The $105 million genomic medicine and supercomputing project announced Wednesday by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo for Buffalo and Manhattan could create up to 600 jobs here as the initiative draws two out-of-state companies to the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.

State, academic and business officials pieced together a collaborative effort that leverages the University at Buffalos supercomputer, life-sciences research conducted at UB and Roswell Park Cancer Institute and valuable stores of patient data to spur economic development.

While details about key aspects of the project werent available Thursday, officials involved in the initiative expressed confidence in its potential to generate medical advances and high-tech jobs.

I believe what transpired was the governor connected the dots, the governors staff connected the dots, and said, all this stuff links together. Were going to invest money in the State of New York to enhance genomics, said Dr. Donald L. Trump, president and CEO of Roswell Park.

The Buffalo region will get $50 million of the state money, largely to add capacity to UBs Center for Computational Research. But project leaders arent releasing a precise breakdown of how the money will be spent or where the jobs will be created.

The two out-of-town companies, which expect to move their first employees to the medical campus by March, complement the two local companies taking part in the project because all four focus on the data-intensive field of genomic, or personalized, medicine.

I think this is very visionary to leverage a core resource, which is its expertise, Michael Paul, CEO and president of Salt Lake City-based Lineagen, said of the public-private partnership jump-started by the state funding.

The genome research project ties together the planning work performed by the Western New York Regional Economic Development Council, which identified the life sciences as a promising area of economic focus; the governors Buffalo Billion economic-development pledge, which has funded this and other initiatives; and the assets of UB and Roswell Park, including high-tech research centers and talented scientists.

It all fits together with an extraordinary, concentrated focus on turning around the Western New York economy, said Howard Zemsky, a Cuomo adviser and co-chairman of the regional council.

UB has sought to add capacity to its Center for Computational Research, now largely used for federally funded academic research, to give it a greater ability to perform computing tasks for companies, said Marnie LaVigne, UBs associate vice president for economic development.

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Up to 600 jobs in Buffalo promised by genomics project