Santaris Pharma Proprietary LNA Technology Holds Promise for Hep C
SPC3649, a breakthrough micro-RNA therapy developed using Santaris Pharma A/S proprietary Locked Nucleic Acid (LNA) technology, holds promise as a novel treatment for patients infected with the Hepatitis C virus (HCV).
The World Health Organization estimates about 3% of the world’s population has been infected with HCV and that some 170 million are chronic carriers at risk of developing liver cirrhosis and/or liver cancer. According to the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, approximately 3-4 million Americans are chronically infected with an estimated 40,000 new infections per year.
In this preclinical study, SPC3649 successfully inhibited miR-122, a liver-expressed microRNA important for Hepatitis C viral replication, thereby significantly reducing Hepatitis C virus in the liver and the bloodstream. SPC3649 demonstrated this efficacy with no evidence of viral resistance and no serious adverse events, signaling a potential benefit for patients who are not responsive to or cannot tolerate current standard of care therapies.
Scripps Study Describes Powerful New Tool in Fighting Autoimmune Diseases, Blood Cancers
A study led by a Scripps Research Institute scientist describes a new, highly pragmatic approach to the identification of molecules that prevent a specific type of immune cells from attacking their host. The findings add a powerful new tool to the ongoing search for potential treatments for autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis (MS), as well as blood cancers, such as myeloid leukemia.
The study by Thomas Kodadek, a professor in the Chemistry and Cancer Biology Departments at Scripps Florida, and colleagues was published in the November 25, 2009 issue (Volume 16, issue 11) of the journal Chemistry & Biology.
In the new study, Kodadek and his colleagues used samples from an animal model of multiple sclerosis to screen for T cells—a type of white blood cell that plays a central role in the immune system—with a heightened presence in the disease. The screen also identified molecules that interfere with these T cells’ “autoreactivity,” in other words, their attack on the body itself rather than a foreign invader such as virus or bacteria.
New UCSD Med Center CEO to Lead Ambitious Agenda
Amid the challenges facing the health care community, and with an eye on continued growth and institutional reputation building, a veteran UC San Diego administrator, Thomas Jackiewicz, has stepped into the role of CEO of the UCSD Medical Center, reports the San Diego Business Journal.
In his role as CEO, Jackiewicz will oversee the university’s 548-bed academic medical center, which includes a 440-bed hospital in Hillcrest and a 108-bed La Jolla hospital, Moores Cancer Center, Shiley Eye Center and the Sulpizio Family Cardiovascular Center, scheduled for completion in the spring of 2011. Other expansion plans include the construction of a 99,000-square-foot telemedicine building near the university’s School of Medicine that will serve as the training grounds for students and accomplished surgeons interested in learning about robotic surgery and caring for rural patients remotely. Roughly half the building’s $65 million price tag will be paid for through Proposition 1D, a bond measure approved by voters in 2006 to enhance medical education efforts. The remainder, Jackiewicz says, will come from a combination of debt and philanthropy.
Jackiewicz most recently served as vice chancellor and chief financial officer of UC San Diego Health Sciences, where he played a key role in developing a 2007 strategic plan that calls for expanding Thornton Hospital in La Jolla to include 200 additional beds. The proposal, he says, could go before the UC Regents in March.
Scripps’ Young Tech Transfer Boss Seeks to Cut Deals With Industry, Not Just Push Paper
There’s an ambitious young director of technology transfer on the job at The Scripps Research Institute, and if he gets his way, people will soon think differently about how the San Diego research center relates with the business world.
Scott Forrest, 32, has a doctorate in pharmacology from the University of Virginia, and most recently got his tech transfer experience at the University of North Carolina. He joined Scripps in February with a goal of doing a better job of spinning out its renowned biomedical science into startup companies, as well as its potential drug candidates that might someday be commercialized in the wider world. Scripps is clearly pumped about Forrest’s prospects for raising the institution’s tech transfer game.
Forrest’s goal is to actively help connect scientists with entrepreneurs, investors, and business development pros at pharma and biotech companies that they might not otherwise meet. And there’s plenty of room to improve at this, he says.
UC San Diego Researchers Study Adolescent Obesity and Weight Loss
In a recent study, researchers from UC San Diego School of Medicine identified overweight adolescents who successfully lost weight, and overweight adolescents who did not, and compared the two groups on weight control behaviors, dietary intake and physical activity to determine which strategies are effective.
“Our findings provide a glimpse of optimism that adolescents can lose a significant amount of weight and maintain this weight loss,” said Kerri Boutelle, PhD, associate professor in UCSD’s Departments of Pediatrics and Psychiatry and at Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego. “Second, our findings suggest that there are no magical solutions, but that behaviors such as eating more fruits and vegetables, eating less fat and decreasing sedentary time seem to offer the most promise for success.”
Adolescent obesity is a major public health problem that impacts one out of every three youth, resulting in four to five million overweight youth in the United States. Research shows that one of the strongest predictors of adult obesity is adolescent obesity, with 70 percent of obese adolescents becoming obese adults. Findings from this study have the potential to guide both future research studies and clinical interventions for obesity in adolescents.
Biogen Idec’s Dream: Antibodies That Kill Two Birds With One Stone
Some of the most successful biotech drugs ever created are designed to hit just one specific target on diseased cells, while sparing all sorts of markers found on healthy cells. But if Biogen Idec scientist Tony Manning and his colleagues are right, antibodies that specifically hit two targets could someday be better than one.
Cambridge, MA-based Biogen Idec has long been a leader among companies that make monoclonal antibodies, which are made to specifically home in on a single specific target found on diseased cells. This is the mode of action behind one of Roche and Biogen’s classic hits, Rituxan. Other biotech drugs, including products from Cambridge, MA-based Genzyme, are engineered proteins that replace something essential in the body. Still others like those from Amgen stimulate production of essential red and white blood cells.
Taking a different approach, Manning spearheads a group at Biogen who dream of engineering a new class of antibodies that can hit two disease targets on cells, not just one. These are so-called “bispecific” antibodies. This is all at a very early stage of research, and none of these drug candidates have yet advanced into clinical trials, but to hear Manning talk, they will be a big deal someday not too far in the future. This article was taken from Xconomy.
$17 Million to UC San Diego for Methamphetamine/AIDS Research
Igor Grant, MD, professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, and colleagues have been awarded a $17 million grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to establish the Translational Methamphetamine AIDS Research Center (TMARC) at UC San Diego. Grant is director of the HIV Neurobehavioral Research Center (HNRC), a clinical research center designated and funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. HNRC researchers strive for greater understanding of how HIV enters the central nervous system and why it affects some people but does not cause neurological deficits in others.
"The establishment of TMARC will advance our knowledge of the multiple interactions that occur with HIV-induced neurological complications, substance abuse, and other comorbid disorders," noted NIDA Director Dr. Nora Volkow. "This in turn can inform the development of more responsive treatment strategies for both drug abuse and HIV, linked through the risky behaviors like needle sharing and unprotected sex that drug abuse can provoke."
The funding - $3.6 million annually for five years - will allow TMARC to research the combined effects of methamphetamine (meth) and HIV on the central nervous system. This will be the first center in the United States to study the convergent effects of meth and HIV on the brain. Its ultimate goal is to become a national resource for translational multidisciplinary research and training in the neuropathogenesis of HIV and substance abuse.
John Crawford Joins Clearity Board
The Clearity Foundation, whose mission is to improve treatment options for ovarian cancer patients and to change the one-size-fits-all approach in order to improve survival, announced that Mr. John Crawford, MBA has joined its Board of Directors and has been appointed Chief Financial Officer. Over the past 28 years, Mr. Crawford has been an executive officer and director for more than a dozen life sciences firms with five of them in cancer drug development. Most recently, he was CFO of Phenomix Corp and three other San Diego-based biotechnology firms. Mr. Crawford holds a B.S. in mathematical sciences from Stanford University and an M.B.A. in Finance from the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago.
“We are delighted that John is joining The Clearity Foundation as a director and officer. He brings both the enthusiasm for personalizing cancer treatment for ovarian cancer patients as well as the discipline of sound financial practice,” said founder Dr. Laura Shawver. “The Clearity Foundation is a growing organization and we are excited to expand both our capabilities and our reach.”
“Personalized medicine is a buzzword that we hear often is proving difficult to bring it to the bedside of cancer patients. Providing tumor blueprints to ovarian cancer patients will help point patients in the direction of the right treatment rather than the trial-and-error approach that is utilized today,” said John Crawford. “I like the commitment that Clearity has to make every dollar raised from the public go to helping patients.”
La Jolla Institute Enhances Disease Focus with Five New Faculty
The La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology, an international leader in immunology research, is boosting its considerable research muscle with five new faculty members, who will expand the Institute's expertise in genetics, heart disease and type 1 diabetes.
The new faculty include Anjana Rao, Ph.D., and Patrick Hogan, Ph.D., two prominent scientists from Harvard Medical School, who will launch the Institute's new Division of Signaling and Gene Expression. The scientists will use high-throughput sequencing, analysis of protein structures and other state-of-the-art technologies to analyze how gene functioning influences the development of many human diseases, such as autoimmunity, immune deficiencies, developmental defects and cancer. Their work will provide powerful information that could lead to new therapies based on altering gene function.
Also joining the Institute are Joel Linden, Ph.D., and Lynn Hedrick, Ph.D., both accomplished scientists from the University of Virginia, who specialize in understanding the role of inflammation in heart disease, and Nunzio Bottini, M.D., Ph.D., formerly an assistant professor in USC's Institute for Genetic Medicine, who researches genetics-based approaches to type 1 diabetes.