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Two former key members of the University of Hawaii's pioneering mice-cloning team have been recruited from the United States to help Japan become a leader in international biotechnology. Japan lures 2 former
UH starsA biotechnology firm recruits key
scientists who worked on
the mice-cloning projectBy Helen Altonn
haltonn@starbulletin.comTeruhiko Wakayama and Anthony Perry were lead researchers in cloning of generations of mice by "Team Yana," led by Ryuzo Yanagimachi, UH professor of anatomy and reproductive biology. The development made worldwide news in 1998.
Wakayama was chief investigator for the cloning, and Perry developed a technique called "Honolulu transgenesis" to transfer genetic information from one organism into the egg of another. He created green mice with a "green gene" from a jellyfish.
Relations became strained in 1999 when Perry and Wakayama became shareholders in a company formed by John Henry Felix that claimed ownership of the intellectual property.
Perry and UH sued each other over rights to the technique of manipulating genetic information to clone mice. Both sides agreed to drop all complaints in a confidential settlement disclosed last month, but the intellectual property is still an issue. Both UH and Perry are competing for federal patents for the genetic technique.
Wakayama left UH in 1999 to take a job at Rockefeller University, but continued to collaborate with "Team Yana." He was listed with UH and University of Cincinnati researchers in a paper this month in Nature Medicine about abnormalities in cloned mice.
Both Wakayama and Perry went a year ago to Advanced Cell Technology, a private firm based in Worcester, Mass., to start a mouse embryology laboratory.
Perry anticipated applying their knowledge to larger mammals, like cattle, but public concern and low levels of funding slowed that effort, according to Forbes.com.
Wakayama was among the first researchers recruited for the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology in Kobe, Japan, and he encouraged Perry to apply for a position.
A new, $45 million developmental biology laboratory is being built there to focus on regenerative medicine technologies like embryonic stem cells and cloning.
"Japan is evidently hoping that it can race ahead of countries that are more skittish about technologies like embryo cloning, including the U.S.," Forbes.com reported.
The RIKEN Center will include a hospital nearby to conduct clinical trials and a mechanism to launch venture companies.
"Kobe is even using the potential for new biotechnology companies to justify building a new airport when an existing one is only 30 minutes away," Forbes.com said.
At Advanced Cell, Perry and Wakayama have been working on use of therapeutic cloning to treat osteoarthritis and heart problems in mice.
Robert Lanza, the company's vide president of medical and scientific development, said their departure will be a loss, but it is hoped their projects will be finished in the next few months. Otherwise, collaborations may continue after they leave for Japan, he said.
Scientists in the UH Biogenesis Research Laboratory, directed by Yanagimachi, said they wish the best for their former colleagues.
"They deserve it," said Stefan Moisyadi, the lab's research coordinator. "They were well trained. I wish them nothing but good fortune."
"We wish them well in their new positions and hope that they continue to perform the excellent science they began while working here with Dr. Yanagimachi," said W. Steven Ward, associate professor of anatomy and reproductive biology.
"We look forward to seeing even more discoveries as their careers continue to develop."
Wakayama is a Japanese native; Perry, a British citizen.
Perry said he was reluctant to go to a country where he does not speak the language fluently or know the culture, but the RIKEN Center made him an offer he could not refuse, Forbes.com reported.
He will have his own laboratory, a large pile of core funding and "shelter from the roller-coaster ride of working in a high-profile (but tiny) biotechnology firm in a bearish U.S. economy," the report said.
However, it added, the RIKEN Center's buildings are not completed, and funding is guaranteed only for three years as part of Japan's Millennium program, which set aside $900 million for scientific initiatives.
The RIKEN centers comprise a national network of government laboratories known for theoretical physics and chemistry. Their budget last year was $660 million.
University of Hawaii
