conversation over a beer.

The story begins at Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute, where Andrew Gulick and his team of researchers study the role of protein in the bacteria that lead to infections. The ultimate goal is to discover an antibiotic to disable the protein and limit the infections, which, for example, can be fatal to people who have cystic fibrosis. The bacteria they study also is related to the micro-organism that causes tuberculosis, ear infections and infections in burn victims.

"This is a perfect example of the work my lab enjoys doing," Gulick said. "We determine structures and functions of important proteins and provide insights into ways that these proteins can be modulated to improve human health. My lab is most interested in human pathogens and learning new ways that we can block infections by these nasty bugs."

His research is highly valued in the realm of science, as indicated by the $1.5 million National Institutes of Health grant he received.

Gulick realized early on that to be truly effective, the cell study needed much deeper, more intricate analysis than he and his colleagues were able to perform. What they needed was a mass spectrometer.

According to the American Society of Mass Spectrometry, scientists use the technology to pick apart and identify minute concentrations of compounds in complex chemical mixtures. It has been used to determine gene damage cause by the environment, the composition of species found in space and to detect steroids in athletes. Labs the country over do this type of work, but Gulick feared none would put the time into the intricacies of his work. Then he met Robert Straubinger, a professor at the University at Buffalo School of Pharmacy, at a networking event for organizations and scientists working on the medical campus.

"Bob and I met at a summer get-together and it came up over a beer that they had a mass spectrometer," Gulick said.

Indeed, UB's Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences had the compound-separating machines with the high-powered computers attached. But it also had the expertise in research assistant Jun Qu and research scientist Jin Cao. Mass spectrometry wizards, Straubinger calls them.

"It was a simple question but a big job and it took a lot of expertise," Straubinger said. "It was a huge collaborative effort in an area we never thought of."

While Gulick feared outside labs would give his work short shrift, Qu and Cao embraced the complexity of it. The more challenging the problem, Cao said, the more excitement there was about working on it.

The partnership resulted in the identification of the structure of a protein in bacteria. The problem under study and the analysis performed was so impressive to the Journal of Biological Chemistry, the article written by the scientists was accepted within days of submission. That is significant given the highly respected journal's wont to ask for two or three revisions that can take two or three months each to do, and then ultimately reject the article, Straubinger said.

The $24 million Hauptman-Woodward facility opened in 2004 on Virginia and Ellicott streets and was followed two years later by the $225 million Center of Excellence and Roswell Park's Center for Genetics and Pharmacology. An enclosed bridge is under construction; once finished, it will link the UB and Roswell building with the Hauptman laboratories across Ellicott Street.

The bridge has a practical function, for sure, but a symbolic one too.

"Science today," said George DeTitta, Hauptman-Woodward CEO, "is no longer a solitary pursuit."

Multidisciplinary approaches, DeTitta added, are the only way to "say something new about nature."

"As a rule," he said, "no one individual, and not even a single institution, has all the tools to crack an advanced scientific problem."

That's where the neighborly scientists come in.

"Successes like this one," said Matthew Enstice, executive director of the medical campus, "(are) a sign that we're moving in the right direction."

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