January 13, 2011 Bar Harbor, Maine – The Jackson Laboratory and the University of South Florida have begun preliminary discussions with community and business leaders in Hillsborough County and Sarasota County about alternative locations for the proposed Jackson Laboratory – Florida. Jackson and USF officials indicated that their interest in a Collier County location remains strong.
Last week Jackson withdrew its application to Enterprise Florida for $50 million in state funds to build a facility in eastern Collier County so it could open a fresh round of discussions about the project with newly elected Gov. Rick Scott.
“We remain intensely interested in locating the facility in Collier County, and our partnership with USF Health is stronger than ever.” said Charles E. Hewett, Ph.D., Jackson’s executive vice president and chief operating officer. “However, other Florida communities may offer advantages for our new institute, and we are certainly open to discussions with them.”
“USF and The Jackson Laboratory are committed to building a program that will improve the health of Floridians and the world,” said Stephen Klasko, MD, MBA, dean of the USF College of Medicine and senior vice president of USF Health. “We will consider any location that fulfills the interests of the program and the state.”
Jackson and USF have proposed to build a biomedical research facility that would combine Jackson’s expertise in cutting-edge genomics techniques and USF’s extensive capabilities in clinical medicine to explore new approaches to preventing, diagnosing, and treating the diseases that plague Floridians.
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