Category Archives: Biopharmaceutical

Innovative Drug Discovery Business, Biosortia Pharmaceuticals, Lands Two Health Care Veterans

Kurt Dieck formerly SVP of Strategy and Business Execution at Cardinal Health, will lead early stage drug discovery business at Biosortia Pharmaceuticals. Dieck was named President and CEO in November 2012 and has quickly identified other key executives, including Dr. Guy Carter, former Natural Product head at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, as his Chief Science Officer. In conjunction, other collaboration partners have joined the team, including NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), NCI (National Cancer Institute) and key universities, to strategically accelerate the development of novel drug leads in the therapeutic areas of cancer, infectious diseases, inflammation and neurological disorders. Biosortia Pharmaceuticals has seen promising early results with dozens of novel compounds having already been requested, and are under evaluation with NCI and Eli Lilly.

Dieck has spent nearly 30 years in healthcare, including 18 years at Arthur Andersen as a global equity partner and then 10 years with Cardinal Health, a Fortune 20 public company, as a senior executive; there he worked with a broad spectrum of partners, including brand pharmaceutical manufacturers, throughout the supply chain. Dr. Guy Carter has over 30 years of experience working in pharmaceutical R&D, primarily in the discovery and development of microbial natural products. He previously was the leader of natural products drug discovery at Wyeth Research, as head of the Chemical Technologies Department.

“Kurt and Guy make a great team. Their complementary Pharma experiences and backgrounds create great opportunities to accelerate Biosortia’s objective to become the premier, aquatic natural products company with a primary focus in drug discovery,” says Ross Youngs, Biosortia’s Founder and Chairman. “Kurt and Guy bring a wealth of research and business experience along with deep industry relationships in building successful Pharma partnerships. Everyone involved with this young biotech is excited about the future.”

Industry observers have commented that late-stage R&D pipelines are not providing Pharma with the desired revenue growth the market is expecting. Therefore, large Pharma is evolving the way it performs R&D in order to optimize efficiency and to boost patent cliff defenses. These changes require shifting from relying solely on in-house chemistry-based R&D to acquiring and licensing external technologies and natural products based compounds in various stages of development. Biosortia’s ability to supply novel, highly active and potent compounds with drug-like characteristics will increase the productivity and success rate for Pharma as well as reduce the overall cost of the discovery process. The cost to discover, develop and launch a new drug is estimated to reach nearly $3B per drug by 2015. Biosortia’s business model is designed specifically to support Pharma’s needs.

“With nearly unlimited microorganisms (3.7 nonillion), the aquatic environment and its consortia represent an extraordinary opportunity…a new frontier, to access extremely potent and chemically diverse secondary metabolites with drug-like properties with unique mechanisms of action never researched before,” said Dieck. In describing the opportunity, Dieck goes on to say, “Biosortia is on the cutting edge of natural product discovery
and has the capabilities to deliver on its aspiration. Our powerful natural products research team, led by Dr. Guy Carter, in partnership with NOAA’s Dr. Peter Moeller, a leader in aquatic natural products research, has the experience and know-how to decipher the complex unexplored environment in a very efficient manner leveraging all the current state of the art instrumentation. The need for more efficient and effective approaches to drug discovery has never been more important. Biosortia’s innovative technologies, deep research skills and key relationships will efficiently provide thousands of unique natural products as candidates for drug discovery at a time when Pharma is in critical need for “high quality shots on goal.”

“Aquatic microbial consortia are a rich source of metabolically active organisms including microalgae, bacteria, fungi and their secondary metabolites,” states Carter. “Owing to the competitive nature of their habitat, chemical investigations of microbial consortia reveal unique structurally diversified natural products that are responsible for signaling and self-defense that have potential as therapeutics with novel mechanisms of action. Since they have been pre-optimized by nature, these compounds are typically closer to a drug candidate than a synthetic lead, thus requiring less optimization and shorter time when found as ‘hits’ in screening programs.”

The team has also focused on agreements with strategic collaboration partners as vital components to the strategy. Biosortia has recently entered into several collaboration agreements with NOAA, Analyticon and exclusive harvesting relationships, just to name a few. Several others will be advanced by the end of January. Biosortia’s cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) with NOAA’s Center for Human Health Risk at Hollings Marine Laboratory provides a 5-year framework for research and development regarding the analysis and purification of novel bioactive compounds. According to NOAA’s Technology Partnerships Office, “Success will result in the commercial development of new and unique chemical compounds from the sea which have benefits to human health, either through disease prevention or new treatments for disease.”

Dr. Peter Moeller, NOAA’s Research Scientist who leads the Toxins Natural Products Program stated after analyzing fractions of Biosortia’s biomass, “Coupling NOAA’s mission of characterizing toxins affecting environmental and/or human health with Biosortia’s drug discovery focus turns one man’s toxin into another’s chemotherapeutic. The microorganisms analyzed in the Biosortia biomass identified more unique activity than I have seen in my 30 year career. The volumes achieved from a single harvest delivered an equivalent of 30 years of accumulation. This could materially change the landscape for natural products drug discovery research.”

As of December 31, 2012, Biosortia has identified more than 30 bioactive candidate compounds (hits) from a fresh water eutrophic lake consortium. Therapeutic areas of focus include treatments for cancer, infectious diseases, inflammation and neurological disorders. In addition, more than a dozen of its patent protected compounds are in initial evaluation stage within Eli Lilly’s Open Innovation Drug Discovery Program.

Dieck states, “Looking forward, it is with great optimism. We have a great team built around mutual respect, deep experience, and a desire to succeed and make a difference. We are aligning with the right partners and collaborators to execute our strategy with speed and discipline to provide Pharma with much high quality & diverse compounds vs. “me-too” drugs than they have had in the past 10 years. We are excited about what this company can accomplish, not only for its shareholders but also for the millions of people who have been diagnosed with various forms of chronic diseases who are looking for Pharma to identify better ways to help them extend their lives or live a more productive life. Biosortia can play a big role in identifying compounds that can help Pharma achieve these goals. I am looking forward to the challenge and opportunity to build an industry leading drug discovery company.”

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Microtissues® Inc. and Sigma-Aldrich® Sign Worldwide Supply and Distribution Agreement for the 3D Petri Dish®

Microtissues® Inc. announced today the signing of a Supply and Distribution Agreement with Sigma-Aldrich® Corporation (Nasdaq: SIAL) for the worldwide sales and marketing of the 3D Petri Dish®, a new technology for the culture of living cells in three dimensions (3D). Invented at Brown University, the 3D Petri Dish® maximizes cell-to-cell interactions critical for replicating the function of natural tissues and organs. Shown in numerous peer reviewed papers to work with over fifty different cell types, including cell lines, primary cells and stem cells, the 3D Petri Dish® has applications in cancer research, drug discovery, toxicity testing and regenerative medicine.

“Researchers are rapidly recognizing the importance of 3D cell culture and its ability to reliably mimic in vivo function” said Brian Morgan, Director of Business Development, Microtissues® Inc. “The 3D Petri Dish® creates a natural 3D environment without artificial scaffolds and we’re excited that this distribution agreement will bring our unique and innovative line of products to the worldwide research community.”

Unlike the conventional plastic Petri dish where cells are grown as a thin layer on the surface of the dish, the 3D Petri Dish® forms 3D aggregates of cells. Spheroid size is controlled by the number of cells seeded and hundreds of uniform sized spheroids are formed in a single pipetting step. Spheroids are formed in a well ordered array in a stable platform suitable for long term culture. All spheroids are positioned on the same optical plane making them easy to image (phase contrast, fluorescent). Spheroid size is controlled by the number of cells seeded and a mixture of cells forms mixed spheroids, suitable for investigating tumor-stroma interactions. Spheroids can be grown from single cells, applicable to the study of cancer stem cells. For histology, Western blots and RT-PCR, spheroids are harvested by simply inverting the 3D Petri Dish®. No need to dissolve or digest the gel. The 3D Petri Dish® is a new fundamental tool for the world wide industry of life sciences research.

About Sigma-Aldrich®: Sigma-Aldrich® is a leading Life Science and High Technology company whose biochemical, organic chemical products, kits and services are used in scientific research, including genomic and proteomic research, biotechnology, pharmaceutical development, the diagnosis of disease and as key components in pharmaceutical, diagnostics and high technology manufacturing. Sigma-Aldrich® customers include more than 1.3 million scientists and technologists in life science companies, university and government institutions, hospitals and industry. The Company operates in 38 countries and has nearly 9,000 employees whose objective is to provide excellent service worldwide. Sigma-Aldrich® is committed to accelerating customer success through innovation and leadership in Life Science and High Technology. For more information about Sigma-Aldrich®, please visit its website at www.sigma-aldrich.com.

About Microtissues® Inc: Microtissues® Inc. is a privately held company located in Providence, RI, advancing technologies and applications of 3D cell culture. Microtissues®, Inc.’s products are designed to serve the needs of researchers in a wide range of areas including cancer research, stem cell biology, toxicity testing, developmental biology, drug discovery, regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. Microtissues®, Inc. has an exclusive worldwide license from Brown University to US and international patent applications on the 3D Petri Dish®. For more information on Microtissues®, Inc., please visit www.microtissues.com.

Sigma-Aldrich and Sigma are trademarks of Sigma-Aldrich Co. LLC registered in the US and other countries. Microtissues and 3D Petri Dish are registered trademarks of Microtissues, Inc.

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Sprint Bioscience Strengthens Its Cancer Metabolism Portfolio

Sprint Bioscience, a Swedish company developing oncology therapeutics targeting cancer metabolism, announced today that it has raised money to strengthen its drug discovery portfolio.

The investment by Första Entreprenörsfonden and Almi Invest will enable the company to continue to build a pipeline of drug discovery projects within cancer metabolism.

“We are investing in Sprint Bioscience because we consider their entrepreneurial drive and their particular skills in drug development to be key success factors for the changing environment of the future pharmaceutical industry. Sprint Bioscience’s business strategy involves out-licensing or collaborating at an early stage of drug discovery to ensure that projects are developed with a focus on current and relevant market needs,” says Rune Nordlander, partner at Första Entreprenörsfonden.

Sprint Bioscience is a company founded by experienced drug hunters with an ambition to improve the drug discovery process. “We believe in small organisations with effective working procedures and collaborations throughout the sector,” says the company’s CEO and co-founder, Dr. Anders Ã…berg.

“Sprint Bioscience has developed an efficient, fragment-based drug discovery (FBDD) platform that can take parallel projects from initial idea to active molecules tested in cell-based systems in a very short time” Anders Ã…berg continues. Our goal is to align the early phase in the laboratory with pharmaceutical companies’ needs.

Targeting the metabolism in tumours provides exciting opportunities to develop drug therapies with novel mechanisms of action. This could be used to overcome the resistance that many cancer cells develop to current treatments.

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Advinus, SignalChem Start The Multi-Year, Multi-Target Collaboration On New Anti-Cancer Drugs

Advinus Therapeutics, a research-based pharmaceutical development company promoted by the TATA Group, and SignalChem Pharmaceuticals, a British Columbia-based drug discovery company, have started working on 15 programs based on SignalChem’s proprietary Kinase platform for targeted therapies in oncology. Each program is being developed with corresponding diagnostics and tracers for patient selection and biomarkers for follow up offering the right treatment to the right patient at the right time. The companies have received a very high level of interest from pharma companies to license and collaborate on the programs and therefore see a rapid progression to the clinic.

Dr. Jasbinder Sanghera, CEO of SignalChem said – “This is a path-breaking partnership that leverages SignalChem’s extensive biology and kinase expertise and Advinus’s end-to-end capabilities of medicinal chemistry, lead optimization, preclinical development and early-clinical development capabilities to rapidly and efficiently advance new anti-cancer drug candidates into human clinical trials.”Dr. Rashmi Barbhaiya, CEO and MD of Advinus said– “This collaboration is an exemplary model of polycentric and globally networked innovation for enhancing probability of success, reducing timelines, and focusing on cost-effective partnerships to bring innovative medicines to the market. This collaboration would also leverage leading edge biomedical research of British Columbia research institutions and Advinus’s capabilities and infrastructure to translate biomedical research discoveries into potential life saving drugs.”

The collaboration was announced by B.C. Premier Christy Clark during her visit to India who said – “This is what our Jobs Trade Mission is all about – helping local companies make connections that will allow them to do business in India. We have an innovative technology and life sciences sector in B.C., which has a lot to offer India to support its economic growth. The partnership between Advinus and SignalChem will benefit people around the world.”

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CYTOO Raises 10 M$ (7M€) in Series C Round

CYTOO SA, a company that specializes in cell-based assays, is pleased to announce the closing of a series C funding round of USD 10M (EUR 7M). New investors, Sham and Entrepreneurs Fund (EF), led the round. Existing investors AURIGA Partners and Jacques Lewiner, co-founder and president of the supervisory board at CYTOO, also participated.

CYTOO will use the financing to fully exploit its fast growing business within the global market of cellbased assays and screening, and bring the company up to profitability. Having the potential to lead the next innovation wave in cell-based drug discovery and in vitro toxicology, CYTOO is already on the radar screen of several key industrial actors.

“We are very excited about joining CYTOO as it enters a new phase in its development,” says Olivier Szymkowiak, Chief Investment Officer at Sham. “There is an exceptional opportunity for CYTOO to revolutionize the cell culture for low and high throughput applications,” added Maciek Drozdz, Investment Manager at EF and future Supervisory Board member.

Leveraging its exclusive technology of adhesive micropatterning, CYTOO’s products and services bring robustness, sensitivity and powerful quantification to cell-based assays, high content analysis and cell screening for the life science research market.

CYTOO holds an exclusive worldwide license from the Institut Curie and the CNRS (The French national scientific research center) for the adhesive micropattern patent portfolio, as well as license agreements with Harvard University (USA) and CEA, the largest government-funded technological research organization in France.

“This funding represents a strong achievement in the young history of CYTOO: the company has now the financial means for turning its technological advantage into a commercial success. A shift that the company has already initiated with the commitment of existing investors and our support through the expertise of Jacques Mallet, partner at Auriga Partners” added Franck Lescure, partner at Auriga Partners and member of the supervisory board at CYTOO.

François Chatelain, CEO of CYTOO, commented: “I am excited to lead the company and thrilled to close our series C financing round with a renowned international venture capital investors syndicate. We are welcoming Entrepreneurs Fund and Sham who bring their high level experience in building up successful biotech and medtech companies, we are also pleased with the continued commitment of our historical investors. Together we are looking to move our business and technology onto the next level of growth.”

CYTOO was advised for its capital raising by Silver Ocean Ventures’ Managing Partner Dr John Tchelingerian.

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GenQual Announces Initial Closing Of Its First Preferred Equity Funding Round

GenQual is pleased to announce initial closing of its first preferred equity round. Financial terms were not disclosed. This inaugural funding round allows GenQual to pursue proof-of-principle testing for its companion diagnostic approach for IL-6 mAb and other JAK/STAT inhibitors for autoimmune diseases and oncology indications. GenQual aims to prospectively identify responders for clinical-stage therapeutics to improve drug trial response rates and improve chances for drug approval. The round remains open for further funding.

GenQual Founder and CEO Jonathan Mirich said, “This funding round allows GenQual to pursue its business development goals to deliver companion diagnostics for very expensive IL-6 monoclonal antibody treatment for autoimmune disease, chiefly rheumatoid arthritis, as well as certain oncology indications. It allows us to extend collaborative agreements for proof-of-principle testing. We are very excited about the possibilities in this space.”

About GenQual
GenQual develops proprietary biomarker diagnostics for autoimmune and oncology indications. Our personalized medicine products are designed to facilitate early disease detection and diagnosis, and to improve treatment approaches at the molecular level. GenQual is a privately-held corporation based in the Seattle area.

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Advanced Liquid Logic Licenses Patents, Creates Collaboration With CEA-Leti

Advanced Liquid Logic announced today that it has signed a license and collaboration agreement with the French research institute CEA-Leti. The agreement provides Advanced Liquid Logic with worldwide exclusive access to CEA’s portfolio of patents related to digital microfluidics.

Advanced Liquid Logic co-founder and Dr. Michael Pollack said, “This agreement puts our company in a clearly dominant position with respect to the intellectual property surrounding digital microfluidics.” Co-founder Dr. Vamsee Pamula added, “the accompanying collaboration with a very active and highly competent group of researchers will provide us with key technical resources to help address both today’s and tomorrow’s technology challenges.” Advanced Liquid Logic has set up a subsidiary company in Grenoble, France to help manage the collaboration and to provide an initial position to address market opportunities in Europe. CEA-Leti employee Dr. Cyril Delattre will join the company and manage Advanced Liquid Logic’s French subsidiary.

“The combination of Advanced Liquid Logic’s intellectual property position and their readiness for market made them the ideal partner,” said Dr. Laurent Malier, CEO Leti. “We expect that our complementary skills, expertise and intellectual property will be very useful going forward. This partnership with Advanced Liquid Logic offers an industrial solution that will help us develop applications bases on microfluidics for many sectors”.

Advanced Liquid Logic previously acquired intellectual property from Nanolytics and Core Microsolutions. The company now owns or controls over 45 issued patents related to their proprietary, electrowetting-based digital microfluidic technology.

About Advanced Liquid Logic
Advanced Liquid Logic, headquartered in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, is commercializing its proprietary “Digital Microfluidics” technology in a spectrum of life sciences and clinical diagnostics applications. Digital microfluidics enables precise and flexible manipulation of microdroplets using electrical fields and therefore avoids the need for pumps, valves or microchannels required by competing technologies. For more information please visit http://www.liquid-logic.com/

About CEA-Leti
CEA is a French research and technology organization, with activities in four main areas: energy, information technologies, healthcare technologies and defence and security. Within CEA, the Laboratory for Electronics & Information Technology (CEA-Leti) works with companies in order to increase their competitiveness through technological innovation and transfers. CEA-Leti is focused on micro and nanotechnologies and their applications, from wireless devices and systems, to biology and healthcare or photonics. Nanoelectronics and microsystems (MEMS) are at the core of its activities. As a major player in MINATEC campus, CEA-Leti operates 8,000-m² state-of-the-art clean rooms, on 24/7 mode, on 200mm and 300mm wafer standards. With 1,400 employees, CEA-Leti trains more than 190 Ph.D. students and hosts 200 assignees from partner companies. Strongly committed to the creation of value for the industry, CEA-Leti puts a strong emphasis on intellectual property and owns more than 1,700 patent families.
Visit www.leti.fr.

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Investor Stem Cell Launches Online Discussion Community Dedicated To Stem Cell Investors: (OTC-ACTC) (NASDAQ-GERN) (AMEX-BTX) (NASDAQ:ATHX)

Investor Stem Cell (http://www.investorstemcell.com) is dedicated to bringing investors and stakeholders together in thoughtful discussion to educate and publicize the incredible medical advancements taking place in the regenerative medicine sector. Scientists are using stem cells both (hESC) and (iPSC) in hopes of easing the suffering of hundreds of millions of people world wide.

Our society is on the verge of a quantum leap moment in time thanks to regenerative medicine.

Regenerative medicine and Stem Cell research:

Utter those words at your next dinner party or casual gathering of friends and family. You will receive a concoction of half-truth’s and out right fallacy responses. Stem Cell research conjures images of futuristic Star–Trek like preservation chambers, human looking ears protruding oddly from the backs of mice, or worse yet an image of a late term fetus. Nothing could be farther from the truth when entering the reality of Regenerative medicine.

Never before has this area of research been more exciting and promising than right now. There is a medical revolution brewing, and like any revolution, there are those who want to suppress this uprising for continued personal and ideological gains. If we were to take all the major advances in the past 500 years of human medical history and multiply its effect by 10 fold it still would not compare to the paradigm shift in health care delivery that the world may witness in this decade using stem cells. Imagine that an $800,000 heart transplant is no longer needed and that instead the same money spent on one patient can now be stretched out to treat 20 patients who are needing a heart transplant. Is this what Regenerative medicine has in the offing? Only time will tell. Our healthcare system could very well be on the verge of a quantum leap moment thanks to regenerative medicine.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized 3 trials using human embryonic stem cells (hESC) in late 2010. Validation of hESC research efforts and the culmination of billions spent on research are coming to fruition. FDA validation for the treatments of spinal cord injury and age related macular degeneration is expected in 2011. It may be the shot heard around the world event sometime in late Q-4 2011 for the Regenerative medicine sector.

Find out more at http://www.investorstemcell.com, where investing is much more than charts and numbers.

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MicroTissues, Inc. Announces New Product Launch for the 3D Petri Dishâ„¢

MicroTissues, Inc. announced today the launch of its 3D Petri Dishâ„¢ line of products. The 3D Petri Dishâ„¢ is a new tool for the world wide industry of life sciences research and drug discovery. Invented at Brown University, the 3D Petri Dishâ„¢ grows living human cells in three dimensions (3D) where they replicate the function of natural tissues and organs. There are important applications for these human 3D microtissues in cancer and stem cell research as well as toxicity testing, drug discovery and cell therapy.

“The scientific community has recognized the need for a reliable 3D cell culture technology that accurately produces natural cell-to-cell interactions and is easy to use” said Brian Morgan, Marketing Manager of MicroTissues, Inc. “Not only does our 3D Petri Dish™ line of products create 3D microtissues without artificial scaffolds, the microtissues are uniform in size, easy to harvest and accessible to the standard biochemical and microscopy methods that cutting edge labs demand. No other 3D cell product has all these technical advantages. And, we have the only reusable product.”

MicroTissues, Inc offers eight products that are precision micro-molds used to cast 3D Petri Dishesâ„¢ that fit in standard multi-well plates. The micro-molds are autoclavable and reusable. In a single pippetting step, the 3D Petri Dishâ„¢ forms hundreds of spheroids (hepatospheres, cardiospheres, mammospheres, neurospheres, and embryoid bodies), and microtissues with more complex shapes and geometries. Over thirty different cell types, including primary human cells, have been shown to form 3D microtissues in the 3D Petri Dishâ„¢.

MicroTissues, Inc. a privately held company with an exclusive worldwide license to US and international patent applications on the 3D Petri Dish™, is advancing technologies and applications of 3D cell culture.

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MicroTissues, Inc.’s 3D Petri Dishâ„¢ Is Helping to Reduce Animal Use in Research

MicroTissues, Inc. announced today that its 3D Petri Dish™ is targeted towards helping to reduce the numbers of animals used in research. The 3D Petri Dish™ is a new tool for the world wide industry of life sciences research and drug discovery that grows living cells in three dimensions (3D). These 3D microtissues replicate the function of natural tissues and organs better than conventional 2D methods and are increasingly being used in toxicity testing of new drugs and cosmetics.

“Worldwide, efforts are underway to reduce the use of animals in research and we’re excited to be offering a new technology for toxicity testing” said Brian Morgan, Marketing Manager of MicroTissues, Inc. “The 3D Petri Dish™ is a reliable 3D cell culture technology that accurately produces natural cell-to-cell interactions and is easy to use. And, it forms 3D microtissues from human cells, so toxicity testing data is more relevant.”

Effective 2009, the European Union banned the use of animal testing for cosmetic products and many believe the trend to reduce the use of animals in research will continue worldwide. MicroTissues, Inc. is helping to address this issue by offering eight products that are precision micro-molds used to cast 3D Petri Dishesâ„¢ that fit in standard multi-well plates. The 3D Petri Dishâ„¢ forms hundreds of multi-cellular 3D spheroids from cells useful for toxicity testing including hepatospheres, cardiospheres, mammospheres, neurospheres, and embryoid bodies. The 3D Petri Dishâ„¢ technology also forms microtissues with complex shapes having geometries that mimic natural organs. Over thirty different cell types, including primary human cells, have been shown to form 3D microtissues in the 3D Petri Dishâ„¢.

MicroTissues, Inc. a privately held company with an exclusive worldwide license to US and international patent applications on the 3D Petri Dish™, is advancing technologies and applications of 3D cell culture. The company’s products stand above the rest because they are designed to create more natural and more reliable 3D cell culture environments based on cell-to-cell interactions in convenient and consistent formats that generate high content information. The company’s lead line of products, the 3D Petri Dish™, is serving the needs of researchers in a wide range of areas including cancer research, stem cell biology, toxicity testing, developmental biology, drug discovery, regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. In addition to products for basic research, MicroTissues, Inc. is using its platform technology to pursue applications in drug discovery and cell therapy. For more information, please visit www.microtissues.com.

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MicroTissues, Inc.’s 3D Petri Dishâ„¢ Used in Time Magazine’s Medical Breakthrough of 2010

MicroTissues, Inc. announced today that its 3D Petri Dish™ was used in one of Time magazine’s medical breakthroughs of 2010. Researchers at Brown University and Women and Infants Hospital used the 3D Petri Dish™ to invent the first artificial human ovary, a discovery important for fertility research and a possible infertility treatment for cancer patients. In lab studies, the investigators used the 3D Petri Dish™ to assemble three different cell types into a 3D structure resembling an ovary where they functioned for all intents and purposes like a real ovary, even successfully maturing a human egg from its earliest stages in the follicle to a fully developed form.

“This is an exciting medical breakthrough and an significant validation of the importance of the 3D Petri Dish™ technology” said Brian Morgan, Marketing Manager of MicroTissues, Inc. “Cell-to-cell interactions are critical for the function of the ovary and the 3D Petri Dish™ is designed to promote these interactions. The honeycomb shaped 3D microtissue used in these studies is a great example of the kinds of complex shaped microtissues that can only be produced with the 3D Petri Dish™.”

MicroTissues, Inc offers eight products that are precision micro-molds used to cast 3D Petri Dishes™ that fit in standard multi-well plates. The micro-molds are autoclavable and reusable. The 3D Petri Dish™ is used to form 3D spheroids and microtissues with more complex shapes and geometries such as toroids and honeycombs. Over thirty different cell types, including primary human cells, have been shown to form 3D microtissues in the 3D Petri Dish™.

MicroTissues, Inc. a privately held company with an exclusive worldwide license to US and international patent applications on the 3D Petri Dish™, is advancing technologies and applications of 3D cell culture. The company’s products stand above the rest because they are designed to create more natural and more reliable 3D cell culture environments based on cell-to-cell interactions in convenient and consistent formats that generate high content information. The company’s lead line of products, the 3D Petri Dish™, is serving the needs of researchers in a wide range of areas including cancer research, stem cell biology, toxicity testing, developmental biology, drug discovery, regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. In addition to products for basic research, MicroTissues, Inc. is using its platform technology to pursue applications in drug discovery and cell therapy. For more information, please visit www.microtissues.com.

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Assay-Ready Chemistry Partnership between Enamine and Molplex

Molplex and Enamine today announced a new partnership to offer the Enamine screening collection of 1.8 million stock chemicals through the Molplex online drug design and assay-ready chemical supply services. The agreement is a major step towards eliminating the high start-up costs ofdrug discovery, bringing sophisticated drug design, compound management and assay-ready chemistry to the world’s drug discovery scientists on demand. The agreement adds Molplex online drug design systems to the deep experience in organic chemistry and compound management of Enamine to solve the problem of generating viable chemical leads for novel targets.

Molplex CEO David E. Leahy said: “We are very proud to be selected by Enamine as their partner for on demand drug discovery services at a time when major restructuring of the industry is creating new opportunities and new markets for our combined expertise. This agreement marks a step change in the size and scope of our assay-ready chemical supply service and major progress towards our goal of being the world’s first choice partner for enabling the long tail of drug discovery”

Enamine Chief Marketing and Sales Officer Dr Vladimir Ivanov said “We are happy to partner with Molplex and supply our products to the highly integrated drug discovery platform they maintain. In this collaboration we deploy all our discovery resources including the world’s biggest screening collection (1.8 million compounds), largest inventory of building blocks (45,000 products), and over 300 chemists at our Kiev’s site to assure high cost efficiency and high responsiveness to any follow up chemistry emerging from projects run through Molplex discovery platform.”

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Gene Therapy and Stem Cell Therapy Standard Developed For A Unique Derivative Of Post Hetero-Plastic Inplantation Chronic Inflammation Syndrome, The NIDO Disease

Researchers task force, led by faculties of T-Protocol, registered Genom Project as controlled genom project in the hosted database of NCBI, a publication matter authority and function assigned organization under oversee of Department of Health & Human Services, reached once to share the exegetical impression officially pre-published concerning the understanding specific spectrum of symptoms covering boroad range of character usually complained and observed through chronic inflammation, granuloma, some types of lymphoma and various uncommon symptoms to let physician scientists suspecting indicium of neurological diseases, NIDO disease, an unique type of post hetero-plastic implantation chronic inflammation syndrome and setting Massachusetts indications of treatments standardized manual (Massachusetts manual) & diagnostic and standardized medical treatment manual for post hetero-plastic inplantation chronic inflammation syndrome, specific edition against NIDO Disease.

The once defined causes of NIDO disease, an unique type of post hetero-plastic implantation chronic inflammation syndrome are considered each of a common living organism to cause conformational diseases like Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease and kinds of and a set of biochemical and physical reaction and response realized by cross-species gene- mutation, as biotransformation, easily describing natural physiological and biochemical changes in vivo substrate of human bodies. After this studies, standardized protocol of gene therapy and applied stem cell therapy is now in practice and on available.

Faculties,committing themselves entirely to the project, of each institutes and organizations participating the project to ascertain proteins and DNA/genomic DNA/genom of human, other mammal and virulent microorganism including bacillus/virus affecting each symptom and the symptoms’ spectrum expressed generally and observed commonly on patients suffered from NIDO disease, extraordinarily unique derived type of post hetero-plastic implantation chronic inflammation syndrome and to develop diagnostic standard and treatment protocol standardized and to find a clue compose gene therapy protocol and applied stem cell therapy protocol to entirely heal NIDO disease, an unique type of post hetero-plastic implantation chronic inflammation syndrome and to let all of current suffered patients from various combined symptoms directly derived by chronic inflammation and various tumors, have to express full surprise at the fact that these disease and patients suffered are made up and left no attention and no relief.

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Nationaly Registered T-Protocol Of Genom Project Successfully Applied To Retrieve Bio Mechanism Of Hair Regrowth

Division of Gene Medicine & Stem Cell Application, School of Medical Science, complete the research and established completely new protocol totally recovering natural bio mechanism of hair regrowth.

The researchers, led by Lord. Prof. Dr. Daichent Otto Rie, specified protein and genom to affect internal bio mechanism to generate hair and control the level of successful growth being low which is the baldness.

The key cast of the set of the bio cycle is hair follicles, which is stem cell on head skin and effect or holding function to cure many neurotic diseases and disorders like Alzheimer’s disease – Prion Disease and even Trion Disease (Post Hetero-Plastic Implantation Chronic Inflammation Syndrome; PhCIS) has absolutely unique character being retrieved absolute stem cell, which can recover the ability as stem cell after got adult. The key genom and DNA has been found through the Genom Project’s T-Protocol research developing in the government registered Genom Project since 2005. The most concentrated attention of researchers is not “what is cause” but “What protocol is best”.

The team of Prof.Daichent has successfully completed in vivo and in vivro experiment actually using voluntary patients whose types of hair loss being across over highly wide range extent to even lymphoma and cancer and finally established next genetic hair loss curing treatment protocol mainly composed of stem cell therapy and gene therapy.

Most of cases are treatable through entry level stem cell theraputic technique or HIV-1 Vector using high level technique but A20 introduction as gene therapy is required when treating patients being suffered from lymphoma, cancer or any neurotic diseases like Alzheimer’s disease – Prion Disease and even Trion Disease (Post Hetero-Plastic Implantation Chronic Inflammation Syndrome; PhCIS).

As Prof.Daichent points since 2005 being on School of Public Health of Harvard, in the treatment manual (published 2005), the key factor to overcome of lymphoma and chronic inflammation on human skin is extraordinary redundancy coding of polyglutamine DNA synthesis as the type of disease caused by pathological proteins and lack or heavy impairment of an specific DNA of A20.

Actually, the treatment protocol curing for baldness is also found through T-protocol which was essentially aimed at achieving causal and complete treatment of lymphoma, cancer, chronic inflammation and many neurotic diseases. Under control over the T-Protocol, all of clinical practitioner must always keep their eyes on the fact of using steroid is taboo over administration so being strictly prohibited. And also the technique must be under control of the competent faculty accredited by board in accordance with Europ.Gene Institute or specifically set physically area solely for research and clinical practice of nations like Switzerland, Germany, India, Hongkong, U.K. territories (NEVER inside U.K.) appointed by protocol developer and assigned practice entity.

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Drug Discovery On Demand By Molplex

An innovative new online “drug discovery on demand” platform has been launched by Molplex, a company specializing in products and services for the life sciences. Designed to help drug discovery groups working anywhere in the world, it aimsto eliminate the high start-up costs and minimize the financial risks traditionally associated with inventing new medicines.

Molplex CEO David Leahy said: “As the pharmaceutical industry changes, a new ecosystem of small, flexible teams operating as “Micro Pharmas” is emerging. Molplex will provide the services they need to succeed at inventing better medicines at lower cost”.

The first version of the new Molplex system launched today offers free access to sophisticated drug design systems, high quality assay-ready stock chemicals and high content biological screening at www.molplex.com.

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Turkey’s Biopharmaceutical Sector Attracts, Boosts Research and Development Expenditures

A recent report on the biopharmaceutical sector presence, employment, economic output and research and development activity in the European States highlights Turkey’s long-term prospects for growth. The report notes that the industry is creating a positive ripple across the region’s economy, improving the quality of life for its citizens and increasing access to medicine.

In particular, strong public-private industry collaborations and an emphasis on research and development are highlighted as aiding in the development of new medicines, improving access to medicine and increasing the economic benefits of the region. Güler Hülya Yılmaz, head of Deloitte Turkey’s Health and Drug Industry division, emphasizes the importance of research and development (R&D) in the biopharmaceutical sector. Yilmaz states, “In R&D, it’s important that there be a strong foundation for laying the bricks of innovation. Turkey has that foundation, but with this there is a need for government support of new research and partnerships between industry and academia.”

Global Health Progress (GHP) also believes proper support for research and development in the pharmaceutical industry can contribute to the Turkish economy far beyond drug development and production. For example, the Turkish biopharmaceutical market has expanded rapidly, generating approximately US $8.5 billion in revenue in 2008 and contributed thousands of high-quality, highly skilled jobs to the region. Fortunately, recent reforms and policy changes by the Turkish government have created a more favorable environment for R&D investment. For example, the Turkish government has implemented a number of Technology Development Zones, which feature exemptions from income and corporate taxes on profits derived from R&D activity, an exemption from taxes on the wages of R&D personnel employed in the zones and value added tax (VAT) exemptions, all through 2013.

Additionally, the country’s sizeable pool of patients for clinical trials can bring health benefits, diffusion of medical knowledge and greater patient access to medicine and high quality care to citizens. With a population of approximately 72 million and a growing middle class, chronic diseases represent the majority of Turkey’s disease burden. An increased focus on prevention, early intervention, new treatments, and public-private partnerships, including recent government, university and industry collaboration facilitated by the establishment of several research institutes, is critical to reducing the health and economic burden of disease in Turkey.

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Cryo-Cell CEO Mercedes Walton Invites Women to Share Their Ideas on Self-Care and the Power of Stem Cells

Cryo-Cell International, Inc. a global leader in stem cell innovation, resolves to help women inspire and empower each other to take charge of their health in the New Year, and to spark conversations about the promise of stem cells.  The company will be accepting video entries for its “Resolution Revolution” contest through January 31, 2010, and details on the event can be found at www.celle.com/resolution.

“This time of year, we often make New Year’s resolutions to take better care of ourselves, but the dawn of a new decade is particularly poignant as we look ahead with hope and inspiration at the steps we can take,” said Mercedes Walton, CEO of Cryo-Cell International.  “Never in history have we experienced a time of such rapid advances with stem cells, including the use of menstrual blood stem cells and how they may help women protect their health” she added.  “Because women often look to each other for information and inspiration, we’re looking to empower them to spread the word through video about what the power of stem cells means to them.”

The C’elle service is the first and only one of its kind, empowering women to collect and cryo preserve stem cells from their menstrual flow.

Stem cells from menstrual blood are proven to be a rich source of stem cells which proliferate rapidly and have the ability to become many different types of cells such as cardiac, neural, bone, fat and cartilage.

These stem cells are a potential source for promising regenerative therapies to treat stroke, cardiac, diabetes, breast cancer, spinal cord injury, chronic wounds, Alzheimer’s and other debilitating diseases.

Since launching its proprietary service, the company continues to expand research and development initiatives worldwide in order to accelerate the potential diagnostic and therapeutic benefits of these unique stem cells. Cryo-Cell partnered with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center, where research is underway to better understand the C’elle stem cells and their potential benefit for the treatment of breast cancer.  It also has entered research and licensing agreements with several other organizations to identify potential future diagnostic and therapeutic uses for endometriosis and stress urinary incontinence in women and regenerative medicine specific to wound healing. In 2009, the service was licensed in China, Thailand and Brazil.

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Cord Blood: Saving For The Future

For an expectant mother, there are a million details to worry about and a lot of important decisions to be made.

Cord Blood: Saving For The Future

One of those decisions to be made is whether to bank your baby’s umbilical cord blood. Cord blood is valuable because it’s full of stem cells scientists and doctors can use in research and regenerative medicine.

Cord blood stem cells are the ones that are obtained from the newborn. They’re closest in age to being an embryonic stem cell without being an embryonic stem cell,” said David Harris, PhD with Cord Blood Registry.

When they’re stored properly in a bank, like one in Arizona, the stem cells can be used to replace other cells in our bodies that may be damaged or missing due to disease. But, you only have one chance to harvest them.

“At the time of delivery, before the placenta is delivered, we have a little bag with a needle and a tube, like an IV tubing, and we actually draw the blood out of the placenta into a prepared bag and that’s what you send in to the cord blood banking people,” said Dr. Lynn Frame.

But, Dr. Frame says very few of his patients actually do it because of the cost.

Most private cord blood banks charge more than $1,000 up front. Then, for every year you store the blood in one of their cryogenic tanks, it costs about $100. For 18 years of storage, it can add up to about $3,000.

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Scientist Uses Stem Cells To Repair Heart

Dr. Joshua Hare believes medicine is close to a goal long thought to be impossible: healing the human heart.

The way to get there? Stem cells.

“These could be as big as antibiotics were in the last century,” said Hare, who leads the University of Miami ‘s new Stem Cell Institute. “Stem cells have the potential to have that kind of impact. Diseases like heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure, liver failure — we will be able to transition them into things you live with.”

Hare spends his days peering through powerful microscopes, recruiting scientists from top universities and attending to patients betting on improving their conditions through his clinical trials.

Stem cells, only one-thousandth the size of a grain of sand, are the master cells of the body, the source from which all other cells are created.

The most basic are embryonic stem cells, which are “totipotent,” meaning they can divide into any other type of cell — heart tissue, brain tissue, kidney tissue — all 220 cells that exist in the human body. They’re controversial because when they are harvested, the embryo is destroyed, ending potential life.

But coming into view are new kinds of stem cells — immature adult stem cells that can be extracted from bone marrow, from organs such as the heart or kidney or even from the skin. These can be taken without destroying embryos.

While researchers until recently believed adult stem cells were limited because they could develop only into cells similar to them — bone marrow cells only into cord blood stem cells, for example — evidence is growing that they, too, may become the tissue for hearts, brains, kidneys and other organs.

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Will Intra-Osseous Injection of Umbilical Cord Blood Reduce Graft Failures?

Researchers from Italy have reported that the injection of umbilical cord blood directly into the pelvic bones of patients with leukemia appears promising. These results were recently published in an early online publication of the Lancet Oncology on August 9, 2008.

Transplantation of bone marrow, peripheral blood stem cells, and umbilical cord blood is accomplished by intravenous infusion. The original studies of human bone marrow transplantation were carried out by direct infusion into bone marrow spaces. However, this approach was abandoned as there was no advantage in speed or rate of engraftment over intravenous infusion. Since these early days of transplantation, there have been sporadic attempts to evaluate intra-osseous infusion of stem cells, but no advantage over intravenous infusion was ever found. The reason for this is thought to be that direct infusion of stem cells into the marrow cavity is in fact identical to intra-arterial or intra-venous infusion, and most stem cells enter the general circulation before homing into marrow spaces throughout the body.

Umbilical cord blood transplantation is associated with relatively high graft failure rates thought to be due to the relatively low dose of stem cells in each collection. Researchers have suggested that the infusion of stem cells from two separate cord blood collections alleviates the graft failure problem. However, Italian researches have posed the question of whether or not intra-osseous infusion would be better.

The current trial evaluated direct infusion of umbilical cord blood into the pelvic bones. This trial included 32 patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and 12 with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL); median age was 36 years. Overall, 14 patients had advanced-stage disease that did not respond to standard therapies, and no patient had a suitable donor for the stem cell transplant.

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