I personally think the critical issue is building a bioinformatics infrastructure. But faculty is difficult to attract and keep with monstrous salaries being offered by private companies. Without the staff, universities are sure to fall behind. Still, the value of making the database available to the school shouldn't be underestimated, according to Temple Smith, director of the BioMolecular Engineering Research Center at Boston University. Even though money is a powerful seducer, Gibbs and Smith said they'd still rather be academics.
Life is still better in the academic sector.
There's a certain level of independence and the subjective concept of being your own boss is stronger. The trick for universities is to find more like-minded professors. A professor of computer science at the University of Arizona, Meyers didn't give up his academic post, he instead took a sabbatical. His genetic interests are much too varied to fit into the business model of a biotech company. However, hairy eyeballs are very ugly.