SGC
By Christopher Rogers
The Science of Sharing Structural Genomics Consortium A public-private partnership that offers “OPEN ACCESS SHARING”
Ontario
Dr. Aled Edwards
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The Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC), led by Dr. Aled Edwards, has been around since 2002, but the kind of partnerships it drives feels new, even by today’s standards. Based at the University of Toronto with partners at the University of Oxford in the U.K., the SGC is funded through the Ontario Government’s Ministry of Research Innovation and private biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, but the results of the consortium’s research is open and freely available; there are no patents.
Biotechnology Focus / June 2011
At the SGC, academic and industry scientists are able to overcome their differences and work together to determine the three-dimensional structures of human proteins and provide other valuable reagents to unravel the complexities of human biology. Edwards explained that in the late 1990’s as the human genome was being sequenced, it was becoming quickly apparent that the value of that information would be far greater if it was freely available for everyone to use rather than patented and sequestered in a company. It was a new paradigm to be sure. Edwards said it was prescient because, although often one hears that it’s impossible to commercialize without protection, a recent study of thousands of genes, some patented and protected, and some not (http://www. nber.org/papers/w16213) showed that the genes that were not patented led to many more commercial products than did patented ones. Edwards takes a similar view of the proteins in the human genome. In 1998, Ontario supported the first research in this area in the labs of Edwards and Cheryl Arrowsmith. From this effort grew the SGC, which was formed to make human protein structures available without patents and without restrictions on use. The funding for the SGC comes from the Ontario government, Genome Canada and the CIHR, the research charity the Wellcome Trust, the Swedish government, and the pharmaceutical companies GlaxoSmithKline, Merck and Novartis.
“We now are responsible, just the SGC labs, for one third of the world’s activity in human protein structure determination,” Edwards said. The team that was originally slated to determine the structure for just over 350 proteins accomplished that goal in no time, instead completing 450. Over the last four years the team was tasked with completing an additional 660 proteins and they’ve accomplished that goal too. “We make our reputation on hitting our milestones,” Edwards said. “That’s one of the reasons industry likes to work with us.” Edwards praises the Ontario government for supporting the SGC. He said the reason for the praise is because of the SGC has an unusual funding model (partnering with private pharma) that requires government funders to be innovative. “This could not have happened in the United States”, Edwards said. Ontario along with the CIHR and Genome Canada have been leaders in pushing the consortium forward. For Edwards, Ontario and especially the city of Toronto was perfectly positioned to spur this kind of organization with international collaboration. He said the collaborative society and multicultural setting of the province really give it an advantage. The partnerships with private pharmaceutical companies have also helped. Edwards explained that each time the team has extended the consortium they’ve received double the amount of funding from pharma, in millions of
