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>Bill Elkus raised a fascinating point below about the possibility of creating
>an independent lab.  Might Don Kasarda or Joe Murray have an idea about how
>much $$ it might cost to set up and maintain one at a university?

George Balch asked if I could estimate the cost of a testing lab for products.

It is somewhat difficult because the cost would depend on the situation.
For example, will the site (university?) eat the cost of laboratory space
and equipment, or will that have to be provided.  Will the work be carried
out by addition of one or two people to an existing unit, or will an
independent operation be set up. That sort of thing.  I would guess that a
minimal amount would be around $100,000 per year.  Long term funding would,
of course, be desirable. A Ph.D.-level scientist worth anything will expect
a salary somewhere between $35,000 and $60,000 per year depending on
background and experience (even more for the very best with highly pertinent
experience).  M.S. level people will cost only slightly less. B.S. level
people will be paid in the $20,000 to $40,000 range, but would usually serve
mainly as assistants.  B.S. level people in science are usually not
qualified to operate independently (obviously there are be major exceptions
to this; there is no magic in a degree at any level), because many of the
better graduates at the bachelor's level have tended to go on for advanced
degrees during the past few decades as a consequence of abundant teaching
and research assistantships for science graduate students.  Also, it is
difficult to hire decently-trained scientific people for short terms. Good
people who have sweated through 4-10 years of university education in
scientific fields are seldom willing to work for six months here and six
months there.  Adaptation to new work is often slow for people who have been
working in another area--months, sometimes years, depending on the
techniques to be used, how difficult the problem to be addressed is, and the
background of the person involved.  In my area, which is largely involved
with understanding the fundamental molecular structure of gluten proteins,
their interactions, and the implications of both for wheat quality (and
celiac disease), I have found that even very good new Ph. D.'s take 2-5
years to approach solid understanding of the area, to become at ease with
the many different techniques we use, and to develop a capablity to
contribute independently.  One could argue with almost every point I have
brought up, but my own feeling is that if the effort is too much based on a
shoestring level of funding, you will probably not get the quality of output
that is desired.

Some of the problems with products are difficult to address.  A major one is
that manufacturers often buy ingredients from the cheapest sources, which
often change month by month.  One source may have a gluten-free ingredient,
while the next one may not.  Often the ingredient manufacturers are
protective of their information and will not tell the next-stage
manufacturer how they made the product or what ingredients were involved in
the process (for example, was the source of a particular enzyme a crude,
malted barly extract, or was it bioengineered product from bacteria?).
Consequently, even with good will, a very large manufacturer will often have
difficulty saying if the product is gluten-free or not.  And even though
such large companies could contract for gluten-free ingredients, this would
cost them money and I doubt the celiac market is sufficient to recompense
them for this.

Hope this isn't too far off what George Balch wanted to know.

Don Kasarda