[OurTrent Editor's note: Big on promises - short on details.]

Prof. Brad White should be forgiven if he sometimes views people as fascinating, interactive lumps of DNA.

"But that's what we are, all of us," said a grinning White, who heads the Natural Resources DNA Profiling and Forensic Centre at Trent University. "And that's the future of human kind. If we can peer into the murky future, I think it's safe to say DNA (research) is going to dominate everything we do."

Thanks in part to the centre, which includes the Wildlife Forensic DNA laboratory founded by White, Peterborough is already known worldwide for its research in DNA profiling and control of diseases such as rabies.

But White has a bigger vision for DNA research in Peterborough — he's part of an ambitious partnership of academics and business people who plan to turn local genetic expertise into thousands of jobs for the region.

The Greater Peterborough Region DNA Cluster formed in 2002 on the strength of several years of studies geared towards finding an economic focus for the region.

Partners include Sir Sandford Fleming College, the Ministry of Natural Resources and the regional economic development agency.

Several levels of government are also interested — federal and provincial science agencies are expected to provide $8 million toward two research buildings for the cluster on university property by December 2005.

The city has also promised $2 million toward road and sewer building at the site and longtime councillor Jack Doris has equated the project with the arrival of the Edison Electric Co. in the 1880s.

Business advocates are salivating over the long-term projections for the cluster — 6,000 spinoff jobs and a 70-acre research park.

Details about where the jobs will come from are still sketchy, in part because for practical purposes, the cluster is still more dream than reality.

Although money is pouring in for two new buildings, cluster officials haven't signed partnership agreements with any private companies yet.

Officials are in early-stage talks with several private sector agencies and companies, however, said cluster president Dennis Ferkany, including the Ontario Provincial Police and Maxxam Analytics.

"We're getting closer," Ferkany said. "People have to understand, we're developing partnerships to commercialize research. The cluster is about more than buildings."

It's also about more than DNA.

Ferkany said many people don't know it yet, but genetics is one of several research areas cluster officials are using to lure private investors.

"DNA research is the cornerstone that we're building around," he said. "We're definitely incorporating life-science related research."

Local expertise in mapping, wastewater-treating wetlands and disease control are also prime candidates for commercialization — and many have DNA links, added Ferkany.

For example, "landscape genetics" involves mapping the locations where wildlife DNA samples were taken.

Genetic research is also used to determine the best variety of bacteria and plants to use in cold-water wetland growth.

Ultimately, Ferkany said all new jobs would stem from commercialization — in simple terms, allowing the private sector to turn local research into profit-making businesses and products.

Although no "memorandums of understanding" with private companies have been signed, Ferkany said Trent's research into rabies vaccines is already poised to become a moneymaker.

Ferkany said unnamed entrepreneurs have approached the Ministry of Natural Resources with a plan to export locally developed technology used to distribute rabies vaccines.

If successful, Ferkany said the company could conceivably offer the region new manufacturing jobs.

"And if someone gets into vaccine production, that could add jobs on a larger scale," he said.

In the long term, a thriving DNA cluster could attract large-scale businesses to Peterborough such as pharmaceutical companies looking to benefit from a well-educated workforce and top-quality research facilities, White said.

But incoming companies don't have to be big to be successful, he added.

White said the first wave of partner companies could include software companies specializing in collecting and storing genetic information, or robotics companies capable of producing the machinery needed for rapid DNA sampling.

And the businesses don't need to come from out of town, either.

White said new research and new products will require suppliers and service providers — and there's no reason existing businesses couldn't fit the bill.

As an example, White said a plastics company could adapt its production methods to make DNA kits for MNR officers in the field.

White said his lab produces a small number of kits itself, which hold components such as DNA swabs, miniature scalpels and cell brushes.

But White said the need for the kits is growing.

"We were approached by a company in Japan, asking us for a million of these things," he said. "We're not a business, to do something on that scale. But we could potentially see business people participating who never would have thought to be part of a DNA cluster."

Ferkany said he's had local companies approach him to ask about how they could adapt their businesses to fit the DNA cluster's mandate.

"It's a lot easier to adapt an existing business than it is to create an entirely new one," he said. "That's an important message we want to get across."

Not everyone welcomes the idea of joining private-sector ambitions with academic research.

Some members of the Trent community are worried about how much control private companies will gain over university research and property.

At a recent public meeting, several students and faculty argued the university is deliberately withholding information about the project.

Retired professor Don Mackay, who heads the Canadian Environmental Modeling Centre at Trent, said he's worried about the drive to bring private companies onto campus.

Mackay said he knows academics and industry can co-exist — much of his research in the field of chemical sciences came with funding help from chemical companies such as Dupont.

"When research is supported by industry, it can work well," he said. "But it has to be conducted openly, and measures must be taken to protect academic integrity."

Mackay said he's rooting for a successful partnership of DNA researchers and industry, but added deliberately bringing private companies onto campus "is a major shift in emphasis for the university."

"That sort of commercialization ... is something that needs to be thoroughly debated by the university community," he said yesterday.

"Personally, I think it's terribly important to preserve the atmosphere of the academic community. To have something like an industrial area associated with a campus is fine, but it should be located down on the Parkway, or Pioneer Road."

Mackay said in his opinion, it's not appropriate for "commercially confidential research" to take place in a public university setting.

But he added the university should be more concerned about gauging the opinion of the university community as a whole, perhaps through a series of public information meetings and debates.

"With a lack of information, people tend to assume the worst," Mackay said.

Although the cluster is defined as a private-public partnership — and depends on turning academic research into profit-driven enterprise — Ferkany said there will be no issues of "private control" of the cluster.

"These are partners in a participatory sense, not in an ownership sense," Ferkany said.

Trent president Bonnie Patterson said the university's board of governors is the ultimate authority over the institution's property.

At last week's meeting, many students had questions about the effect of a 70-acre research park on Trent property — in particular, on environmentally sensitive natural areas.

White told the group any large-scale addition of buildings on campus is decades away.

Ferkany said the site needs to be planned for now, in case a medical forensics DNA cluster in Toronto outgrows its cramped working space.

"We want to be able to make a case for locating here, if the opportunity arises," he said.

But Patterson added the board would adhere to university policies when deciding how land is used.

"We're not talking taking up space on the core campus grounds," she said. "The area they're looking at is endowment lands, which are meant to generate revenue for the university. That money then goes back into academic programs."

The project has the potential to be as valuable to students and staff as it is to Peterborough's economy, she added.

Partner companies in the cluster may give donations of money and equipment to the university, as well as provide co-op placements to life-sciences students.

She cited as an example Maxxam Analytics, whose chairman is a director on the cluster board.

Maxxam recently donated a $300,000 electron microscope to Trent's biology department.

A strong research partnership would also attract talented faculty, predicted White.

White himself moved to Peterborough from a research-intensive university in Hamilton to follow the offices of the Ministry of Natural Resources, as did assistant biology professor Paul Wilson.

Wilson, who specializes in studying the genetics of wildlife populations and species at risk, said the DNA cluster has the potential to revolutionize research at the university.

One big change Wilson is already involved in is the automation of DNA analysis.

The use of robots to manipulate "hundreds of samples at a time" makes it possible for scientists to learn in weeks what would have once taken years, he said.

"When I was in Hamilton, you'd handle things in a tube, with your hands. With robots, you're increasing capacity in a phenomenal way. A new research centre and the potential for donations from private investors can only add to local researchers capabilities," he said.

Wilson added he felt private-sector support for scientific research can be done ethically, without confidential strings attached.

"I see that sort of support as making it easier for me to do the kind of research I like doing," he said.

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