The associate director will both help oversee the center and head up its bioinformatics arm, which will include a core computer facility. Once on board, the two directors will be heavily involved in efforts to recruit other talented scientists with expertise in genomics and bioinformatics. A focal point of activity in the UC Davis Genome Center will be the use of automated technologies to measure and analyze gene expression, says Charles Langley, a population geneticist in evolution and ecology who has also been involved in the center's planning. Hjelmeland says it is likely that members of the center will pursue collaborations with scientists at national laboratories and at biotechnology companies in California. Big science, like genomics, often requires a collective effort.
Some projects are simply too massive to undertake without drawing on outside resources.
To encourage partnerships with the private sector, the campus is working to streamline its technology transfer and intellectual property rights processes. In addition to searching for a center director and associate director, UC Davis is seeking a new chair of the medical school's Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology. The new chair will lead further recruitment efforts that will bring an additional four faculty members to the department. Genetic research in the revitalized pharmacology and toxicology department should yield new approaches to drug development and the design of clinical trials, according to Fitz-Roy Curry, associate dean for research in the medical school. Understanding these minute differences may enable scientists and physicians to tailor drug treatments to genetically distinct populations.