Science and Enterprise

Tag: biotechnology

  • University Spins Off Biomarker Targeting Company

    The University of Liège in Belgium announced the first spin-off company, called Targetome, from GIGA, the university’s applied geno-proteomics center. The company is led by Vincent Castronovo (pictured left), a university faculty member on whose research the company is based. The company is developing a new technique to identify biomarkers which are over-expressed in certain…

  • Pfizer and UCSF Sign R&D Collaboration, More Planned

    Pfizer Inc., the New York, N.Y. pharmaceutical manufacturer, said today it will establish a network of partnerships with academic medical centers to access the talents of university researchers. Called the Global Centers for Therapeutic Innovation, the University of California, San Francisco is the first university in Pfizer’s network. Pfizer plans to establish a presence at…

  • Lighting Technology Helps Combat Hospital Superbugs

    A lighting system that can kill hospital bacteria resistant to antibiotics called superbugs has been developed by researchers at University of Strathclyde in Glascow, Scotland. The superbug bacteria killed by this technology include methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Clostridium difficile (c. diff). A team of professors from the university’s engineering, physics, and biology departments discovered…

  • Companies Partner on Renewable Fragrance/Flavor Materials

    Amyris Inc., a developer of renewable materials through synthetic biology in Emeryville, California said it has signed a collaboration and joint development agreement with Firmenich, a maker of fragrances and flavors in Geneva, Switzerland. This is the first agreement for Amyris in the fragrance and flavor industry. Firmenich will fund Amyris’s development of a sustainable…

  • Pre-Clinical Data Support Cancer Stem Cell Drug

    Geron Corporation in Menlo Park, California said today two studies with preclinical data demonstrate that the company’s telomerase inhibitor drug imetelstat (GRN163L) targets cancer stem cells from multiple myeloma, pancreatic, and breast cancers. Imetelstat is currently in Phase 2 clinical trials. The company says imetelstat targets cancer stem cells, found in many types of cancer,…

  • FDA Designates Orphan Drug Made From Tarantula Venom

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has designated the peptide GsMTx4, made by Rose Pharmaceuticals of Buffalo, New York, as an orphan drug for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Rose Pharmaceuticals is a one-year old company founded by University at Buffalo (UB) medical professor Frederick Sachs and Buffalo stockbroker Jeff Harvey. While Sachs (pictured left) applied…

  • Mass. Biotechs Give Postdocs a Look at Business

    The business Web site Xconomy today tells about a year-old program for postdoctoral researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston that gives postdocs a first-hand look at biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. In Xconomy, Sylvia Pagán Westphal tells about Mass. General’s Post Doc Industry Experience Program. Westphal says there are some 1,100 labs affiliated with Mass.…

  • Engineered Plant Produces Compounds for Plastics

    Plants may have in theory the kinds of raw materials for plastics obtained from petroleum-based chemicals, but in reality, getting plants to accumulate these desired products in any meaningful quantity has been an elusive goal. In a step toward industrial-scale green production, scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New…

  • FDA Designates Anthrax Treatment Candidate as Orphan Drug

    Emergent BioSolutions Inc., a biotechnology company in Rockville, Maryland, says the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has designated as an orphan drug its human anthrax monoclonal antibody AVP-21D9, in development for the treatment of inhalation anthrax. FDA grants orphan status to drugs and biologics being developed to treat rare conditions, specifically those affecting fewer…

  • Biotechs Awarded Michael J. Fox Foundation Grants

    Two biotechnology companies report today awards of grants from the Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF). The foundation supports research on therapies for Parkinson’s disease. Adolor Corporation in Exton, Pennsylvania says it received a second round of funding by MJFF to support the development of treatments for levadopa (l-DOPA)-induced dyskinesia (LID) associated with Parkinson’s disease. The…