BioSpace and BIOCOM Launch Biotech Beach Hotbed Campaign
BioSpace and BIOCOM are pleased to announce the 10th Edition of the Biotech Beach Hotbed Campaign, highlighting the Life Science and Biotech industries in Southern California.
The campaign features industry companies and vendors on a BioSpace Hotbed Map for the region, as well as the Biotech Beach Community Homepage within BioSpace.com, the world's largest life science information portal.
For more information on the Biotech Beach Campaign please see: http://www.biospace.com/content.aspx?ContentEntityID=1029&source=1133
or contact:
Susan Koller
Sr. Sales Director
1- 732-746-2317
Skoller@biospace.com
Union-Tribune’s Web site Hosting Interactive Job Fair
The San Diego Union Tribune website, www.SignOnSanDiego.com, is hosting its first ever interactive Job Fair September 21-30. This is a great opportunity for your company to recruit new talent.
The interactive job fair is unique in that it will feature: interactive chats with job seekers, ‘meet the recruiter' videos, speaker-session podcasts, company profile pages, company locator maps and online resume critiques. View a live demo online at www.utmegajobs.com.
For more information on how your company can participate in this job fair, please contact Myriam Yanagi at 619-293-1438 or Nicole Gilligan at 619.-293-1441.
Life Science Real Estate Study Released
Cushman Wakefield has released a mid-year 2008 look at the real estate market for life science companies. Please click here to download a PDF of the recent findings, excerpted here:
San Diego County is the 3rd largest "Biotech Hub" in the Country, in order behind Boston/Cambridge and the San Francisco Bay Area. The San Diego laboratory market currently consists of 13.8 million square feet of inventory, and evidence is strong that this number will grow over time along with the growing demand of the industry.
The vacancy rate for laboratory space currently stands at 5.97 percent, which is consistent with our prediction outlined in our 1st quarter report. The vacancy rate has followed a slow and gradual decline since the recent high of 11.7 percent in 2004. With a steady flow of new and growing life science companies, we expect the vacancy to hover just below six percent for the balance of the year, and enter 2009 in the low to mid 5% range. Please click here for more information.
University City Science Center Ready for Tenants
Building One of the Nexus University City Science Center, currently under construction at the northwest corner of La Jolla Village Drive and Interstate-805, is ready for tenant improvement work. Nexus University City Science Center is a two-building biotech / R&D development, totaling approximately 161,871 square feet, located in the heart of the UTC Life Science cluster. Building One totals 58,924 square feet.
Visible from I-805 as well as La Jolla Village Drive, the new project is within walking distance of the Westfield regional shopping mall, recently designated for a $900 million redevelopment, over 10,000 high-end apartment homes, recreational amenities, community services and public transportation.
San Diego-based Nexus Properties, Inc. is the project developer. Leasing the project on behalf of Nexus are Tom Mercer, Chad Urie and Michael O. Reidy of Colliers International. The UTC life science real estate market consists of approximately 1,550,000 square feet of existing laboratory space.
Law Firm Associates Rate Fish & Richardson Number One
Associates Rank Fish & Richardson Highly
A recent survey by American Lawyer rated Fish & Richardson P.C. the number one law firm in San Diego in terms of job satisfaction by mid-level associates. Fish also was rated number one in Atlanta and Wilmington and number two in New York and Austin, the firm says.
The survey consisted of questions on varying topics designed to give the editors of American Lawyer a ‘glimpse into the working lives' of law firm associates. The survey included questions about training, communications, pro bono opportunities, benefits, quality of work assignments, fairness, diversity and family-friendly environment.
American Lawyer received 7,259 responses from third-, fourth- and fifth-year associates from law firm offices around the globe. Any law firm was eligible to participate.
The other San Diego law firms surveyed were DLA Piper; Cooley Godward; Morrison & Foerster; Paul, Hastings; Sheppard, Mullin; Wilson Sonsini; Latham & Watkins; and Luce Forward. More information about the survey can be found at www.americanlawyer.com.
Fish & Richardson is one of the largest law firms in the U.S. practicing exclusively in the areas of intellectual property, litigation and corporate law. The firm has nearly 500 attorneys in ten offices in the United States and one office in Germany.
Zhu Shen Joins Editorial Advisory Board of PharmAsia News
Zhu Shen, Ph.D., MBA, chief executive officer of BioForesight, a leading global life science consulting firm focusing on cross-Pacific partnering, financing advisory, and public relations and media strategy, has joined the editorial advisory board of PharmAsiaNews.com.
Dr. Shen's first guest column on Chinese CRO trends is entitled "The Art of Selecting Outsourcing Partners in China: Navigating the Life Sciences Silk Road Frontier." Subscribers to PharmAsiaNews.com may access the column at: www.pharmasianews.com. To download a complimentary copy of the column and receive a 30-day free trial to PharmAsiaNews.com, please visit: http://tinyurl.com/5qqjfj.
BioForesight, located in San Diego, California, is a global life science consulting firm, providing services in licensing, partnering, fund-raising, financing/venture capital advisory, outsourcing strategy, public relations and media strategy, commercialization and product launch strategy with a focus on cross-Pacific businesses. PharmAsiaNews.com provides news and analysis on regulatory, legal and financial developments affecting pharmaceutical, biologics and medical device manufacturers doing business in China, India, Japan and the Pacific Rim. PharmAsiaNews.com leverages the editorial excellence of "The Pink Sheet" - the leading information source for the U.S. pharmaceutical industry since 1939. For a 30-day free trial, visit www.pharmasianews.com.
NIH Awards $180m To Burnham and Scripps Institutes
The National Institutes of Health has funded two San Diego research institutions with almost $180 million in grants aimed at using high tech screening methods to identify small molecules for use as probes to investigate the diverse functions of cells.
Please click here to read an article in the San Diego Union-Tribune about the NIH Grants.
The Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham) said it was awarded a six-year, $97.9 million Molecular Libraries Probe Production Centers Network (MLPCN) grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Burnham will equip and manage one of four comprehensive small-molecule screening and discovery centers in the nation.
The Scripps Research Institute was awarded more than $80 million to greatly expand the work of The Scripps Research Molecular Screening Center, further strengthening the collaborative efforts of teams of scientists at the La Jolla, California and Jupiter, Florida campuses. The six-year grant is the largest ever awarded to Scripps Research.
As genomics research reveals more about the enormous complexity of cell function, new approaches are needed to understand the details. Small molecule probes can be minutely targeted to interact with one site of a cell's chemical machinery, thus providing information on a specific step in a cascade of cell functions. In some cases, small molecules may have activity that gives them potential for eventual therapeutic as well as research use; or, they may identify targets in the cell for the design of future therapies.
The Molecular Libraries Probe Production Centers Network is the second phase of a program begun in 2004 as part of the Molecular Libraries and Imaging Initiative (http://nihroadmap.nih.gov/molecularlibraries/) under NIH's Roadmap for Medical Research. Using assays - laboratory tests used to screen for specific types of probes - solicited by NIH from the research community, the network will screen a library of more than 300,000 small molecules maintained in the program's Molecular Libraries Small Molecule Repository (http://mlsmr.glpg.com/MLSMR_HomePage/). The repository is located in San Francisco at Biofocus DPI, a drug discovery research company. Data generated by the screening is available to the public through PubChem (http://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/), a database created and managed by NIH's National Library of Medicine.
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) will co-administer the network on behalf of NIH. Program funding will transition out of the Roadmap in years five and six.
The NIH Roadmap for Medical Research, launched in 2004, is a series of initiatives designed to address fundamental knowledge gaps, develop transformative tools and technologies, and/or foster innovative approaches to complex problems. Funded through the NIH Common Fund, these programs cut across the missions of individual NIH Institutes and Centers (ICs) and are intended to accelerate the translation of research to improvements in public health. The Office of Portfolio Analysis and Strategic Initiatives, in collaboration with all NIH ICs, oversees programs funded by the Common Fund. Additional information about the NIH Roadmap and Common Fund can be found at www.nihroadmap.nih.gov.
UCSD's Rady School MBA Applications for 2009 Available
The Rady School of Management at UC San Diego's application for 2009 admission is now available online. The Rady School offers an MBA program in two formats, the FlexMBA and the Full-Time MBA. The FlexMBA program is designed for working professionals and meets on evenings or weekends, while Full-Time MBA courses are held on weekdays. The Rady MBA places a special emphasis on issues faced by companies in the life sciences and technology sectors, where constant innovation is needed for business success. Visit www.rady.ucsd.edu for more information.
Golfers Wanted for Biotech Tournament
The BGN Annual Corporate Challenge Golf Tournament
The Corporate Challenge is the Biotech Golf Network's annual one-day, team tournament. Teams of four compete for either the BGN Biotech Cup or BGN Vendor Cup using 'best-ball' team scoring. Trophies are awarded to the biotech company and vendor company with the lowest score. Additionally, prizes are awarded for specific hole contests, such as 'closest to the pin' and 'longest drive.' The tournament includes lunch, dinner, and the 19th Hole awards banquet and prize give away.
The 2008 tournament will be held once again at Maderas Golf Club, on October 3, 2008.
Fees - Registration - Sponsorship Opportunities
2007 Champions - 2007 Contest Hole Winners - Rules
First Gene Associated with Dry Macular Degeneration Found Findings indicate possible adverse consequences to new RNA therapies
UCSD Study Shows Potential Problems with RNA Therapies
In a study that underscores the important role that individual genetic profiles will play in the development of new therapies for disease, a multi-institutional research team - led by Kang Zhang, MD, PhD professor of ophthalmology and human genetics at Shiley Eye Center at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine - has made two important discoveries related to age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of blindness in adults over the age of 60.
In a paper published in the August 28, 2008 online issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, the researchers describe the discovery of the first gene associated with severe, "dry" macular degeneration, also known as geographic atrophy. Secondly, they show that there could be adverse consequences, including blindness, if individuals who possess a particular variation of this gene are treated with an experimental therapy currently being tested for another form of AMD.
Zhang and the research team have discovered the link between dry AMD and a key molecule that alerts the immune system to the presence of viral infections, a molecular protein called toll-like receptor (TLR)3.
Dry AMD occurs when light-sensitive cells in the center of the retina, or macula - called retinal pigment epithelial cells - slowly break down, gradually blurring central vision. Over time, as less of the macula functions, central vision is irreversibly lost in the affected eye. Dry AMD affects eight to nine million people in the United States, leading to loss of vision in about one in nine patients, and is responsible for 10 percent of the cases of legal blindness in the United States.
Importantly, this research indicates that individuals with a genetic variant of TLR3 who undergo a new treatment called RNA interference (RNAi) could be at risk. A class of double-stranded RNA (like the genetic information carried by viruses), RNAi is used to turn off or silence other genes related to various diseases. Several human clinical trials are currently using RNAi, including therapies to treat the "wet" form of AMD that occurs when abnormal blood vessels behind the retina start to grow under the macula, which can lead to very rapid vision loss. Zhang warns that those testing RNAi therapies for wet AMD need to be cautious and aware of a possible unintended side effect.
Studies were conducted at University of Utah School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Sichuan Academy of Medical Sciences and Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital in Chengdu, China, Oregon Health & Science University, University of Kentucky, University of California, San Diego, Greater Baltimore Medical Center, Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, and Rockefeller University.
Support for this study was provided by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Foundation Fighting Blindness, the Macula Vision Research Foundation, and Veterans Affairs Administration; the Ruth and Milton Steinbach Fund, Research to Prevent Blindness; Burroughs Welcome Fund, and American Health Assistance Foundation.
Scripps Translational Science Institute Contributes to Childhood Cancer Gene Discovery
Researchers at Scripps Translational Science Institute (STSI) have contributed to a major genetic breakthrough - the discovery of a gene responsible for the majority of inherited cases of a common childhood cancer. The finding was reported online Aug. 24 in Nature. The finding promises to provide a springboard for developing new therapeutic strategies.
Neuroblastoma - a cancer of the nervous system - accounts for 15 percent of childhood cancer deaths and has bleak survival probabilities of less than 40 percent. There is a strong familial association and it was predicted more than 30 years ago that there is a genetic element to the disease.
The genetic discovery stems from a global research collaboration headed by Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. The study involved screening the genomes of 20 affected families (a total of 176 people), looking for single letter changes in the DNA code, which are mutations known as single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs.
STSI was sought to participate in the study based on its expertise in conducting structural studies of SNPs identified in genes and proteins. Researchers at STSI looked at the mutations identified through the genetic screening and determined precisely where on the protein structure those mutations resided, enabling them to predict whether the mutations are likely to have meaningful biological effects.
Researchers identified inherited mutations in the gene encoding ALK, a tyrosine kinase receptor, as being responsible for causing the disease known as neuroblastoma in the majority of families. SNP mutations in this gene were also found in sporadic cases of neuroblastoma. The mutations mapped to a part of the ALK gene that cause it to be constantly active in promoting cell proliferation, explaining its ability to contribute to the cancer.
Founded in 2006, Scripps Translational Science Institute (STSI) is an initiative of Scripps Health, in collaboration with The Scripps Research Institute. STSI initiates research designed to help move basic research from the lab to the patient bedside, bridging the gap between basic science and clinical trials
Founded in 1924 by philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps, Scripps Health is a $2 billion nonprofit community health system based in San Diego, Calif. Scripps treats a half-million patients annually through the dedication of 2,600 affiliated physicians and 12,200 employees among its five acute-care hospital campuses, home health care services, and an ambulatory care network of clinics, physician offices and outpatient centers.
Pfizer Partners with UC Santa Barbara on Diabetes Research
UC Santa Barbara's Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies has joined into a research consortium with Pfizer, three other major research universities-Caltech, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Massachusetts-and Entelos, a physiological modeling company, to seek out new targets for drugs to treat diabetes.
Pfizer is funding the three-year, $14 million Insulin Resistance Pathway (IRP) Project to look at insulin signaling in adipose (fat) cells to increase understanding of diabetes and obesity, inextricably linked conditions which affect 7 percent of the US population.
Diabetes has been the subject of intense study in the academic community and pharmaceutical industry for nearly 50 years. The diabetes and obesity medicines that have reached the market, however, do not meet the needs of many patients-nearly 60 percent of patients do not adequately respond to currently available drug therapies.
The first phase of the project will examine insulin signaling in adipose, or fat, cells. Researchers at Pfizer, MIT and the University of Massachusetts will perform data collection and analyses, which will then be fed to the computational groups at MIT, Caltech and the University of California at Santa Barbara, whose team at UCSB will first be responsible for analyzing the data supplied by the other computational groups and then developing mathematical models of the insulin signaling pathways.
The collaboration agreement, in a major departure from traditional industry-academia practice, allows the academic partners to publish and/or patent any discoveries made in the course of their research. If the first phase of the project proves successful, a second, two-year phase will extend these studies to other insulinsensitive tissues - liver, muscle and possibly hypothalamic or beta cells.
Please click here for more information (PDF).
Save Yogurt Lids To Contribute to Susan Komen Foundation
Rancho Bernardo resident, 39-year-old breast cancer survivor and Susan G. Komen for the Cure volunteer, Sharon Stephens, is trying to do all she can to find a cure so that her 4 year old daughter will never have to know this disease as she, her sister (diagnosed at age 33) and mother (diagnosed last year) have known it. One way she is trying to make a difference is spearheading the Yoplait campaign "Save Lids to Save Lives" in San Diego County.
Now in its tenth year, the Save Lids to Save Lives program calls for ordinary men and women to take action in their communities to raise awareness and funds for breast cancer. In September and October, special pink lids will top Yoplait yogurt cups, and for every lid saved and mailed in through December 31, 2008, Yoplait will donate 10 cents to Susan G. Komen for the Cure, up to $1.5 million with a guaranteed minimum donation of $500,000. Further, the money raised by lids redeemed in individual communities will be donated to the local affiliates of Susan G. Komen for the Cure in those communities. Every lid and every individual matters in the fight against breast cancer.
Susan G. Komen for the Cure San Diego affiliate has put forth a major effort this year with the Save Lids to Save Lives campaign. Working with local schools, businesses and community organizations we hope to help raise awareness while bringing some of the Yoplait, General Mills support to our local community. We are also asking for the community to get involved in this grassroots effort. Go to www.yoplait.com for ideas and tips on how you can spearhead your own pink lid collection drive. There will be collection bins at the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Race on Sunday, November 2nd, 2008 at Balboa Park or call the local Susan G. Komen for the Cure affiliate for collection locations. We can all do our part one lid at a time.
For more information on the Save Lids to Save Lives campaign, please visit www.yoplait.com