The largest health study of children in U.S. history began this month, and Battelle is right in the middle of it.


The $3 billion National Children's Study is to monitor 100,000 children from birth to age 21 to see how things such as environment, infections and genes contribute to premature birth, childhood asthma, autism and other problems.

Battelle has contracts that total more than $340 million during the first decade.

It's no fluke that Battelle is involved. Health science is a big business, and Battelle is a big player.

Battelle currently has more than $1 billion in contracts to research and develop health and medical technology and devices.

The research giant announced this month that it will invest more than $200 million, primarily to update and expand biotechnology laboratories at its King Avenue campus in Columbus and to build a new health and life sciences research lab at its West Jefferson campus. The expansion will add about 200 jobs.

Executives think the biotechnology business will grow rapidly in the next five years, and they see the slow economy as a strategic time to invest.

"There are no more wonder drugs," said Barbara Kunz, president of Battelle's health and life sciences section. With the industry's move toward custom-designed drugs that work with a patient's genes or other characteristics, "There will be many more drugs that need development and testing."

She said Battelle will have capacity and cutting-edge equipment to pull in more business.

Much of the current business is in mainstream products such as pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. For example, Battelle is identifying biomarkers of chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder and devising tools to test for specific genes linked to other diseases.

Government agencies hire Battelle to research infectious diseases, assess the effectiveness of drugs and vaccines and prepare for disease outbreaks.

Battelle's defense contracts helped in that area.

"The knowledge gained in creating defenses to bioterror attacks is applicable to infectious-disease transmission and preparedness, particularly for avian flu or other potential pandemics," Kunz said.

The children's study is the largest single program in the health and life sciences section.

Battelle got involved early, which helped it win multiple contracts, said Peter Scheidt, medical officer of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, who is overseeing the study.

John Menkedick, a senior marketing manager at Battelle, is familiar with the 2000 legislation that authorized the National Children's Study.

"When you see something like this coming up, you have to position yourself," Menkedick said.

Battelle volunteered for work groups that created the groundwork for the study. It also did some pilot work on environmental exposure.

That led to Battelle being invited to bid on a $2 million contract to help design the study. Battelle won the contract and, in turn, won more contracts to assist with data collection at sites across the country, Scheidt said.

Battelle will go door to door recruiting participants and gathering data at 40 of the 105 study locations.

Case Western Reserve University is one of dozens of universities that will pass the government money through to Battelle.

"Battelle will do most of the hands-on work," said Dorr Dearborn, chairman of the Department of Environmental Health Screening at Case and the principal investigator of the National Children's Study in Ohio.

The study began in New York and North Carolina two weeks ago. The rest of the study locations will join in during the next three years. Battelle will begin recruiting participants from Cuyahoga and Lorain counties in 2011.

About half of Battelle's health-related business is with government, particularly the National Institutes of Health and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Kunz said.

Its work includes tests to determine whether chemicals used to make Teflon are harmful and whether a form of tungsten used in armor-piercing bullets is linked to high rates of leukemia at two military bases.

The other half of the business is with companies or individual scientists who don't have the means to research an idea.

One of the most striking projects Battelle has been involved with is BrainGate, which allows people who are paralyzed to move a computer cursor or a wheelchair by simply thinking about it.

Brown University neuroscientist John Donoghue figured out how to implant an electrode array less than 1/16th-of-an-inch across just under the surface of the brain and pick up the electrical activity of neurons firing.

The electrode, which is linked to a computer, is implanted in four patients now. It is placed in a part of the brain called the motor cortex, which controls movement.

At any given time, a lot of neurons are firing in the brain -- what Chad Bouton, a senior research engineer at Battelle, calls "a lot of noise."

Bouton and a team of researchers created software that uses algorithms to sort out thoughts of movement from other electrical activity.

When a medical client seeks help with an idea for a device, Battelle puts together a team of scientists who understand health, materials and product design, Kunz said. Then they produce a working model.

For example, Battelle created a pen-shape insulin injector for Eli Lilly and Co. that tracks when patients use it and how much insulin has been delivered.

"The challenge was to design a circuit board in a pen shape," said Doug Boyd, who managed the project. "Instead of a hard square, we made it flexible. It's wrapped around the inside of the pen."

Battelle also helped design parts for a machine that uses magnets to guide a metal-tipped catheter into the heart . That work was done for a St. Louis company called Stereotaxis.

Closer to home, Battelle helped the Dublin-based Neoprobe Corp. make a probe that can show doctors if even a few cancer cells have spread into the lymphatic system.

Battelle's clients also include cigarette-makers, Kunz said. "The tobacco industry has invested heavily in less-harmful products. They come to us to verify the products are less harmful.

"The decision was made that, if people smoke, we would try to provide them with products that won't hurt them as much."

Battelle's work with the tobacco industry dates to the early 1960s.

When states and the federal government sued cigarette-makers in the 1990s, a 1963 report from Battelle's lab in Geneva, Switzerland, surfaced. The report said nicotine in cigarettes was addictive.

The tobacco industry kept the report secret and denied any negative effects of its products for decades.

Many clients require that Battelle keep their relationships and research confidential.

That kind of confidentiality brings companies back, Kunz said.

"They pay for it, and it's theirs."