Genome project has been worth $1 trillion, Battelle says

By Jack Torry

The Columbus Dispatch Wednesday June 12, 2013 6:12 AM

WASHINGTON A new Battelle study shows that the federal governments efforts to finance research for the Human Genome Project have had nearly a $1 trillion impact on the U.S. economy during the past 25 years.

The report, scheduled to be released today by United for Medical Research at a briefing on Capitol Hill, delivers a powerful argument for federal research dollars. It claims that $14.5 billion in federal research dollars from 1988 through 2012 helped create more than 53,000 jobs in the genome field, boosted personal income by $293 billion and helped expand the nations output by $965 billion.

As the largest single undertaking in the history of life sciences, the Human Genome Project has paid back extraordinary dividends on the U.S. governments investment, Carrie Wolinetz, president of United for Medical Research, said in a statement. This report illustrates the vital role that key federal research funding plays in growing the U.S. economy, creating new industries and innovative technologies and producing the diagnostics and treatments that can save lives.

United for Medical Research is a coalition of research institutions across the country. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, will be among the speakers at todays briefing.

Federal research dollars for the genome project date to 1987 when the Reagan administration first proposed the idea in its budget. There are roughly 20,000 genes in human beings, and scientists believe that studying these genes will demonstrate what causes disease.

jtorry@dispatch.com

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Genome project has been worth $1 trillion, Battelle says