Development Of New Cranberry Helps Growers Increase Production

Working at the university’s Marucci Blueberry-Cranberry Research Center in Chatsworth, Nick Vorsa led an effort to develop a cranberry plant that delivered higher yields, ripened earlier in the season, and had vines that grew faster and resisted weeds and disease better than previous varieties. Until now, growers cultivated selections from wild bogs or relied on first-generation hybrids from the 1940s and 1950s that provided little genetic improvement.

The higher yields from Vorsa’s new hybrid, named Crimson Queen, mean that fewer new acres of environmentally sensitive wetlands have to be developed to meet increased demand. The earlier ripening helps growers get their product to market in time for the annual Thanksgiving feast.

The faster growing plants help growers by producing fruit in newly planted or renovated fields a full year earlier. Cranberry beds planted with Crimson Queen hybrids come into full production in three to four years, versus the four to five years of traditional varietals. The hybrid’s hardiness reduces the need for herbicides and pesticides, cutting costs and reducing environmental harm.

Vorsa received a patent for the Crimson Queen hybrid in 2007. Rutgers licensed the hybrid and two companion varieties to more than 40 grower-members of the Ocean Spray cooperative. Rutgers began receiving royalties on its patent this year.

Earlier this month, the Research and Development Council of New Jersey awarded Vorsa a 2008 Thomas Alva Edison patent award. The Council issues these awards annually to recognize New Jersey inventions in business categories that benefit the state’s economy, including agriculture.

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Joachim Kohn Testifies at Congressional Hearing on Impact of NIH Funding

Joachim Kohn, Board of Governors Professor of Chemistry at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey and Director of the New Jersey Center for Biomaterials, describes the economic value to the nation of investment in the National Institutes of Health via four mechanisms:

1. The immediate (direct) stimulatory effect of a cash infusion into the research community and its local economy;
2. the (indirect) ripple effect of growth opportunities for universities, medical centers, and local companies;
3. the long term economic benefits relating to the leverage of the original NIH investment by private sector funds aimed at the translation of NIH inventions into medically useful products, services and new therapies; and
4. the health dividend derived from the clinical use of the new products and services.

NIH investment of $4.5 MM in the Kohn laboratory has so far generated $132 MM of private venture investment in four companies that are developing implantable medical products using innovative biomaterials invented under NIH support at Rutgers. Two products developed by TyRx Pharma, Inc. are in clinical use to reduce infection following hernia repair operations and implantation of cardiac rhythm medical devices. A revolutionary coronary stent developed by REVA Medical Inc is in clinical trials in Germany and Brazil with the expectation to start clinical trials in the US sometime in 2009. Clinical trials by Lux Biosciences are also underway for ophthalmic drug therapies targeting major diseases of the eye, such as "dry eye syndrome", uveitis, and (age related) macular degeneration.

In summary, these economic activities created high paying jobs, provided a 29-fold leverage of government funding by private funding, and promise to yield significant reductions in our national health care costs.

Professor Kohn stated his firm conviction that increasing the NIH budget, whether in a near-term stimulus package or in future funding bills will pay off both now and in the long run.


Full Testimony (PDF)