The
Office of Technology Transfer Collection documents CSHL’s first inroads into
the world of Biotechnology. Research
that was initially carried out in academic laboratories led to the development
of recombinant DNA techniques. This in
turn stimulated entrepreneurial scientists to create biotechnology companies.
Recombinant DNA is the technology that allows us to insert genes from one
organism into another to make it produce a protein product, copy the gene
multiple times, or give it a new trait. The discovery of recombinant DNA was
considered the "birth" of modern biotechnology.
CSHL
has always been on the forefront of scientific research and discoveries. Thus, it was a natural progression that the
Lab should move into biotechnology. Here we will show a brief overview of three
early forays.
1.
Cellbiology Corporation, a
biotechnology company established in 1980, was a wholly owned for-profit
subsidiary of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. It was originally conceived as the
commercial arm of the Lab and as an entity that would initiate CSHL into the
biotech world and harness the developments in gene splicing and recombinant DNA
techniques. Cellbiology was used for a
few projects in the early-to-mid 1980s, but it never developed into a long-term
concern. The most significant work
occured in 1982: Cellbiology Corporation signed a contract with Baxter
Travenol, "covering the development of Tissue Plasminogen Activator (tPA)
as a potentially useful pharmaceutical product to dissolve blood
clots." Together, the two
companies contracted to work with the Genetics Institute in Boston on the Activator. In July 1984, Baxter Travenol sold its
interests in tPA technology to Burroughs Wellcome. Cellbiology Corporation was
kept mostly dormant from the mid-1980s on, and it was dissolved in 1995.
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| Dr. Harlow in 1986 with URP student Abhjeet Lele |
2.
Ed Harlow: In 1988, while working at CSHL, Ed
Harlow and his colleagues established "a crucial functional link
between the two general classes of cancer-causing genes (oncogenes and
tumor-suppressor genes)". Oncogenes (tumor inducing genes) induce changes in cell
phenotype. Adenovirus oncogene E1A can
immortalize primary cells and can also cooperate with the adenovirus E1B gene
or other oncogene to transform cells in culture. The transformed cells will induce tumors in
animals. E1A encoded proteins are potent
regulators of gene expression able to modulate transcription of both viral and
cellular genes. E1A proteins activate
transcription of the other adenovirus early genes and certain cellular
genes. They also repress transcription
of genes linked to certain viral or cellular enhancers.
In addition to his work
on oncogens, while at CSHL, Dr. Harlow and Nick Dyson worked under a
relationship between CSHL and Amersham on monoclonal antibodies. Dr. Harlow left CSHL in February of 1991 to
become scientific director at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
3.
ICOS Corp. was founded in early 1990 as
a Seattle-based drug discovery company specializing in inflammatory
diseases. ICOS was founded by three men: George Rathmann, founder of Amgen;
Robert Nowinski, founder of Genetic Systems Corporation; and Christopher
Henney, founder of Immunex Corporation.
The formal relationship
between CSHL and ICOS began in April 1990 with a licensing agreement under
which ICOS was obligated to pay CSHL royalties for all PDE [phosphodiesterase]
products developed by ICOS that used Michael Wigler's patented techniques. ICOS eventually developed the popular drug
Cialis from Dr. Wigler's technology. This portion of the Collection is restricted
due to confidentiality obligations between ICOS and CSHL.
Here is a photo of the early scientists and administrators involved
with ICOS, circa 1990.
- Amy Driscoll, Project Archivist
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