Biomedical research here takes a big step today

Two doctors frustrated with the academic community's lack of interest in infectious diseases set up their own private research institute on a shoestring budget in an Issaquah strip mall.

It was 1976. Kenneth Stuart and Ruth Shearer stubbornly stayed focused on problems few Americans gave much thought to: Deadly or disabling bugs that cause illnesses, such as African sleeping sickness, malaria or tuberculosis.

The early '80s, however, brought AIDS -- and the threat of infectious disease was back on the industrialized world's radar screen.

Today, thanks to Bill Gates' philanthropic interest in infectious diseases of the Third World, the non-profit Seattle Biomedical Research Institute has been rewarded for its stubbornness.


	Ken Stuart, left, founder of the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute, and Jason Wendler, a research technician, examine red blood cells infected with malaria. The lab will move to bigger facilities on Westlake Avenue North. Joshua Trujillo / Seattle Post-Intelligencer Click for larger photo

This morning, Stuart and his colleagues will celebrate their plan to build a new facility in the South Lake Union area, at 307 Westlake Ave. N. Mayor Greg Nickels and U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott are expected to speak.

"We're now the biggest malaria vaccine-development program west of the Mississippi, which I guess shows you how little work is still being done in this area," Stuart said.

In 1999, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation gave $5 million to Seattle Biomedical to use its expertise in tropical infectious diseases to help identify targets in the malaria parasite's developmental cycle that could be exploited in a vaccine.

In the overall scheme of things, this is a pittance of what the Gateses have given to malaria research. The foundation has donated $50 million to another Seattle-based organization, the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health, to set up its Malaria Vaccine Initiative and $40 million to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine to conduct basic research on malaria.

But the $5 million given to Seattle Biomedical doubled its research budget, allowed it to attract some additional experts in malaria and leverage all this to obtain other grants.

"It was a huge boost for us," Stuart said. "We used to have a terrible time trying to convince people of the importance of this work. The fact that the Gates Foundation has made this their major focus has been really helpful."

The modestly sized organization now run just by Stuart (Shearer is retired) has 10 principal scientists and 130 staff members and is claustrophobically located in two office buildings in North Queen Anne, just off the Ship Canal.

"We're planning to expand our use of bioinformatics in this work," he said, meaning the use of computers to assist with the biomedical research they are doing on infectious disease.

In a press release announcing the dedication ceremony, Nickels said Seattle Biomedical's expansion plan "signifies Seattle's continued rise in the world as a biotech leader."

Stuart's organization has already had its share of successes, including the development of new diagnostic tests for diseases and the discovery of a peculiar genetic process known as "RNA editing."

This genetic process apparently occurs only in organisms that cause leishmaniasis, Chagas' disease and African sleeping sickness.

"We think it could be a drug target," Stuart said.

But it's not just the Gateses, along with Stuart's stubbornness, that have contributed to the growth of Seattle Biomedical. Members of the board of directors have together kicked in $1 million and the staff members (many of whom survive on miserly research grants) have contributed about $100,000.

Paul Allen's Vulcan Inc. owns the land the new research institute will be built on, and Harbor Properties will oversee the development.

Stuart said Seattle Biomedical, which will not be the only tenant in the building, will own 35 percent equity in the project. This shows the organization's long-term commitment to the area, he said, and should also provide a more reliable financial foundation for the organization.

P-I reporter Tom Paulson can be reached at 206-448-8318 or tompaulson@seattlepi.com

Add P-I Local headlines to