University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Published: January 15, 2004

By SUE WUETCHER
Reporter Editor

Sen. Charles E. Schumer and Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds were in a festive mood during a visit to campus the Monday before Christmas, presenting outgoing President William R. Greiner with a Christmas and retirement gift as they announced nearly $10 million in obligated and pending 2004 federal funding for the UB Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics.

The approximately $9.9 million in funding includes $2.4 million in the defense appropriations bill and $2 million in the energy and water appropriations bill. It also includes $994,100 from Labor/Health and Human Services and nearly $4.5 million in the Veterans Administration/Housing and Urban Development spending bills that already have been approved by the House and are part of the omnibus package that is expected to hit the Senate this month.

Reynolds, speaking at a news conference held in the Center for Tomorrow, pointed out that the Center of Excellence so far has accumulated $20.4 million in federal funding, well on the way to meeting the long-range goal of $25 million in federal funding for the project.

He stressed that the success of the bioinformatics project has been due to a team effort—once the project became a priority for the Western New York community, it became a priority for the region's congressional delegation as well.

Greiner "had the vision to engage his team to set the course we're now making into history," Reynolds said. "Before he leaves as president, it's fitting we formally announce the type of monies that have come under his watch."

Schumer also praised Greiner, calling him the person who "had the idea and the ability to put it all together." Combining UB's strengths in supercomputers and medical research—along with those of Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) and Hauptman Woodward Medical Research Institute (HWI)—was a stroke of genius, Schumer said.

"We wanted Western New York to become the center of a major new technology that we knew would grow and throw off good-paying jobs and bring research here and start the turnaround. And we've begun," he said.

Greiner called bioinformatics "one of the most important adventures and one of the most important searches and journeys this university has ever been involved in."

He noted that the Western New York congressional delegation—Reynolds and Schumer, as well as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Rep. Jack Quinn, Rep. Louise Slaughter and former Rep. John LaFalce—"early in the game recognized that the future of upstate New York and the future of the Buffalo Niagara region depends on the kinds of things we can do in universities and at Hauptman Woodward and Roswell Park, working together, to build a 21st century economy."

The delegation "has been an inspiration to us in terms of the way they have made commitments and delivered on those commitments," he added.

Greiner noted that several years ago the SUNY Research Foundation put together a summary of research activity at the centers of excellence around the state. In counting up research money obtained through competitive federal grants in various areas of expertise, UB, RPCI and HWI in 2002—before money began flowing to the Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics—had brought in $51 million in competitive grants in bioinformatics and related fields, five times more than any of the other centers of excellence. "That's the kind of backbone that was built up here and why the governor said he'd bet on us and why our federal delegation has bet on us in the way in which it has," Greiner said. "I know this is going to be a great success."