Skolnick to lead bioinformatics center
Gov. Pataki makes announcement today during visit to UB to receive award

By ARTHUR PAGE
News Services Director

Jeffrey Skolnick, a world-renowned scientist in the fields of computational biology and bioinformatics, has been named executive director of the Buffalo Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics.

	SKOLNICK

A pioneer in the field of bioinformatics for his research in computational biology, Skolnick is director of computational and structural genomics at the Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis. His appointment is effective Sept. 30.

The recruitment of Skolnick was announced today by Gov. George E. Pataki at UB, which is the lead research partner in the Buffalo Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics, during the Industry University Day 2002 luncheon at which the governor received an "Igniting Ideas Award" for his leadership in establishing the center.

Pataki proposed the center in his January 2001 "State of the State" address as a vehicle to create jobs and revitalize the Western New York economy. Last December, Pataki announced $50 million in state funding and more than $150 million in private sector funding for the center. The governor provided $1.9 million to help recruit Skolnick and two other researchers from the Danforth Plant Science Center.

Separate congressional appropriations garnered by Rep. Thomas Reynolds and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton totaling $3.1 million allowed an upgrade of the supercomputer at UB that will enable Skolnick to conduct his research, which was key to his recruitment.

It also was announced at the luncheon by President William R. Greiner that the John R. Oishei Foundation has awarded UB a three-year, $1,542,000 grant to help support the salaries of Skolnick and two key researchers—Andrzej A. Kolinski and Marcos R. Betancourt—who will be coming to UB with him.

"Thanks to the generosity of the John R. Oishei Foundation, in addition to Gov. George E. Pataki's strong and visionary financial commitment to this initiative and, at the federal level, the efforts of Congressman Tom Reynolds and Sen. Clinton, we're delighted to have secured the talents of Jeffrey Skolnick and the world-class team he has assembled for our Buffalo Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics," Greiner said. "This combined support made it possible for us to go after the best of the best."

Greiner added: "With Dr. Skolnick's leadership, and the research skills and strengths of Professors Kolinski and Betancourt, we're confident the Buffalo Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics will fulfill all its promise as a regional, state and national locus for cutting-edge bioinformatics research and opportunities for new economic development.

"The overall commitment to this initiative—and by extension, to our region as well as to UB—has been truly outstanding, and we are very grateful to all our supporters."

UB Provost Elizabeth D. Capaldi praised Skolnick as "a unique combination of terrific scientific talent and entrepreneurial ability in the new field of bioinformatics."

"Researchers in this field are scarce because it is a new field, and researchers of Dr. Skolnick's abilities who also possess business skills are even rarer," Capaldi added. "We were only able to recruit Dr. Skolnick because of the funding provided by the governor, Congressman Reynolds and Sen. Clinton, and the extraordinary leadership gift for a local foundation from the John R. Oishei Foundation. We are extremely grateful to them for making this crucial hire possible."

Thomas E. Baker, executive director for the John R. Oishei Foundation, said its multi-year grant is designated solely for salaries because "it's critical to have the right people in charge."

He added, "We welcome the chance to provide these start-up funds, assisting the university and its research partners as they bring the emerging field of bioinformatics to this region."

The Buffalo Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics will merge high-end technology, including super-computing and visualization, with expertise in genomics, proteomics and bioimaging to foster advances in science and health care.

The center is a collaborative effort involving New York State, the federal government, corporate partners and research institutions. In addition to UB, the research partners are Roswell Park Cancer Institute and the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute.

Skolnick has served since 1999 as director of computational and structural genomics at the Danforth Plant Science Center, a not-for-profit, basic research institution devoted to the creation of knowledge that will lead to the sustainable production of nutritious and abundant food for the peoples of the world. An adjunct professor of biochemistry at Washington University in St. Louis, he has been a member of that faculty since 1982.

Skolnick has developed algorithms for the prediction of protein structure and folding pathways from protein sequence, and pioneered the use of lattice-based approaches to protein tertiary structure prediction, as well as the simulation of membranes and membrane peptides.

In addition, he has developed structure-based approaches to predict protein function from amino acid sequence, protein-protein interactions and pathways that can be applied to entire genomes.

He holds nearly $700,000 in grant support from research organizations that include the National Institutes of Health.

Kolinski is a professor at the Danforth center, and heads the biopolymers laboratory at the University of Warsaw in Poland. His honors include the Swietoslawski Award in 1994 and an International Scholar's Award from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 1995.

Betancourt works in the computational genomics laboratory at the Danforth center. His honors include the Enrico Fermi Award in 1986, a National Defense Science and Engineering Fellowship in 1989 and a National Science Foundation Fellowship in 1996 and 1998.