CONNECT Names Most Innovative Products for 2008
CONNECT, San Diego’s technology and life sciences accelerator, announced the winners of the 21st Annual Most Innovative New Product (MIP) Awards. Since 1988, CONNECT’s MIP Awards have served as a benchmark for predicting San Diego’s most successful emerging technologies.
The MIP Award winners were selected from more than 100 entries representing a broad range of companies within eight categories, including two new award categories this year: Action and Sport Technologies and Aerospace Technology.
The 2008 MIP Award winners are:
Action and Sport Technologies: Firewire Surfboards for Direct Drive
Direct Drive is a high-performance surfboard designed with non-traditional and more environmentally friendly materials.
Aerospace and Security Technologies: Avaak for Vue Personal Video Network and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems for Sky Warrior Block Zero Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS)
Both products received equal votes. Avaak created a wire-free home video monitoring system. Featuring a heavy-fuel engine for increased supportability in the field, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems’ UAS is a multi-mission aircraft for U.S. Army operations.
Clean Technology: Reaction Design for Energico
This software solution enables virtual experimentation of low emission design alternatives for power generation and transportation engines.
Hardware and General Technology: Semtek Corporation for Cipher Module
Cipher Module is a three step security platform to address credit card fraud by providing a definitive set of security solutions at the point of sale.
Life Science – Diagnostics and Research Tools: Silicon Kinetics for SKi Pro
Silicon Kinetics developed the world's first 3D label-free platform for bimolecular interaction analysis in disease pathway research, biomarker discovery, drug discovery, drug and vaccine development and quality control in drug manufacturing.
Life Science – Medical Products: Ablation Frontiers for Catheter Ablation System
This system delivers a safer, faster and more customized approach to the treatment of Atrial Fibrillation, an abnormal heart rhythm.
Software & IT: Photometria for TAAZ.com
TAAZ.com brings state-of-the-art computer technology into fashion and beauty with a realistic virtual makeover site where visitors can try makeup and hairstyles from the comfort of their homes.
Wireless Communications: Mushroom Networks for PortaBella
PortaBella is the industry's first one-sided wireless broadband bonding appliance delivering the fastest available mobile Internet connection for downloading and uploading media-rich data.
In addition to celebrating the most innovative new products of the year, CONNECT also announced the William W. Otterson Award recipient. In memory of CONNECT’s founder and first executive director, Bill Otterson, the Otterson Award recognizes technologies or products developed in San Diego that have demonstrated a significant positive impact on quality of life.
This year's Otterson Award was presented to MedStation, a product developed in San Diego by Pyxis Corp., now a Cardinal Health company. MedStation is an automated medication dispensing system for hospitals and other health care facilities. It was introduced in 1989, revolutionizing the way nurses got drugs for patients. Pyxis MedStation automates the distribution, tracking, management and security of medications.
BIOCOM's Joe Panetta, and married couple Barbara Bry and Neil Senturia were recognized with a distinguished contribution award from CONNECT on Friday for his support of the industry since 1988.
The CONNECT MIP Awards program has been an indicator of the industries and technologies that have stimulated the San Diego economy, from early stage biotechnology companies to the first products generated by the region’s telecommunications boom.
SDSU Launches Life Science Executive MBA Program
The College of Business Administration at San Diego State University (SDSU) announced will launch the first-ever M.B.A. for Executives in Life Sciences program in the fall of 2009.
The M.B.A. for Executives in Life Sciences focuses on efficiently bringing life science products from concept to market and provides students with the tools to make informed decisions. SDSU is offering the program in partnership with Kelley Executive Partners, an affiliate of Indiana University.
The curriculum has been customized to accelerate the process for working executives who can retain their jobs by taking courses online while completing the program. The 20-month program is composed of course work in core business, managing innovation, and regulatory affairs courses tailored to the industry.
“Biotech and pharmaceutical companies want to reduce the time and cost to commercialization by training executives in the best practices involved in clinical design, regulatory approval, and reimbursement, which is what our program will provide” said Dr. Gail Naughton, dean of SDSU’s College of Business Administration.
Classes will begin at SDSU’s campus on August 31, 2009 and will include a residency period in Indiana where students will visit medical device companies, life science contract manufacturing facilities and a large pharmaceutical company. An additional residency period in Washington D.C. allows students to meet with FDA experts.
Cooley Partner Named to President-elect Obama's Economic Advisory Board
Cooley Godward Kronish announced that Washington, DC partner-in-charge Roel Campos has been selected to join an elite team of financial and economic experts on President-elect Barack Obama's economic advisory team. Mr. Campos is one of the 17 members of the Transition Economic Advisory Board that met with the President-elect on Friday, Nov. 7 in Chicago, and he will continue to be involved in advising Mr. Obama in addressing the U.S. economic situation.
In addition to Mr. Campos, the Transition Economic Advisory Board includes former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul A. Volcker, investor Warren Buffett, former Secretaries of the Treasury Department Lawrence Summers and Robert Rubin, Google CEO Eric Schmidt and several other prominent members from the private and public sectors. The Advisory Board will offer wide-ranging counsel to the president-elect as he fills top administration posts and develops an economic recovery plan.
Campos, a former Commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission and a former U.S. federal prosecutor, joined Cooley's 325-member Litigation Department in 2007. Cooley's Litigation Department was named to The National Law Journal's "Defense Hot List" in 2007 for its cutting-edge legal strategies.
Cooley Godward Kronish's 725 attorneys have an entrepreneurial spirit and deep, substantive experience, and are committed to solving clients' most challenging legal matters. The Firm has full-service offices in major business and technology centers nationwide: Palo Alto, CA, New York, NY, San Diego, CA, San Francisco, CA, Reston, VA, Broomfield, CO, Washington, DC, Boston, MA and Seattle, WA.
Porter Novelli Releases Healthcare Study
Global shifts in birth, health and death trends have profound implications for businesses and consumers. On a quarterly basis, Porter Novelli publishes "Intelligent Dialogue," a series of white papers which is meant to provide perspective and stimulate conversation on a wide range of issues. In its latest Intelligent Dialogue white paper, “Cradle & Grave,” Porter Novelli examines these seismic changes and considers the strategic implications for organizations and individuals.
‘Cradle & Grave’ identifies key trends in fertility, birth, health care advances, disease prevention and treatment, aging and death. The paper examines how families (and populations) are changing, and how evolving health challenges like diseases of affluence and the obesity crisis will impact modern society. It raises questions about the advent of personalized drug therapies, the promise of longer life expectancy and the threats posed by swelling ranks of elderly, chronically ill people. These and other life and death shifts will profoundly affect business and consumers far beyond the health care and pharmaceutical industries, raising strategic issues of resources and financing.
Please click here to see the 'Cradle & Grave' Web site or click here to download a PDF of the most current report directly.
Xnergy Completes Energy-Saving Project at Encinitas City Hall
Xnergy, a Carlsbad-based engineering, construction, and alternative energy company, recently completed an energy-retrofit renovation at the City of Encinitas Civic Center which will save the City up to 80 percent of their annual energy costs at this facility.
Included in this project are a 96 kW solar photovoltaic system, a central plant which cools and heats the building more efficiently, replacement of the old deteriorating roof, and natural daylighting. The solar panels are expected to produce nearly 40 percent of the building's daily energy requirements and will provide power back to the utility grid on weekends and holidays when the Civic Center is unoccupied. Combined with the more efficient heating and cooling system and other improvements, the City's energy consumption and related costs at this facility are expected to be reduced by nearly 80 percent annually.
"We're very excited to be one of the first city halls in the State of California to be using a renewable energy source to help meet our energy needs," said Mayor Jerome Stocks.
The building's indoor environment has also been improved for City staff and visitors. Several skylights and "solatubes" have been installed to provide natural daylight throughout the building. Strategic placement of these daylighting features in certain areas will actually prevent the need for turning on lights.
In addition to the energy savings at the Civic Center, the view from the adjacent library has been improved substantially with the installation of a structure supporting the solar panels which covers much of the mechanical system on the roof, along with the removal of obsolete equipment.
Investments in the energy efficiency improvements are projected to save the city $4.3 million over the next 25 years.
With the completion of these improvements, the City is currently pursuing U.S. Green Building Council LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Certification as well as U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Energy Star certification for the Civic Center. Xnergy provides innovative engineering , construction, and energy management for commercial and public facilities with highly trained staff and excellent customer service.
Grubb & Ellis|BRE Commercial Forms Asset Management Group
Grubb & Ellis|BRE Commercial has assembled a team of professionals to provide financial services asset management to financial institutions, special servicers, government agencies, investors, developers and owners with troubled assets. The financial services asset management practice assists with workout, foreclosure, restructuring, asset management and disposition processes for clients ranging from owners to small community banks to the largest institutions and servicers. For a detailed scope of services, please click here.
Fish & Richardson Named Top Patent Firm
Fish & Richardson P.C. says it was named the top patent law firm for the world’s most innovative companies, according to a survey published in the November issue of IP Law & Business magazine. Fish ranked #1 in patent prosecution in the prestigious “Who Protects Innovation” survey of “The World’s Most Innovative Companies.” According to the survey, Fish represents four of the top five most innovative companies in the world.
“The World’s Most Innovative Companies” is based on an annual survey conducted by BusinessWeek and the Boston Consulting Group. Using this survey as a cross reference, IP Law & Business developed its “Who Protects Innovation” listing. To determine the rankings in its Patent Prosecution List, IP Law & Business listed the five firms that filed the most patent applications for each of the 50 companies from January to September 2008, and then computed the leaders.
Fish & Richardson is a leading global law firm practicing in the areas of intellectual property, litigation, and corporate law.
Gable Expands to New Office, Opens Seattle Office
Gable PR has moved into new and larger office at 591 Camino de la Reina, Suite 730, San Diego, CA 92108. According do the company, the move comes as a result of strong performance and growth in 2008. During the past year, the agency managed media relations for the BIO International Convention at the San Diego Convention Center and major programs for Pfizer, the Transportation Corridor Agencies, Sudberry Properties and Quarry Falls, CONNECT and Prize Capital. The new space is 50 percent larger than its previous office and allows for continued growth.
Gable PR also announced it has opened a new office in Bellevue, WA to better serve the Pacific Northwest’s strong technology and life science community. The new office will be headed by account executive Liz Dill, a long-time Seattle resident who moves from the San Diego office. She will continue to play a key role in serving Gable PR’s Southern California-based clients as well as build the agency’s client base in the Pacific Northwest.
In addition to its new offices, Erin Koch has rejoined the agency after a stint at Davies Public Affairs in Santa Barbara. Koch has worked with agency CEO Tom Gable since June 2004. He left Gable PR in late 2007 for a public affairs position with Davies but recently decided to return to his San Diego-area home, family, and strong network of professional contacts. Koch, previously an account manager at Gable PR, was promoted to agency director. He has managed award winning communications programs for clients in biotech, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, energy, and public affairs practice areas. In other news, Gable PR announced that Erin Kirkpatrick has been promoted to assistant account executive. Kirkpatrick, previously an account coordinator, will take on additional writing, media relations and event management responsibilities for several accounts, including CONNECT, Intercare Insurance Solutions, and TAG.
Robyn Thaw Joins Barney & Barney
Robyn Thaw has joined Barney & Barney LLC, one of California’s largest insurance brokerages, as a senior client executive in their commercial division.
Formerly a senior vice president with HRH, Thaw brings almost 30 years of industry experience specializing in insurance solutions for real estate and common interest developments, homeowners’ associations and planned unit developments.
Barney & Barney LLC is a California based privately held risk management and insurance brokerage firm providing solutions, services and products in commercial property and casualty insurance, employee benefits, workers’ compensation, executive personal lines, and surety for the past 99 years. The firm also offers value added services in alternative risk financing, business continuity and loss control.
Fish & Richardson Attorney Finalist in Awards
Nancy L. Stagg, a principal in the San Diego office of Fish & Richardson P.C. was named a finalist in the Mentor of the Year category in the fifth annual Stevie Awards for Women in Business. The Stevie Awards for Women in Business honor women executives, entrepreneurs, and the companies they run – worldwide. The Stevie Awards have been hailed as the world’s premier business awards, according to the law firm. More than 1,200 entries were submitted for consideration in 50 categories, including Best Executive, Best Entrepreneur, and Best Community Involvement Program. As the leader of Fish’s Southern California business litigation group, where her practice focuses on the defense of class actions and other complex litigation matters, Stagg is also chair of the firm’s Diversity Initiative. As chair, Stagg oversees the firm-wide diversity programs aimed to further develop creative, welcoming environments for Fish offices, to build new bridges to professional and community groups, and to strengthen existing connections with women and minority employees at Fish. Details about The Stevie Awards for Women in Business and the list of finalists in all categories are available at www.stevieawards.com/women.
Gene 24, Histogen Sign Leases with Grubb & Ellis|BRE Commercial
Grubb & Ellis|BRE Commercial says that Histogen, Inc., has signed an eight-year office/R&D lease, valued at $9.1 million in San Diego’s Sorrento Valley area. Histogen is a regenerative medicine company specializing in the R&D, manufacturing and sales of its core products and will relocate to Sycamore Research Park at 10655 Sorrento Valley Road from its current UTC location. The company will occupy 27,712 square feet of space in the building, which is located in a three-building campus that sold last year for $23.6 million. Dave Odmark of Grubb & Ellis|BRE Commercial represented both the lessee and lessor, Dansk Investment Group.
Grubb & Ellis|BRE Commercial says that Gene 24 has leased approximately 10,500 square feet of office and wet lab space in San Diego’s Sorrento Valley area. The biotech research company has leased the entire building at 4045 Sorrento Valley Blvd. in Sorrento Science Park, which consists of three separate buildings and is now 100 percent leased. Gene 24 signed a three-year lease for a total consideration of $982,000. Dave Odmark and Brian Starck of Grubb & Ellis|BRE Commercial represented both the lessee and lessor, Del Mar Partnership.
IT Update: Is Your Server Ready to Serve No Matter What?
We have FINALLY uncovered the hidden Technology Mistakes your current IT Vendor does not want you to know about. Does your business have a server? Does it have the proper disaster recovery solution in place? 90 percent of businesses that experience server crashes thought they had proper data back-up, server redundancy, or a fail-over system in place. More times than not, when your office server goes down, its takes hours, sometimes even days to get back up and running. Not to mention the costly emergency rates that apply for this server failure.
A server is the brain of your offices computers and network. Will your office be ready the next time your server goes down? When was the last time you tested your last back-up? Are you using tape back-up? Did you know that tape back-up has the highest failure rate? How long can your office afford to be down? How much will this downtime cost your business? Don't gamble with your server! You can have a sure bet with the team at Perfect Integration- San Diego's most trusted IT server specialists.
Moores UCSD Cancer Center Symposium Aimed at Building Connections
Dennis Carson, M.D., thinks that industry-academia collaborations are critical for the field of oncology to move forward. It’s one reason why Carson, director of the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), has made fostering these relationships part of a growing emphasis at the Cancer Center on translational oncology, bringing cancer research findings from the laboratory to the clinic.
So it is little surprise that the heart of translational oncology was on display recently at the 4th annual Moores UCSD Cancer Center Translational Oncology Symposium, held at the Cancer Center’s La Jolla campus. Symposium organizer Ida Deichaite, Ph.D., Cancer Center director of industry relations, brought together leaders from industry and academia to discuss some of the most advanced work in such fields as stem cells and cancer, biomarkers for early disease detection and drug resistance. At the same time, the meeting provided a forum for clinicians and scientists to find new ways to interact and collaborate, perhaps opening doors to new discoveries and developments in the war against cancer.
Carson sees such meetings as potentially achieving much more than simply getting academic scientists and experts at pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in the same room, talking about mutual interests. Developing relationships early on in drug development can lead to new, innovative clinical trials. They are also a conduit to begin breaking down traditional academia-industry barriers. In the end, he says, “Fostering and strengthening the ties between scientists in the laboratory and experts in biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies to develop new, potentially valuable drugs against cancer is vital for the benefit of patients.”
Please click here for more information: http://cancer.ucsd.edu/Research/services/industrial.asp
UCSD Health Sciences Partners with Johnson & Johnson
University of California, San Diego Health Sciences leaders have announced that they have executed a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development, L.L.C. (J&JPRD), with the objective of developing future collaborations in biomedical research and education to advance human health.
The MOU establishes a framework for future research and training efforts between the UC San Diego School of Medicine, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and the UC San Diego Medical Center health system, and J&JPRD, a pharmaceutical research and development company with expertise in small molecules, genomics, bioinformatics, high throughput screening, and structural biology.
The two organizations plan to create education, training and research collaborations in biomedical science, medicine and public health, with a focus on projects that lead to new clinical applications. In addition to signing the MOU, the organizations also signed the first agreement between UC San Diego Health Sciences and J&JPRD under the MOU framework – a contract for UC San Diego Professor of Pharmacology Larry Brunton, Ph.D., to conduct laboratory studies to evaluate the effects of new compounds on heart tissue.
Please click here to read an article in the Union-Tribune about the partnership.
Palomar Pomerado and UCSD Expand Clinical Trials Partnership
Palomar Pomerado Health (PPH) and the UCSD School of Medicine have entered into a partnership that enhances options for patients needing leading-edge therapy, expands clinical research at UC San Diego and strengthens the clinical research program at PPH.
The new agreement creates greater coordination between the Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) – committees that review and approve research trials of promising new therapies and procedures – at the two institutions. More than 400 open clinical trials include studies for complex diseases like Alzheimer’s disease, arthritis, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and many more. IRB approval of clinical research is required before any study can begin.
Under this agreement, a study approved at one institution can also be performed at the other. This dramatically decreases administrative delays for collaborative studies between UC San Diego and PPH without sacrificing safety and oversight. Thus, PPH patients will have greater access to UCSD clinical trials and vice versa. As a result, it will be easier for patients in North County to receive novel therapies for diseases for which existing options are inadequate.
The agreement also enhances educational programs in which UC San Diego provides training and symposia for PPH physicians and staff in all aspects of clinical research. It will provide access to the university’s core facilities and other important research resources such as sophisticated imaging methods, and analysis of patient samples (such as blood) with leading-edge technology to monitor the treatment for safety and effectiveness.
Novocell CEO to Head Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF)
Novocell, Inc., a stem cell engineering company, today announced that president and CEO Alan J. Lewis, Ph.D., will leave the company effective January 1, 2009 to become the president and CEO of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
Dr. Alan Lewis joined Novocell in February 2006 as CEO. In the past three years, Novocell has published three of the leading publications outlining the biological path for creating functional islets from stem cells. Based these advances in stem cell technology, Novocell has begun a development program to prepare its stem cell products for human clinical therapy. Novocell, Inc. is a stem cell engineering company with research operations in San Diego, California and Athens, Georgia, dedicated to creating, delivering and commercializing cell and drug therapies for diabetes and other chronic diseases. Novocell has three primary technologies: stem cell engineering, cell encapsulation and drug discovery. The Company was founded in 1999 and merged with CyThera, Inc. and BresaGen, Inc. in 2004. For more information, please visit www.novocell.com
Salk Shows Stem Cell Model for ALS
Researchers from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies for the very first time established a human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-based system for modeling defective astrocytes that lay waste to motor neurons and are the main suspects in the muscle- wasting disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Their study confirmed that dysfunctional human astrocytes turn against their charges and kill off healthy motor neurons. But more importantly, treating the cultured cells with apocynin, a powerful anti-oxidant, staved off motor neuron death caused by malfunctioning astrocytes.
Their findings, which appear in the Dec. 4 issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell, provide new insight into the toxic pathways that contribute to the demise of motor neurons in ALS and open up new possibilities for drug-screening experiments using human ALS in vitro models, as well as clinical interventions using astrocyte-based cell therapies.
For information on the commercialization of this technology, please contact Mike White at 858-453-4100, x 1703 (mwhite@salk.edu) in of the Salk Office of Technology Management and Development.
This study was funded by Project ALS, the Dana and Christopher Reeve Foundation, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the Lookout Fund, and the National Institutes of Health.
Researchers who also contributed to the work include postdoctoral researchers Alysson R. Muotri, Ph.D., and Yangling Mu, Ph.D., in the Gage laboratory, postdoctoral researcher Alan M. Smith, Ph.D., and assistant professor Gabriela G. Cezar, Ph.D., both at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison.
San Diego Philanthropist John Moores Gives $2.1 Million to Scripps Research Institute
Funds will support recruitment of new scientists and sustain and expand work of current researchers
John Moores Gives $2.1m to Scripps Research Institute
San Diego philanthropist, businessman, and community leader John J. Moores has contributed the first gift of $2.1 million to The Scripps Research Institute’s new $50 million initiative to recruit new world-class researchers and sustain and expand the work of current scientists at the renowned La Jolla- and Florida-based biomedical organization, the Institute announced today. Moores, chairman and owner of the San Diego Padres baseball team has served as a member of the Scripps Research Board of Trustees since 1997 and as Chairman of the Board since 2006. Moores has contributed more than $22 million to the Institute over the years, including a $4 million gift in 2005 to establish the Worm Institute for Research and Medicine (WIRM) to combat the painful, disfiguring, and debilitating diseases borne by worms that afflict hundreds of millions of people in much of the world. This contribution was an extension of his long-term interest in these conditions. He founded the River Blindness Foundation in 1989 to distribute a treatment for that disease in developing countries, principally sub-Saharan Africa. In 1997, the foundation was absorbed into The Carter Center, where Mr. Moores serves as Chairman of the Board.
Scripps Researchers Find Marijuana Pathway
Marijuana can be an effective painkiller, but social issues and unhealthy smoke inhalation complicate its use. As a result, researchers have focused great attention on understanding the biochemical system involved so they might manipulate it by other means. Toward that end, a Scripps Research Institute group has definitively identified a chemical pathway that, in mice, imitates marijuana's painkilling effect. The work could enable the development of new pain treatments. The new study, led by Benjamin Cravatt, chair of the Scripps Research Department of Chemical Physiology, was described in a November 23, 2008, advance online publication of the journal Nature Chemical Biology.
LJAIA Celebrates 20 Years
Amid the biomedical research institutes that enrich the San Diego landscape, there lies one that has dedicated itself to unmasking the mysteries of the body’s immune system, which time has shown offers one of the greatest avenues for improving human health. Now celebrating its 20th year, the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology (LIAI) has emerged as a world leader in immunology research and is San Diego’s only research institution, and one of the few in the world, focused on solving immune-mediated disorders, which encompass an incredibly wide array of diseases.
The Institute, a nonprofit, has begun a year-long celebration of its founding, which began with an elegant 20th anniversary fundraising gala November 1st at the Del Mar Country Club. Chaired by Michael and Paula Martin of Rancho Santa Fe, the event raised funds for the Institute’s continuing research on type 1 diabetes and cancer.
LJIAI Group Shows Lyme Disease Data
A research team led by the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology and Albany Medical College has illuminated the important role of natural killer (NK) T cells in Lyme disease, demonstrating that the once little understood white blood cells are central to clearing the bacterial infection and reducing the intensity and duration of arthritis associated with Lyme disease.
Lyme disease is caused by Borrelia burgdorferi, a bacterium transmitted to humans by the bite of infected deer ticks. Typical symptoms include fever, headache, fatigue, and sometimes skin rashes. If left untreated, it can spread to the joints, the heart and the nervous system, and it can lead to serious health problems. Lyme disease currently is the most common vector (insect)-borne disease in the United States.
“What this study demonstrates is that NK T cells are an important part of our defense against Lyme disease,” said Timothy J. Sellati, Ph.D., an associate professor at Albany Medical College and co-senior author on the study. “This offers the possibility that we can exploit that knowledge therapeutically and potentially develop immunological agents that can trigger more NK T cells to aide in fighting this disease.” Sellati added that “NK T cells alone cannot clear Lyme disease, but are a key part of a collective immune defense.”
The study’s findings are outlined in a paper, “NKT cells prevent chronic joint inflammation after infection with Borrelia burgdorferi,” published this week in the online version of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Founded in 1988, the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology is a nonprofit medical research center dedicated to increasing knowledge and improving human health through studies of the immune system. Scientists at the institute carry out research searching for cures for cancer, allergy and asthma, infectious diseases, and autoimmune diseases such as diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease and arthritis. The Institute’s research staff includes more than 100 Ph.Ds.
Moores Researchers Show New Data on Anti-Angiogenesis Drugs
Scientists have thought that one way to foil a tumor from generating blood vessels to feed its growth – a process called angiogenesis – was by creating drugs aimed at stopping a key vessel growth-promoting protein. But now the opposite seems to be true.
Researchers at the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) in La Jolla have found evidence that blocking that protein target, called VEGF, or vascular endothelial growth factor, doesn’t really halt the process at all. Instead, cutting levels of VEGF in a tumor actually props up existing blood vessels, making them stronger and more normal, and in some cases the tumors larger. But as a result, the tumor is more vulnerable to the effects of chemotherapy drugs.
In a paper appearing online November 9, 2008 in the journal Nature, David Cheresh, Ph.D., professor and vice chair of pathology at the UC San Diego School of Medicine and the Moores UCSD Cancer Center and his co-workers mimicked the action of anti-angiogenesis drugs by genetically reducing VEGF levels in mouse tumors and inflammatory cells in various cancers, including pancreatic cancer. They also used drugs to inhibit VEGF receptor activity. In every case, blood vessels were made normal again.
The researchers say the findings provide an explanation for recent evidence showing that anti-angiogenesis drugs such as Avastin can be much more effective when combined with chemotherapy. The results may lead to better treatment strategies for a variety of cancers.
UCSD Conducts Gene Therapy Trial for Celladon
UC San Diego Medical Center is currently enrolling patients in a Phase 2 clinical trial of an investigational drug for the treatment of advanced heart failure. The “Calcium Up-Regulation by Percutaneous Administration of Gene Therapy in Cardiac Disease,” or CUPID, study is evaluating a new gene-based therapy designed to stimulate production of an enzyme that enables the heart to pump more effectively.
Initial data from the first phase of the CUPID trial, reported on November 9th at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2008, demonstrated that the drug had an acceptable safety profile in the first group of patients. This study will be the second phase of the trial.
Heart failure is the leading medical cause of hospitalization and is expected to result in estimated direct and indirect costs to the healthcare system in 2008 of $35 billion. Despite important therapeutic advances in drug and device therapies, the prognosis of heart failure patients remains poor.
The Phase 2 trial compares the use of a drug called MYDICAR at two or three dose levels with placebo, an inert substance. CUPID is expected to enroll 46 patients with advanced heart failure at 13 U.S. medical centers. The clinical trial drug is delivered in a single dose directly to the heart muscle during a short outpatient procedure performed in a cardiac catheterization laboratory. CUPID is funded by San Diego-based Celladon Corporation, makers of MYDICAR.
UCSD Leads NIH Neuroscience Contract and Pharmacogenomics Program
The University of California, San Diego School of Medicine has received a contract from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to enhance and maintain the Neuroscience Information Framework (NIF) – a dynamic inventory of web-based neurosciences data, resources, and tools that scientists and students can access via any computer connected to the Internet. An initiative of the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research, the NIF will advance neuroscience research by enabling discovery and access to public research data and tools worldwide through an open source, networked environment.
Under the contract – valued at up to $10 million over the course of five years if all options are exercised – the CRBS will apply its pioneering work in neuroinformatics and web-based information integration environments. Martone, along with co-principal investigators Jeffrey Grethe, Ph.D., and Amarnath Gupta, Ph.D., will lead a national collaboration that includes researchers at Yale University, the California Institute of Technology, George Mason University, and Washington University. The collaboration focuses expertise from the domains of neuroscience, information technologies, and knowledge management to enhance and deploy the NIF.
Recognizing the need to develop a comprehensive framework of resources available to the neuroscience community, the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research launched the NIF initiative in 2005. A beta test of the NIF is accessible from http://nif.nih.gov/
In an unrelated contract, UCSD says it is to lead nationwide program in pPharmacogenomics.
The Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of California, San Diego, will collaborate with the American Pharmacists Association, the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, and the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy to promote PharmGenEd, in an educational campaign to more than 100,000 pharmacy practitioners and students across the country.
The “Pharmacogenomics Education Program: Bridging the Gap between Science and Practice” (PharmGenEd) is designed to educate pharmacists, students and other healthcare professionals in pharmacogenomics, the study of individual genetic differences in response to drug therapy. The project has been funded for just over $1 million for three years by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC.) The program team will work closely with the CDC to develop educational curriculum that focuses on basic pharmacogenomics concepts as well as their clinical applications, incorporating live and online methods including web-based virtual communities.
Scripps Scientists Find New Combo for Stem Cell Production
Scripps Scientists Find New Combo for Stem Cell Production
Scientists from The Scripps Research Institute have identified a combination of small molecules that significantly improve the reprogramming of general adult cells into pluripotent stem cells, which can then develop into all cell types.
In the study, the scientists screened known drugs and identified small molecules that could replace conventional reprogramming genes, which can have dangerous side effects. This new process offers a new way to generate stem cells from fibroblasts, a general cell type that is abundant and easily accessible from various tissues, including skin.
The study was published in the November 6, 2008 edition (Volume 3, Issue 5) of the journal Cell Stem Cell.