$4.1 Million for JAX, MDI Biological Laboratory Secured by Senator Collins in Funding Bill
Washington, D.C.--U.S. Senator Susan Collins, a senior member of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, announced that she secured a total of $4,100,000 for The Jackson Laboratory and Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory in the Fiscal Year 2023 Labor, Health & Human Services, and Education bill.
The omnibus funding package passed the Senate by a vote of 68-29. It will now be passed by the House before heading to the President’s desk to be signed into law.
“The brilliant scientists at The Jackson Laboratory and MDI Biological Lab are making great strides to better understand and treat diseases that affect nearly every American family,” said Senator Collins. “This funding will help to make improvements to their facilities and upgrade equipment that will allow both institutions to continue their groundbreaking research that is improving human health and longevity.”
“At JAX, we remain steadfast in our commitment to advancing research discoveries that will improve the health of people in Maine and all over the world,” said LuAnn Ballesteros, vice president of external and government affairs at The Jackson Laboratory. “This funding demonstrates Senator Collins’ unwavering commitment to supporting Maine’s biomedical research institutions and her prominence as a national leader with global impact.”
“Senator Collins’ long advocacy for the nation’s research capacity is strengthening Maine’s biomedical infrastructure,” said Hermann Haller, M.D., President of the MDI Biological Laboratory. “It’s the kind of federal investment that will raise the state’s stature in the life sciences, seed new scientific enterprises, and support high-paying jobs for Mainers.”
$3.5 million will be used by The Jackson Laboratory to modernize infrastructure in two mouse production rooms at its facility in Bar Harbor. This investment will upgrade the production space to support JAX® Mice & Services’ rigorous Animal Health Programs and the stringent genetic quality standards that ensure reproducibility and validity of experimental data.
JAX is the world's premier repository for more than 12,800 strains of genetically-specialized mice, which are distributed to more than 2000 organizations in 64 countries. This project will help JAX meet the increasing demand for pathogen-free, top-quality mice by making structural, mechanical, electrical, HVAC, and racking and caging updates.
$600,000 will be used by the MDI Biological Laboratory to renovate an existing structure on its historic campus, creating a secure, state-of-the-art drug discovery facility that meets rigorous pharmaceutical industry and federal standards. The facility will support MDI Bioscience, a new initiative that leverages the lab’s ground-breaking research with fish and nematodes to evaluate novel drug compounds in early stages of development, helping the best therapies get more quickly to doctors and their patients.
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