BIOCOM Members Honored By Combined Health Agencies
BIOCOM members Amylin Pharmaceuticals, MediciNova and the Salk Institute were honored as 2009 Health Heroes by Combined Health Agencies for outstanding contributions to its member agencies. The honorees were recognized at the Health Hero Awards at the Prado in Balboa Park. Bill Menish was the emcee of the event presented by PhRMA and sponsored by Aflac, Sanofi-Aventis, BIOCOM, Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center and Palomar Pomerado Health.
The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation honored Amylin Pharmaceuticals. Amylin is a champion in the fight against type 1 diabetes by its support of JDRF’s Annual Research Symposia, Family Fun Day, the Walk to Cure Diabetes, the Promise Ball and many other activities. CEO Dan Bradbury enthusiastically speaks to gain further support of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation mission to cure type 1 diabetes.
MediciNova’s Mark Johnson was honored by the American Lung Association of California. As a person with asthma, Johnson has been an effective advocate for clean air initiatives in state and regional policy making, as well as an outstanding participant in American Lung Association’s activities and governance. Professionally, Johnson is helping MediciNova accomplish its goal of developing new drugs to treat diseases.
The Lupus Foundation of Southern California honored the Salk Institute’s Dr. Carla Rothlin. Dr. Rothlin has worked tirelessly in her research to find a cure for lupus and is a strong advocate of lupus awareness. She regularly refers people to the Foundation for assistance and actively participates in lectures and meetings where she provides updates on new developments in the area of lupus research.
For more information about the 2009 Health Hero Award recipients, please visit www.combinedhealth.org.
Gary and Mary West Foundation Commits $45 Million to Create Wireless Health Institute
Gary and Mary West Foundation today committed $45 million to create the West Wireless Health Institute, one of world’s first medical research organizations dedicated to advancing health and well-being through the use of wireless technologies. Scripps Health has signed on as the founding health care affiliate, with Qualcomm as a founding sponsor.
Gary West is Founder and Chair of the Institute’s board of directors. He will be joined on the board by Dr. Eric J. Topol, Chief Academic Officer at Scripps Health and holder of the Gary and Mary West Chair of Innovative Medicine, and Donald Jones, vice president of Health and Life Sciences at Qualcomm. The Institute is headquartered in San Diego, California, the global hub for wireless life science research and development.
Under the leadership of Dr. Topol, the Institute and its research team will conduct clinical research on solutions to better prevent, diagnose, manage and treat major health conditions, ranging from Alzheimer’s to heart disease to obesity. The Institute will build a base of biomedical and bioengineering expertise to ensure that devices in development improve the existing level of care, and are safe, reliable, and cost effective.
Jones and the Institute’s engineering team will lead the integration of wireless technology with the clinical research activity. For more information on the West Wireless Health Institute, please visit www.westwirelesshealth.com.
Scripps Sees Stem Cell Breakthrough
A group of researchers at The Scripps Research Institute and other institutions have achieved a breakthrough in converting adult cells all the way back to the most primitive embryonic-like cells without using the dangerous genetic manipulations associated with previous methods. The new technique solves one of the most challenging safety hurdles associated with personalized stem cell-based medicine because for the first time it enables scientists to make stem cells in the laboratory from adult cells without genetically altering them. This discovery has the potential to spark the development of many new types of therapies for humans, for diseases that range from Type 1 diabetes to Parkinson’s disease.
The study was published in an advance, online issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell on April 23, 2009. This work was supported by Fate Therapeutics.
Scripps Taps Sea Sponge for Anti-Leukemia
Kapakahines, marine-derived natural products isolated from a South Pacific sponge in trace quantities, have shown anti-leukemia potential, but studies have been all but stalled by kapakahines’ lack of availability. But using only acetylene gas, a handful of amino acids, and a dozen inventive steps, a team from The Scripps Research Institute has finally established the first technique to synthesize kapakahinesin the laboratory in large quantities, more than a decade after their discovery. With supplies now in hand, and unlimited production potential established, research on the compound can proceed and may eventually lead to new drug treatments, the institute says.
Cripbrochalina olemda appears to the uninitiated as a common tube-type sponge similar to countless others you might find on reefs throughout the tropics. But this species, discovered in 1995, is one of a growing number of marine organisms researchers have found that naturally produce chemicals with great potential for fighting diseases such as cancer.
The research is described in a paper published online by the Journal of the American Chemical Society on April 17, 2009. This research was supported by an unrestricted grant and graduate fellowship from Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Salk scientist selected as HHMI Early Career Scientist
Salk Institute scientist Reuben J. Shaw, Ph.D., has been selected a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Early Career Scientist. Shaw, a Hearst Endowment assistant professor in the Molecular and Cell Biology Laboratory, is one of 50 researchers chosen out of more than 2,000 applicants and will receive a six-year appointment to HHMI.
Shaw is particularly interested in understanding the molecular link between cancer and metabolism. While studying one of the most commonly mutated genes in lung cancer, he discovered an ancient energy-sensing pathway that shuts down cell growth and reprograms metabolism when nutrients are scarce. Shaw's lab is also searching for additional components of the pathway to fill in the molecular understanding of how the molecular intersection between nutrition, diabetes and cancer truly functions. He plans to use mouse studies to further explore this critical connection and tease out the precise role of each component of the signaling pathway. These studies will lead to future therapeutic targets and new intervention points in both cancer and type 2 diabetes. Shaw's appointment brings the total number of HHMI investigators at the Salk Institute to eight.
The Salk Institute for Biological Studies is one of the world's preeminent basic research institutions where internationally renowned faculty probe fundamental life science questions in a unique, collaborative and creative environment. Focused on both discovery and mentoring future generations of researchers, Salk scientists make groundbreaking contributions to our understanding of cancer, aging, Alzheimer's, diabetes and cardiovascular disorders by studying neuroscience, genetics, cell and plant biology and related disciplines.
Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center Files for Chapter 11 Reorganization
The Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center (SKCC), a non-profit research institute headquartered in San Diego’s biotechnology hub on Torrey Pines Mesa, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection today in the U.S Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of California. The filing will provide a legal framework and opportunity for the independent cancer research center to be purchased by another entity; ideally another non-profit research institute with a compatible mission.
Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham), a nearby non-profit medical research institute, is exploring acquiring certain SKCC assets to sustain and expand their on-going cancer research mission. Burnham is also exploring the possibility of temporarily hosting many of SKCC’s researchers and staff, thereby enabling their research to continue uninterrupted. SKCC expects that an asset sale would be embodied within the Chapter 11 proceedings. The Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings will provide potential buyers with the opportunity to bid for the purchase of SKCC’s assets through a court approved process, the institute says.
Moores Center: Reversing Effects of Altered Enzyme May Fight Brain Tumor Growth
An international team of scientists from the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego, the University of North Carolina and several institutions in China have explained how a gene alteration can lead to the development of a type of brain cancer, and they have identified a compound that could staunch the cancer’s growth.
The researchers, led by Kun-Liang Guan, PhD, professor of pharmacology at the UC San Diego School of Medicine, have shown that when a mutated enzyme fails to do its job, the development of tumor-feeding blood vessels increases, allowing more nutrients and oxygen to fuel cancer growth. They have also shown in the laboratory that they could reverse the mutant enzyme’s effects, effectively blocking this process, called angiogenesis, and provide a potential future treatment strategy against some types of brain tumors. They reported their findings in the current issue of the journal Science.
The Moores UCSD Cancer Center is one of the nation’s 41 National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers, combining research, clinical care and community outreach to advance the prevention, treatment and cure of cancer. For more information, visit www.cancer.ucsd.edu.
Media Contact: Steve Benowitz, 619-543-6163, sbenowitz@ucsd.edu
Scripps Scientists Cite Molecular Mimicry
Mimicry is common in nature, where it is used as a key survival mechanism. Now scientists from The Scripps Research Institute have discovered molecular mimicry in a genetic integrity pathway, which is implicated in many human diseases, from cancer to neuro degenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s diseases.
The new study, which was published on April 12, 2009, in an advanced online edition of the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, draws new parallels between the Rad60 DNA repair factor and SUMO, a small ubiquitin-like modifier, which are both essential for maintaining genome stability during replication. For more information, see http://www.nature.com/nsmb/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nsmb.1582.html.
The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Asterand Compound Licensed to BTG Moves Forward
Asterand plc reports that that BGC20-1531, a novel EP4 receptor antagonist for the treatment of migraine headaches, is planned to enter Phase IIa studies in H2 2009 with data anticipated in H2 2010. If clinical proof of principle is demonstrated in these studies, BTG will seek development partners to conduct Phase IIb and subsequent studies. In a clinical study recently presented by BTG at the 18th International Headache Research Symposium in Copenhagen (6-8 March 2009), BGC20-1531 was shown to be an effective analgesic in both inflammatory and neurogenic pain induced in healthy volunteers. The data from this study provides confidence for the further development of BGC20-1531 for the effective treatment of migraine. BTG licensed BGC20-1531 from Asterand in January 2006, completed preclinical development and entered the first Phase I trial in January 2008.
RESolutions Expands Call Center
RESolutions Rapid Enrollment Solutions, LLC, a firm specializing in patient recruitment for clinical trials, announces the expansion of its in-house call center activities. These new activities are designed to reduce the time a study coordinator has to spend in obtaining past medical records which are needed, for most trials, to verify medical history before a patient can be considered for a screening visit.
"This specialized, HIPAA compliant unit now goes a step further and allows call center operators to initiate the process of obtaining a patient's medical records immediately when they have an eligible caller on the line," says President and CEO, Jennifer Fernandez. "Adding this additional step in the pre-screening process not only helps reduce the work load for study coordinators but it also provides a more efficient and rapid means of obtaining the necessary medical records, which inturn increases the number of eligible patients for screening that are referred from the call center."
Key offerings of the in-house call center include the design and development of automated pre-screening scripts, development of site specific databases, customized data management and reporting capabilities, appointment scheduling for potential study subjects, continued follow-up with both sites and potential study subjects and the utilization of web screening tools for referral purposes.
The Weinberg Group Welcomes Diane Minear
Diane Minear joins the firm as Vice President for Medical Devices. She is an experienced regulatory professional with a broad range of regulatory experience including eight years at FDA in CDRH's Office of Device Evaluation where she was a Branch Chief for the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Devices Branch. Diane also worked for several medical device manufacturing companies over the past fifteen years, gaining invaluable experience in overseeing the regulatory process for medical devices, not only in the USA, but also in Europe and other major markets.
Ms. Minear has led multiple training sessions for regulatory professionals at RAPS and other professional meetings over the past 15 years while serving in leadership roles at Codman, a Johnson & Johnson company, MedaSorb International, and Smith & Nephew Endoscopy. She holds a B.S. in Nursing and is quick to both recognize and emphasize the clinical perspective of devices in the regulatory process.