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A research project proposed by a doctor at Sacred Heart Medical Center is one of the first to receive a portion of the $1 million that BioGenetic Ventures Inc., of Spokane, announced last spring it would invest over the next three years into basic-science research at the Heart Institute.
The study's primary investigator, Dr. William A. Dittman Jr., director of hematology at Sacred Heart Medical Center, expects to receive about $300,000 in all over the next three years to conduct a genetherapy study related to atherosclerosis, or the hardening of the arteries. His work on the study began at the Heart Institute last month.
BioGenetic Ventures also is funding another study that's being conducted by Dr. Katherine Tuttle, director of research at the Heart Institute. (See article on page A6.)
Because Dittman's study involves basic-science research instead of clinical research, Dittman and the Heart Institute aren't willing to disclose specifics of the study, as the Heart Institute often has done in clinical studies.
Under an arrangement that BioGenetic Ventures is finalizing with the Heart Institute, intellectual property that results from Dittman's study could be licensed to BioGenetic Ventures, with royalties flowing back to the Heart Institute, BioGenetic Ventures, and Dittman. BioGenetic Ventures is a young Spokane company that invests in the commercialization of emerging scientific research.
Making details of the study public too soon could result in a loss of patent rights, Dittman says.
Creating alliances between for-profit companies and Spokane's significant health-care community is one way economic-development boosters say Spokane can grow a biotech industry here.
What Dittman could say is that for the past 15 years he has...