Archive for August, 2009
The path to new antibiotics
Last Updated on Monday, 31 August 2009 03:30 Written by Editor Monday, 31 August 2009 03:30
LA JOLLA, Calif., August 27, 2009 — Researchers at Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham), University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and University of Maryland have demonstrated that an enzyme that is essential to many bacteria can be targeted to kill dangerous pathogens. In addition, investigators discovered chemical compounds that can inhibit this enzyme and suppress the growth of pathogenic bacteria. These findings are essential to develop new broad-spectrum antibacterial agents to overcome multidrug resistance. The research was published in the Cell journal Chemistry & Biology on August 27.
Andrei Osterman, Ph.D., an associate professor in Burnham’s Bioinformatics and Systems Biology program, and colleagues, targeted the bacterial nicotinate mononucleotide adenylyltransferase (NadD), an essential enzyme for nicotinamide adenine dinculeotide (NAD) biosynthesis. NAD has many crucial functions in nearly all important pathogens and the bacterial NadD differs significantly from the human enzyme.
“It’s clear that because of bacterial resistance, we need new, wide-spectrum antibiotics,” said Dr. Osterman. “This enzyme is indispensable in many pathogens, so finding ways to inhibit it could give us new options against infection.”
According to the National Institutes of Health, drug resistance is making many diseases increasingly difficult — and sometimes impossible — to treat. They point to tuberculosis and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) as two pathogens that pose a serious threat to human health.
Using a structure-based approach, the team searched for low-molecular-weight compounds that would selectively inhibit bacterial NadD, but not the human equivalent, by screening, in silico, more than a million compounds. Experimental testing of the best predicted compounds against Escherichia coli and Bacillus anthracis (anthrax) led them to a handful of versatile inhibitory chemotypes, which they explored in detail. Using protein crystallography, a 3D structure of the enzyme in complex with one of the inhibitors was solved providing guidelines for further drug improvement.
“This is proof-of-concept that NadD is a good target to create antibacterial agents,” said Dr Osterman. “This knowledge will be useful for both biodefense and public health. The next step is to find better inhibitors. We do not have a silver bullet yet, but we are certainly hitting a golden target.”
This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
About Burnham Institute for Medical Research
Burnham Institute for Medical Research is dedicated to discovering the fundamental molecular causes of disease and devising the innovative therapies of tomorrow. Burnham, with operations in California and Florida, is one of the fastest-growing research institutes in the country. The institute ranks among the top four institutions nationally for NIH grant funding and among the top 25 organizations worldwide for its research impact. For the past decade (1999-2009), Burnham ranked first worldwide in the fields of biology and biochemistry for the impact of its research publications (defined by citations per publication), according to the Institute for Scientific Information.
Burnham utilizes a unique, collaborative approach to medical research and has established major research programs in cancer, neurodegeneration, diabetes, and infectious, inflammatory, and childhood diseases. The Institute is especially known for its world-class capabilities in stem cell research and drug discovery technologies. Burnham is a nonprofit public benefit corporation. For more information, please visit www.burnham.org.
Researchers develop screening test for cells that activate immune system
Last Updated on Wednesday, 26 August 2009 11:31 Written by Editor Wednesday, 26 August 2009 11:31
UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers are the first to design a large-scale, cell-based screening method that identifies which compounds activate immune-return cells that hold compact for prospective cancer-fighting vaccines.
The new screening technique can scan thousands and even millions of compounds to identify those that activate dendritic cells, which are on constant recon patrol throughout the body to scout out cancerous or infected cells and alert the immune system.
“Our assay is unique from other conventional ones in its sensitivity and cost- and time-efficiency,†said Dr. Akira Takashima, professor of dermatology and vice chairman for research and head of the project.
Dendritic cells (DCs) are considered key to developing future vaccines that can either mimic the body’s natural immune response or turn on immune responses that failed – due, for example, to cancer or an immune deficiency.
The team, which also included Dr. Norikatsu Mitzumoto, assistant professor of dermatology and the study’s lead author, and Drs. Hironori Matsushima and Hiroaki Tanaka, postdoctoral researchers in dermatology, created the cell-based biosensor system.
“We basically engineered DCs to express a fluorescent signal only when sensing activation signals so that you can identify immuno-stimulatory agents very easily,†said Dr. Takashima. Immuno-stimulatory agents launch the immune system.
The research appears on Blood magazine’s online Web site and will appear in a future issue.
“We have optimized the high-throughput screening capability – an experienced scientist can now test one thousand chemicals a day almost single-handedly,†added Dr. Mizumoto. Previously, scientists would have to test each compound individually, a time-consuming process.
Their research already has led to the discovery of several compounds that turn on dendritic cells, which are found throughout the body from skin to blood. They continuously scan the body at the cellular level looking for antigens – foreign cells and materials invading the body – and for molecular signatures of tissue damage or infection.
“Their primary job is to present antigens to the immune system so that you develop protective immunity for infection and cancer,†said Dr. Takashima.
The DC biosensor system should help pharmaceutical and biotech companies sift through large numbers of chemicals for ones that tell the dendritic cells to launch the immune response. It may also prove useful in identifying biothreat agents because it detects infectious pathogens with high sensitivity.
Dr. Takashima said he hopes to garner additional funding to discover potent immuno-stimulatory drugs by screening high-quality libraries of compounds.
Doing so may be the first step toward developing a new class of vaccines that force or trick the natural immune system to kick on, or initiate an immune response that can be copied and initiated artificially.
Other UT Southwestern researchers from dermatology involved in the study were Dr. Yasushi Ogawa, postdoctoral researcher, and Dr. Jimin Gao, former instructor.
The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Dermatology Foundation Career Development Award and the American Cancer Society Junior Investigator Award.
http://www.utsouthwestern.edu/
Structure-based substrate screening for an enzyme
Last Updated on Wednesday, 26 August 2009 11:20 Written by Editor Wednesday, 26 August 2009 11:20
Nowadays, more and more novel enzymes can be easily found in the whole enzyme pool with the rapid development of genetic operation. However, experimental work for substrate screening of a new enzyme is laborious, time consuming and costly.
On the other hand, many computational methods have been widely used in lead screening of drug design. Seeing that the ligand-target protein system in drug design and the substrate-enzyme system in enzyme applications share the similar molecular recognition mechanism, we aim to fulfill the goal of substrate screening by in silico means in the present study.
Results: A computer-aided substrate screening (CASS) system which was based on the enzyme structure was designed and employed successfully to help screen substrates of Candida antarctica lipase B (CALB).
In this system, restricted molecular docking which was derived from the mechanism of the enzyme was applied to predict the energetically favorable poses of substrate-enzyme complexes. Thereafter, substrate conformation, distance between the oxygen atom of the alcohol part of the ester (in some compounds, this oxygen atom was replaced by nitrogen atom of the amine part of acid amine or sulfur atom of the thioester) and the hydrogen atom of imidazole of His224, distance between the carbon atom of the carbonyl group of the compound and the oxygen atom of hydroxyl group of Ser105 were used sequentially as the criteria to screen the binding poses.
223 out of 233 compounds were identified correctly for the enzyme by this screening system. Such high accuracy guaranteed the feasibility and reliability of the CASS system.
Conclusions: The idea of computer-aided substrate screening is a creative combination of computational skills and enzymology.
Although the case studied in this paper is tentative, high accuracy of the CASS system sheds light on the field of computer-aided substrate screening.
Author: Tao XuLujia ZhangXuedong WangDongzhi WeiTianbi Li
Credits/Source: BMC Bioinformatics 2009, 10:257
Source: 7thspace.com
Southern Research to Play Key Role in the Federal Government’s Search for New Cancer Therapies
Last Updated on Tuesday, 25 August 2009 03:29 Written by Editor Tuesday, 25 August 2009 03:29
National Cancer Institute Chemical Biology Consortium to coordinate academic, private and government cancer drug discovery efforts
BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Aug. 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Southern Research Institute today announced that it has been selected as one of 11 organizations to help establish the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Chemical Biology Consortium (CBC)–a program meant to coordinate and accelerate the discovery and development of new therapeutic agents to treat cancer patients. Southern Research will establish one of NCI’s five Comprehensive Chemical Biology Centers at its Birmingham campus.
“We are very pleased that Southern Research was selected to participate in this new program to expedite and coordinate the discovery and development of new cancer therapies,” said W. Blaine Knight, Ph.D., vice president of Drug Discovery and Principal Investigator of this effort at Southern Research. “Cancer accounts for nearly one out of every four deaths in this country and the National Institutes of Health estimate that the overall costs of cancer last year were more than $228 billion for health expenses and lost productivity. The search for newer and better drugs is never-ending, and something cancer patients and their families depend upon.”
Southern Research has a remarkable cancer-fighting track record having already discovered six FDA-approved drugs currently used in the treatment of cancer–amifostine, fludarabine, dacarbazine, lomustine, carmustine and clofarabine–with seven additional drugs in late stage preclinical and early clinical trials. Scientists at Southern Research have also evaluated approximately 50 percent of all FDA-approved cancer drugs currently available for patients.
“Our experience in cancer research and our track record in drug discovery were clearly recognized by our selection as a Comprehensive Center in the CBC consortium,” said John A. Secrist III, Ph.D., president and CEO of Southern Research. “We look forward to partnering with the federal government as it accelerates cancer drug discovery.”
As a Comprehensive Chemical Biology Center, Southern Research will focus on numerous aspects of preclinical drug research from target discovery, assay development, high throughput screening, structural/computational chemistry, and biology, through lead optimization and preclinical development. In addition Southern Research has an extensive compound library that will be made available for the CBC effort.
Dr. Knight says that work is expected to begin immediately.
This project has been funded in whole or in part with Federal Funds from the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, under Contract No. NO1-CO-12400. The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Dept. of Health and Human Services, nor does the mention of trade names, commercial products or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
About the Chemical Biology Consortium
The CBC will establish an integrated network of chemical biologists, molecular oncologists, and compound screening centers from government, academia, and eventually from industry. The drug discovery strategy of the CBC is to expand current NCI programs by providing a coordinated focus on therapeutic opportunities in high-risk, under-represented areas, significantly advancing the discovery of novel compounds active against specific molecular and genetic cancer targets. CBC efforts will include recruiting extramural investigators with specialized expertise in novel discovery platforms as well as medicinal chemistry, chemical biology, molecular oncology, and other areas of drug discovery and development. The CBC will be centrally managed to coordinate the selection of targets and screening for agents that interact with these targets, and will then use an iterative development process to design and optimize drug “hits” into “leads.” The CBC will benefit from access to the NCI’s late-stage drug development resources and expertise.
The program is being developed by NCI’s Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis (DCTD), in conjunction with NCI’s Center for Cancer Research (CCR) and the NCI Director’s Office, with guidance from external advisory panels. This effort will be managed by the NCI’s Experimental Therapeutics (NExT) Program. SAIC-Frederick, Inc. (SAIC-F) will provide support for the key operational and technical aspects. It is envisioned that this Consortium will provide cutting-edge chemical tools for probing complex biochemical signaling pathways and will serve as the starting point for the elaboration of first-in-class targeted therapies. The long-term vision of the CBC is to bridge the gap between basic scientific findings and NCI-supported clinical research to facilitate the discovery and development of new agents to treat patients with cancer.
Participants will have an unparalleled opportunity to participate in a highly collaborative drug discovery partnership with the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Using state-of-the-art communication, data-sharing and project management tools, the CBC will effect a paradigm shift in the use of public-private partnerships to translate knowledge from leading academic institutions into ground-breaking new drug candidates for patients with cancer.
About Southern Research Institute
Southern Research Institute is a nonprofit 501(c)3 scientific research organization that conducts preclinical drug discovery and development, and advanced engineering research in materials, systems development, environment and energy. Our more than 550 scientific and engineering team members support clients and partners in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, defense, aerospace, environmental and energy industries. Southern Research is headquartered in Birmingham, Ala., with facilities in Wilsonville, Ala., Anniston, Ala., Frederick, Md., and Durham, NC and offices in New Orleans, La., Washington, DC and Kiev, Ukraine. For more information about Southern Research and its capabilities and accomplishments, visit www.SouthernResearch.org.
Posted under Cancer Research, Grants and Awards, Press Releases, Research Projects | No Comments
Vanderbilt Joins National Consortium to Develop New Cancer Therapies
Last Updated on Tuesday, 25 August 2009 03:27 Written by Editor Tuesday, 25 August 2009 03:27
Vanderbilt University has been selected as one of 10 centers in the nation to participate in the Chemical Biology Consortium (CBC), a major new initiative to facilitate the discovery and development of new agents to treat cancer.
As one of four Chemical Diversity Centers, Vanderbilt’s role in the consortium will be to synthesize and optimize new compounds as potential cancer therapeutics.
“This is a real tribute to our growth in cancer chemistry and the leverage between the Vanderbilt Institute of Chemical Biology (VICB) and the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC),†said Lawrence Marnett, Ph.D., the Mary Geddes Stahlman Professor of Cancer Research and director of the VICB.
Alex Waterson, Ph.D., research assistant professor of Pharmacology and director of the VICB’s Chemical Synthesis Core, will lead efforts developing small molecule drug candidates. Gary Sulikowski, Ph.D., Stevenson Professor of Chemistry and a co-director of the core, will direct projects involving natural products.
Designed to accelerate the discovery and development of effective, first-in-class targeted therapies, the CBC will choose high-risk targets that are of low interest to the pharmaceutical industry. The CBC is a National Cancer Institute initiative administered by contractor SAIC-Frederick, Inc.
“It’s exciting in the sense that, right off the bat, (the NCI) said that the goal of this program is to develop drugs for cancer treatment,†said Sulikowski. “They’re looking for unique targets, unique approaches, and they think that academia may offer that.â€
“Oftentimes pharmaceutical companies will not go after targets that are not expected to be huge blockbusters,†said Waterson, who came to Vanderbilt in 2008 from GlaxoSmithKline where he had worked for seven years on oncology drug development projects. “So an effort like this can fill in a niche that industry is not taking on at the moment.â€
One particular area of interest is in screening and developing natural products as potential drug candidates.
This “is something that pharmaceutical industry has de-emphasized just because of the way things have evolved,†said Sulikowski. “And that’s one of our advantages, in that we have expertise in natural products as well as medicinal chemistry.â€
Cancer drug development poses many challenges – but also unique opportunities.
“There is a difficulty in that cancer is not a single disease; it’s a family of loosely related diseases,†said Waterson. “There’s an opportunity for a whole myriad of different treatments that are pretty much only tailored to a small subset of people, where your treatment addresses their specific need.â€
A unique aspect of the CBC is the NCI’s efforts to establish intellectual property rights for investigators and institutions that develop assays or drug candidates.
“The hope is that by recognizing establishment of intellectual property as one of the goals, they will attract people with the best ideas, things that really might be able to become a drug,†said Waterson.
Vanderbilt’s involvement with the CBC, along with the recent arrival of Stephen Fesik, Ph.D., who previously led cancer drug discovery efforts at Abbott Laboratories, will make Vanderbilt “one of the best academic institutions doing cancer drug discovery in the country,†Marnett said.
Other Vanderbilt investigators involved in this effort include:
• Brian Bachmann, Ph.D., assistant professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry
• Jeffrey Johnston, Ph.D., professor of Chemistry
• Jens Meiler, Ph.D., assistant professor of Chemistry, Pharmacology and Biomedical Informatics
• Craig Lindsley, Ph.D., associate professor of Pharmacology and Chemistry, and director of Medicinal Chemistry
Other sites participating in the CBC are:
• The Burnham Institute for Medical Research, in La Jolla, Calif.;
• Southern Research Institute in Birmingham, Ala.;
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill;
• Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.;
• University of Minnesota;
• University of Pittsburgh;
• University of Pittsburgh, Drug Discovery Institute;
• University of California, San Francisco;
• SRI International in Menlo Park, Calif.; and
• Emory University in Atlanta
This project has been funded in whole or in part with Federal Funds from the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, under Contract No. NO1-CO-12400. The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Department of Health and Human Services, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
Source:Â vanderbilt.edu
Posted under Cancer Research, Grants and Awards, Industry News, Press Releases, Research Projects | No Comments
Killing Cancer Stem Cells
Last Updated on Tuesday, 25 August 2009 02:36 Written by Editor Tuesday, 25 August 2009 02:36
Recent evidence suggests that certain cancers may persist or recur after treatment because a small population of cells, called cancer stem cells, remains behind to seed new tumors. Though scientists are not yet certain about the role cancer stem cells play in disease, evidence is accumulating that these cells are particularly resistant to chemotherapy and radiation, and can linger in the body even after treatment.Several research groups have begun looking for substances that kill these cells. A new approach, developed by researchers at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, makes use of high-throughput screening methods to identify chemicals that selectively target these elusive cells. In a study published today in Cell, the researchers identify one particular drug that kills breast cancer stem cells in mice. Although it is still unclear whether the drug will be useful in humans, the researchers believe their study demonstrates that it’s possible to target these cells selectively.
Because cancer stem cells, which have the ability to give rise to new tumors, may remain behind after chemotherapy and radiation treatments, finding ways to target these cells specifically may offer a way to make treatment more effective. But accessing and studying cancer stem cells has been challenging because very few are present in tumors and they are difficult to generate and maintain outside the body. Other groups have recently screened for drugs that target leukemia stem cells and brain cancer stem cells. In the Cell paper, a team led by the labs of Eric Lander at the Broad Institute and Robert Weinberg at the Whitehead Institute developed a way to generate a large number of cells that mimic naturally occurring epithelial cancer stem cells; these cells can be maintained in this state for long periods of time.
Epithelial cancers are the most common types of cancer in adults and affect the skin and inner lining of organs in the body. Using epithelial breast cancer cells, the researchers introduced a genetic change in these cells, causing them to take on the properties of mesenchymal cells, which form connective tissue in the body. Piyush Gupta, a co-author at the Broad Institute, says that for reasons not completely known, when this “epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition†is performed on breast cancer cells, it promotes the development of a large number of cells that he says are “indistinguishable from cancer stem cells.†These cells can then be grown in tiny pockets on plates and screened robotically for their response to large collections of chemicals.
The researchers used a library of 16,000 chemicals at the Broad Institute to look for compounds that killed these transformed breast cancer stem cells more effectively than they killed normal breast cancer cells. Gupta explains that since cancer stem cells are usually resistant to drugs, relatively few chemicals are effective–a mere 32 compounds were identified in the screen as preferentially treating breast cancer stem cells.
After some initial testing of several compounds, the researchers focused on one drug called salinomycin. They compared it to the actions of a drug commonly given in breast cancer chemotherapy, paclitaxel (also known by its brand name, Taxol), in cultured cells and in mice. While paclitaxel treatment leads to a higher proportion of drug-resistant cancer stem cells, salinomycin had the opposite effect, reducing the number of breast cancer stem cells in cultured cells more than 100 times more effectively than paclitaxel. The drug also reduced breast tumor growth in mice, although the reduction was less dramatic.
Gupta says that it’s not clear whether salinomycin will be a clinically useful drug, because it has not yet been tested in humans. The team is continuing to study this initial candidate drug, but he also notes, “we’re following up on several others that we think may be promising.â€
Jeffrey Rosen, a breast cancer researcher at Baylor College of Medicine, in Houston, TX, says that the study is an early example of a promising new turn in the hunt for cancer therapies. “It’s very exciting that some groups are starting not to view tumors as homogeneous entities but to target subpopulations of cells we think are import for drug resistance,†he says. However, Rosen notes that the results in mice were not as promising as the drug’s performance in cells. He says that the cancer field is hampered by a lack of good animal models to determine which drugs will be relevant for therapies. The problem, he says, is “once you pull out a compound or drug, then how do you actually go the next step and show that it’s really going to work?â€
Weinberg calls the study “the first step in the direction of trying to eliminate these cells in tumors.†He believes that even if the role of cancer stem cells in different kinds of cancer has not been resolved, “we have no doubt that getting rid of them is going to be an important part of creating cures.â€
Although this study focused on breast cancer, the researchers anticipate that the screen could be applied to any kind of epithelial cancer. Gupta says that while targeting cancer stem cells may not necessarily be a “magic bullet†in cancer treatment, “if you have a certain subpopulation of cancer cells that are resistant to standard treatment, you would want to find a compound that targets these cells.†He adds that a drug that targets cancer stem cells could be used in combination with standard treatments to ensure that resistant cells are not left behind.
Source: technologyreview.com
Boston, MA – Drug Compound That Kills Cancer Stem Cells Identified
Last Updated on Tuesday, 25 August 2009 02:31 Written by Editor Tuesday, 25 August 2009 02:31
Boston, MA – A drug that can selectively target and kill the stem cells that drive the growth of tumors has been identified for the first time by scientists who searched more than 16,000 compounds to find it.
Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Broad Institute looked for compounds that could destroy the stem cells, which often resist conventional cancer treatment. One, salinomycin, cut the number of stem cells at least 100 times more than did Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.’s Taxol, a common chemotherapy medicine, according to a report on the findings published today in the journal Cell.
The researchers will conduct further testing of salinomycin in animals to assess its potential to treat humans, said Piyush Gupta, a researcher at the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Broad Institute and co-author of the study. While the outcome of that research is unknown, he said, the work has strengthened a theory that stem cells fuel cancer and may have created a way to find effective drugs.
“We now have a method that researchers anywhere in the world can use to find agents that can kill cancer stem cells and potentially treat cancer,†Gupta said today in a telephone interview.
Stem cells appear to fuel the growth of several kinds of cancer including breast, lung and brain tumors, according to studies done in recent years. The cells are resistant to standard cancer therapy, so finding a way to thwart them is important, said Judy Lieberman, a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School who researches cancer stem cells.
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‘These Are the Cells’
“These are the cells that are the important cells and if you don’t eliminate them, the tumors can grow back and recur,†Lieberman said today in a telephone interview. “Any way you can figure out to specifically target the cancer stem cells is going to fill an important gap in the therapies we have at hand.â€
Lieberman wasn’t involved in the report published today.
Scientists at universities and biotechnology companies including Infinity Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Australia’s ChemGenex Pharmaceuticals Ltd. are working to develop treatments to block the stem cells. Findings released in 2007 showed that one marketed anti-cancer drug, GlaxoSmithKline’s Tykerb, reduced the number of cancer stem cells and helped eliminate the disease in some breast cancer patients.
Tumor-Initiating Cells
Research by Jenny Chang at the Baylor College of Medicine has shown that after breast-cancer patients received chemotherapy and hormone treatments, the remaining tumors had a greater percentage of malignancy-initiating cells, the cancer stem cells, than before.
The researchers at MIT and Broad grew cancer cells from breast tumors in a way that increased the number of stem cells. They then used rapid screening techniques to test 16,000 commercially available chemical compounds. They identified 32 candidates before settling on salinomycin as the most potent.
They also tested the compound in mice in two ways. First, they exposed breast cancer stem cells in laboratory dishes to salinomycin and Taxol and tallied how many cells they would need to inject in a mouse to trigger a tumor. It took many more of the salinomycin-treated cells to spur cancer, showing that the compound was inhibiting cancer development, Gupta said.
Second, they induced tumors in mice and treated them with the two drugs. While both drugs exerted “significant anti-tumor effects,†the mice treated with Taxol had a greater proportion of cancer stem cells left in the remaining tumor. Taxol enriched the population of cancer stem cells and salinomycin reduced it, Gupta said.
“We have now a systematic way to look for compounds that selectively kill cancer stem cells,†Gupta said. “We’ve taken a lot of the serendipity out of the equation.â€
The research was funded partly by the National Cancer Institute.
Source: vosizneias.com
National Cancer Institute names Emory to nationwide NCI chemical biology consortium
Last Updated on Tuesday, 25 August 2009 02:27 Written by Editor Tuesday, 25 August 2009 02:27
CBC will support rapid development of innovative, targeted cancer therapies
Emory University’s Chemical Biology Discovery Center has been selected by SAIC-Frederick, Inc. (SAIC-F) to be part of an 11-member national consortium aimed at accelerating the discovery and development of new and innovative, targeted cancer therapies. SAIC-F is the prime contractor to the National Cancer Institute at Frederick (NCI-Frederick).
The national Chemical Biology Consortium (CBC) will bridge the gap between basic scientific investigation and clinical research supported by the NCI. The consortium will focus on unmet medical needs, such as drugs that are of low interest to the pharmaceutical industry but that could have significant benefit for patients. It is expected to bring the skills of hundreds of chemical biologists, oncologists, and synthetic and medicinal chemists to bear on particularly challenging problems in molecular oncology.
Examples of the CBC’s innovative discovery pathways could include re-engineering investigators’ assays into high-throughput screens; rapidly synthesizing natural products that show promise as drug targets in a particular form of cancer; making new compounds water-soluble; and accelerating the development of drug candidates with great clinical promise.
As one of three Specialized Application Centers in the NCI Consortium, the Emory Chemical Biology Discovery Center will focus its broad capability and special expertise on protein-protein interactions in cancer through assay development and implementation, high-throughput screening, medicinal chemistry optimization and informatics, with the participation of an intellectual property specialist.
“Recent advances in our understanding of the molecular basis of cancer have led scientists to identify oncogenes and pathways involved in tumor development that offer unprecedented opportunities for innovative drug discovery,” says Haian Fu, PhD, director of the Emory Chemical Biology Discovery Center and principal investigator of the Emory CBC center. Fu is professor of pharmacology, hematology & medical oncology in Emory University School of Medicine and a co-leader of the Discovery and Developmental Therapeutics Program of the Emory Winship Cancer Institute.
“This consortium will allow the NCI and the consortium members to pursue innovative strategies and dedicate resources to interrogating new signaling pathways and promising but difficult targets for the rapid discovery and development of clinically viable new compounds that might not otherwise be developed. Examples include pediatric cancer targets,” says Fu.
The Emory center is anchored by investigators within the Emory Winship Cancer Institute and integrated with drug discovery and development capabilities of researchers throughout campus. Co-principal investigators of the Emory CBC Center are Fadlo Khuri, MD, deputy director for clinical and translational research in Emory Winship Cancer Institute and professor and chair of hematology & medical oncology, and Dennis Liotta, PhD, Emory professor of chemistry.
“Emory has a strong foundation of team science and collaboration, high throughput screening expertise and a solid record of success in the NIH Molecular Libraries Screening Centers Network,” says Liotta. “We have a team of assay biologists, screening scientists and informatics experts working side by side with medicinal chemists. Our record of drug discovery and partnerships with pharmaceutical companies show that we have the experience and expertise to serve as national leaders in cancer drug discovery.”
The Georgia Cancer Coalition (GCC) is providing matching funds for the Emory CBC Center of approximately $750,000. Emory will provide other matching funds for the Center. The Georgia Research Alliance provided initial support for the Chemical Biology Discovery Center.
“We are proud and delighted that the National Cancer Institute has once again reached out to Georgia for leadership in cancer control,” says William J. Todd, president and chief executive officer of the Georgia Cancer Coalition. “By supporting Emory’s participation in this national cancer drug discovery initiative, we are reinforcing the state’s comprehensive cancer control plan goal to accelerate improvements in cancer treatment. This designation brings us yet one step closer to making Georgia one of the nation’s premier states for cancer control.”
“As a molecular oncologist and a cancer clinician, I am very pleased with this opportunity for Emory’s involvement in a national NCI consortium to speed drug discovery,” says Khuri. “This is a very exciting time for cancer research, and I am optimistic this consortium will result in significant research advances that soon will benefit patients with particularly challenging types of cancer.”
As a member of the national consortium, the Emory center will join forces with the NCI and other national centers for project-team based accelerated cancer drug discovery operations from target identification, high throughput screening, all the way through clinical trials. It will be funded through a contractual agreement mechanism with the NCI.
In 2005 the National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded Emory $9 million in the pilot phase of the National Molecular Libraries Screening Center Network (MLSCN). The network uses high-tech screening methods on huge libraries of small molecular compounds to identify probes as promising molecular research tools.
Emory’s CBC selection by the NCI built on Emory’s already established Chemical Biology Discovery Center and its experience in MLSCN. The Emory Chemical Biology Discovery Center is an interdisciplinary collaboration among research departments in Emory School of Medicine and Emory College. The Center also uses high-throughput technologies to screen libraries of hundreds of thousands of small molecule compounds against promising molecular targets identified by Emory scientists.
For more information about the NCI Chemical Biology Consortium: http://plan,cancer.gov./Chemical_Biology_Consortium.htm
For more information about the Emory Chemical Biology Discovery Center: http://www.emory.edu/chemical-biology/#
Emory Medicine Magazine article on drug discovery at Emory: http://whsc.emory.edu/_pubs/em/2006spring/drug_discovery.html
NIH Names Emory University a National Molecular Libraries Screening Center (press release) http://whsc.emory.edu/press_releses_print.cfm?announcement_id_seq=4040
Posted under Cancer Research, Collaborations, Grants and Awards, Industry News, Press Releases | No Comments
Sigma-Aldrich buys ChemNavigator
Last Updated on Tuesday, 25 August 2009 10:48 Written by Editor Tuesday, 25 August 2009 10:48
ChemNavigator, which has operations in San Diego and in Australia, provides chemists with virtual screening tools and products that allow them to channel their chemical designs toward sets of commercially available compounds.
Sigma-Aldrich said this acquisition links ChemNavigator’s tools and searchable database of more than 60 million compounds with Sigma-Aldrich’s core strengths in chemical compound management, procurement and distribution.
“This acquisition enables Sigma-Aldrich to provide the research community with an efficient, seamless discovery offer that extends from virtual selection to compound delivery,†Ilya Koltover, manager of business development for Sigma-Aldrich, said in a statement.
Scott Hutton is president and CEO of ChemNavigator, which he co-founded with the company’s vice president and chief technical officer, Tad Hurst. Hutton and Hurst previously held senior posts with St. Louis-based discovery research firm Tripos Inc., a public company that sold its assets and was dissolved in 2007. Still operating is privately-held Tripos International, also based in St. Louis, is a discovery informatics business formed when Vector Capital purchased certain of Tripos Inc.’s assets.
St. Louis-based Sigma-Aldrich (NASDAQ: SIAL), led by Chairman, President and Chief Executive Jai Nagarkatti, is a life-science and high-technology company.
Source: St. Louis Business Journal
Posted under Business and Investment, Mergers and Acquisitions, Press Releases | No Comments
Forma Therapeutics, Novartis team on cancer drugs
Last Updated on Tuesday, 25 August 2009 10:31 Written by Editor Tuesday, 25 August 2009 10:31
Forma Therapeutics Inc. said that it has entered into a collaboration agreement with Novartis AG to use Forma’s cell-based screening platform to discover inhibitors for undisclosed protein-protein interaction targets to help develop cancer drugs.
No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. The funding arm of pharmaceutical giant Novartis, the Novartis Option Fund, was one of the investors in Cambridge-based Forma’s $4 million funding round in March of 2008.
Earlier this month, Forma and The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society partnered in an effort to move the health agency’s research products toward development quickly. As part of the deal, Forma will help design ten small molecule drugs using its Computational Solvent Mapping technology.
In March, Forma reported it would collaborate with the Experimental Therapeutics Centre (ETC) of Singapore on development of new anti-cancer drugs. The intent is to use Forma’s transformative chemistry platform to discover new compounds that ETC will develop.
Forma Therapeutics relies on an integrated transformative biology and chemistry-based approach to develop its drugs. It uses a cell-based screening platform to permit the screening of discrete targets in cells. Headquartered in Cambridge, Forma has research operations in Connecticut, Singapore and Beijing.
Research and Markets: Accelerating Lead Generation: Emerging Technologies and Strategies
Last Updated on Monday, 24 August 2009 11:30 Written by Editor Monday, 24 August 2009 11:30
(live-PR.com) – DUBLIN, Ireland (Research and Markets) – Research and Markets (www.researchandmarkets.com/research/fb1566/accel ..) has announced the addition of the “Accelerating Lead Generation: Emerging Technologies and Strategies” report to their offering.
The number of approvals for new drugs and biologics has fallen steadily in recent years, despite increasing R&D expenditure. Cost effective and innovative approaches to drug discovery and development have therefore become particularly important
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to ensure shareholder value. Improvements to the lead generation process are a key initiative for company's aiming to avoid expensive compound failures in the latter stages of the drug discovery process.
Accelerating Lead Generation: Emerging technologies and strategies' is a report that provides an in-depth examination of state-of-the-art technologies for lead generation. This report assesses the potential of new and emerging technologies for improving the quality of drug candidates entering clinical research, and reviews the benefits associated with different approaches to lead generation, including high throughput screening, fragment based drug discovery and virtual screening. The lead generation strategies adopted by leading pharma companies are evaluated to provide strategic recommendations for success, and the trends that are shaping the future acceleration of lead generation are identified.
Key Findings:
- Truly novel molecules are far more likely to be identified during the optimization process through the manipulation of structures than through screening. Methods include forming a new ring structure within a compound (or opening one out), the replacement of functional groups with bioisosteres and scaffold-hopping. Emerging methods for scaffold hopping based on force fields are growing in popularity.
- Virtual screening and fragment-based drug discovery will complement HTS-generated data rather than replacing it. The low cost of virtual screening and its potential for improving library design means that large screens can be carried out in the earliest stages of drug discovery. Conversely, it is best to apply fragment-based drug discovery to targets for which quality structural information is readily available.
- New technologies that replace fluorescence-based or radioligand displacement assays are growing in throughput and are being rapidly introduced across the industry. Innovations that improve the throughput and sensitivity of label-free technologies are either introducing them to drug discovery as secondary assays, or promoting secondary assay technologies to primary versions.
- Improved methods for handling data, multiplexing assays, and using primary cells, 3D cell culture or stem cell derived populations will increase the physiological relevance of data collected. Novel in vivo models, such as zebrafish and whole animal imaging may also provide additional data.
Use this report to...
- Analyse the potential of emerging technologies for improving the quality of drug candidates and understand how such innovations can improve the ability of fragment based drug discovery and virtual screening to identify new lead compounds.
- Explore recent developments in high throughput screening with this report's analysis of innovations in biological assay development, including improvements in vitro assays, cell-based assay technology and in-vivo methods for lead generation.
- Examine the role of ADME and toxicology in accelerating lead generation with this report's analysis of innovations in the assessment of ADME characteristics and toxicology at the lead generation stage.
- Evaluate the lead generation strategies of major companies with this report's case study analysis of Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Millennium Pharmaceuticals (Takeda), and understand the importance of R&D models, academia collaborations and technological innovations to lead generation success.
Key Topics Covered:
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Identifying hits: library design, virtual screening and fragment based drug discovery
Chapter 3 Innovations in biological assay development
Chapter 4 ADME and toxicology in lead generation
Chapter 5 Lead generation strategies in the pharma industry
Chapter 6 R&D models, innovation & future success of lead generation
Chapter 7 Appendix
Companies Mentioned:
- Bayer
- Boehringer Ingelheim
- Millennium Pharmaceuticals (Takeda)
For more information visit www.researchandmarkets.com/research/fb1566/accel ..
Source: Business Insights
Posted under Compound Screening, Press Releases, R & D | No Comments
Nuevolution Announces Worldwide Technology Cross-Licensing Agreement With GSK
Last Updated on Monday, 24 August 2009 11:11 Written by Editor Monday, 24 August 2009 11:11
COPENHAGEN, Denmark, July 28 /PRNewswire/ — Nuevolution today announced the execution of a worldwide technology cross-licensing agreement with GlaxoSmithKline.
The agreement relates to a number of patented technologies for rapid synthesis and DNA-tagging of hundreds of millions of chemically diverse drug-like small molecule compounds and the efficient screening of these, facilitating the identification of potent drug leads. These technologies were developed by Nuevolution and Praecis Pharmaceuticals, a wholly owned subsidiary of GlaxoSmithKline.
Under the terms of the cross-licensing agreement, GlaxoSmithKline will obtain a non-exclusive license under technology patents of Nuevolution, and Nuevolution will obtain a one time license fee and a non-exclusive license under technology patents of GlaxoSmithKline.
Further details of the agreement are not disclosed.
“By entering into this agreement, both companies are offered an optimal basis for continued development and application of the technologies” said Allen Oliff, SVP Molecular Discovery Research of GSK and Alex Gouliaev, CEO of Nuevolution A/S continued “our innovative technologies allow small molecule hit and lead discovery at an unprecedented scale. This agreement secures both companies the rights to operate these powerful technologies to their fullest extent”.
About Nuevolution
Nuevolution is a leading lead discovery company founded in 2001 and based in Copenhagen, Denmark. The company has developed Chemetics(R), a unique, patent protected hybrid of proven wet chemistry and molecular biology which represents the ultimate fragment based lead discovery technology. Chemetics(R) enables rapid synthesis and DNA-tagging of hundreds of millions of chemically diverse drug-like small molecule compounds and the efficient screening of these, facilitating the identification of potent drug leads at unprecedented quantity, quality and speed compared to existing lead discovery technologies.
Nuevolution partners its technology with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, and is also developing an internal pipeline by applying Chemetics(R) to validated cancer and cardiovascular targets. Nuevolution has demonstrated the power of Chemetics(R) by identifying highly potent and drug like novel ligands with the potential to address major unmet medical needs across a range of therapeutic areas and target classes.
Nuevolution is a privately owned company and has raised EUR 37 million in financing from key Scandinavian investors, including SEB Venture, Sunstone Capital, SLS Invest and Novo A/S. For more information about Nuevolution A/S, please visit the company’s website http://www.nuevolution.com
Posted under Business and Investment, Collaborations, Drug Development, Europe, Press Releases, R & D | No Comments
Forget the Shortcuts: Creating a Truly Innovative Biotech Culture
Last Updated on Friday, 21 August 2009 03:24 Written by Editor Friday, 21 August 2009 03:24
Watching the acquisition of Genentech by Roche has been a fascinating process. I wasn’t so interested in the eventual price paid per share, but whether Basel, Switzerland-based Roche, one of the oldest and most traditional pharma companies, could preserve the special science-based culture at Genentech that made it the world’s pre-eminent biotech company. Would Genentech’s top scientists stay in the San Francisco Bay Area? Could Roche successfully integrate a free wheeling West Coast culture into an East Coast (and indeed, European based) organization?It will take time before this question will ultimately be answered. However, the signs are that Roche doesn’t want to mess things up.
This was illustrated by the recent stunning announcement from Roche that it was resigning from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the chief trade association and lobbying group of the US pharmaceutical industry, in order to join the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), the trade association for biotech. This announcement, coupled with the decision to move many of their scientific research programs from the East Coast to the West, told me that Roche was serious in their desire to remake their own culture in Genentech’s image. We’ll see over the next six months or so if Roche can hang on to Genentech’s key employees and culture, now that they have begun their restructuring of Genentech, including employee layoffs and buyouts.
If you are buying a research organization both for its novel drugs and the culture of innovation that created them, it makes sense to do what you can to preserve that culture. I discovered the cultural divide that separates pharma from biotech when I was first looking for a job in the industry. The contrast between pharma and biotech couldn’t have been more striking. A job interview at “Big Pharma†introduced me to scientists, dressed in jackets and ties, who spent most of their time devising new types of screening assays against which the company’s library of chemical compounds could be tested. In marked contrast to the scientists, lab assistants wore overalls with their names sewn on the front in a style that was strangely reminiscent of auto mechanics. If hired, I was told that I could spend as much as 20 percent of my time doing any research of my choosing, as long as my primary focus was on developing new screening assays. Promotions and long-term success at the company were based on your success in setting up these assays, not on the other work that you did. My interpretation of this time-split? The company thought the screening work was so boring that in order to hire people, they needed to allow them at least a small portion of time to do something that might actually be of intellectual interest.
Contrast this with what I found in biotech. Everyone in the organization seemed to dress in the same casual style that I had become accustomed to in my grad school and post-doctoral academic environments. An egalitarian system was in place where lab assistants with talent and drive (but no advanced degrees) could advance to the same scientist level as newly-hired PhDs. All of my time was to be spent exploring avenues of the company’s research focus in immunology and oncology. This would involve truly cutting edge experiments that held the promise of breakthroughs in understanding the causes and treatments of disease. Data could be published in top-flight journals, and the company would (and did) support my success by filing patents on my work and allowing me to talk about my work at conferences around the globe.
In the end, it really was a simple choice, and I leaped into biotech at Seattle-based Immunex in 1988. The strong science focus allowed me to ignore the fact that biotechs couldn’t offer the economic stability of traditional pharmaceutical companies. Yet this supposed advantage turned out to be an illusion, as Big Pharma companies have continually laid off thousands of researchers in recent years.
You know the old joke that there are two sides to every issue, and a politician usually takes both? Well, while it’s a bit of an over-simplification, there are two kinds of pharma/biotech cultures. Those that innovate, like Genentech and Immunex, and those that buy innovation, like most of Big Pharma. Companies that choose to innovate need to have a culture in place that will lead to novel discoveries that can be exploited in a clinical setting. But how does one set an innovative culture in place? What are some of the key factors that can be used to create a culture of success in biotech research? Let me share a few thoughts:
Understand that cutting edge research cannot be done on a deadline
As one of my grad school mentors used to tell me “if it was easy, somebody else would have already done it.†While one should always be held accountable for making progress, it is impossible to predict exactly when a particular protein might be cloned, a novel pathway identified, or a small molecule inhibitor developed. As a result of this, companies need to employ a diversity of approaches in their research programs. Some may bear fruit right away, others years from now, and some possibly never. Diversification is every bit as important in biotechnology as it is in personal finance. Companies that invest in only one scientific line of inquiry may find, like some of Bernie Madoff’s investors, that they rue the day they decided to put all of their eggs in a single basket. Many wanted to believe that technological breakthroughs, like the sequencing of the human genome, would translate in short order into new drugs. This is hopeful yet misguided thinking, because biology is amazingly complex, and advances based on this achievement are still years away.Provide support personnel and equipment to grease the wheels
If you hire people to make breakthrough scientific discoveries, give them the support necessary so they can focus on their core mission. This means administrative assistants to help with manuscripts, photocopy papers, and conference registrations. Employ skilled graphic artists to craft scientific illustrations and figures to accompany seminars and manuscripts. Hire lab managers to order supplies, make media, and stock reagents. Buy the sophisticated equipment that will enable them to do cutting edge research. Do as much as you can do enable your scientists to do excellent science.
Hire the right mix of people
Advances in science spur new thoughts and new innovations. Having the proper mix of people to exploit these breakthroughs are critical to a young company. You need scientific acumen, skilled problem solvers, leadership skills, vision, and the organizational structure to get them all to work together. Science fiction movies are often filled with images of quirky scientists who have difficulties getting along with anybody, yet somehow save the day with their brilliance (exemplified by Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park, The Fly, or Independence Day). However, I find this doesn’t work in the real world. You need people who know how to play well with others in the scientific sandbox.
Leave scientific decisions in the hands of scientists
This seems obvious, but many biotech and pharma companies are led by individuals (often MBAs or lawyers) who know Wall Street inside out, but couldn’t distinguish a Northern blot from a Western blot, even with a compass and a GPS system (if you didn’t get that joke, you are one of those people). While companies without competent employees in all functional areas will have problems, one must trust each group to make the right decisions, and be held accountable for the work that they were hired to do. Cross training across job functions is helpful in gaining an appreciation of the bigger picture, but it is critically important to recognize that a research organization will ultimately live or die based on its research. Big pharma’s takeover by their marketing wizards at the expense of their science programs has led them to the precarious financial positions that they find themselves in at present.
Abandon “academic†constraints that stifle innovation
Put simply, this is just a reminder that research programs should have a significant component of “thinking outside of the boxâ€. In a recent New York Times article, Gina Kolata illustrated how funding agencies such as the National Institutes of Health push academic researchers to avoid innovative research by not funding ideas outside of the mainstream. Since many industry researchers cut their scientific teeth in academia, it’s challenging to switch their mentality toward a culture that rewards, and doesn’t punish, innovation. Industry thrives on this type of thinking, with people who are willing to explore new concepts, ideas, and approaches.
I’ll save for another column a detailed explanation of why I think Roche felt compelled to implement this change in their culture. Here’s a hint: biologics comprised five of the top ten selling drugs in 2008, are expected to hit $100 billion in sales in 2011, and are not nearly as vulnerable to generics as small molecules. Many of the cultural issues that I address above will not be cheap to implement. Based on what I have seen of the industry in recent years, there is currently a bias against financing the types of organizations that have these research cultures as being too slow and too expensive, resulting in too long a time period to recoup investments. The lengthy time frame serves to drive potential investors into other industries, like software, where financial returns can be achieved much more quickly. But there really aren’t any shortcuts in biotech when it comes to innovation. I believe the high failure rate of drugs in clinical trials in recent years can be blamed on them being rushed into the clinic for financial reasons when they were not really ready for prime-time. Companies that aspire to be the next Genentech have to be prepared to establish a kind of science-driven culture at their foundation, and invest in it over the long haul, however financially unpopular it may be at the moment. A solution to this dilemma will not easily be found, but is certainly worth searching for. Those of us who follow the industry closely look forward to seeing how the next few years play out in terms of who is ultimately successful in the industry, and why.
Source: xconomy.com
Posted under Business and Investment, Mergers and Acquisitions, Press Releases | No Comments
New drug turns Alzheimer’s theory on its head
Last Updated on Friday, 21 August 2009 02:30 Written by Editor Friday, 21 August 2009 02:30
Researchers investigating the causes of Alzheimer’s disease have been left puzzled by data showing that the antihistamine dimebolin, a drug with promising activity in improving Alzheimer’s symptoms, actually seems to increase levels of the toxic protein beta amyloid.
For years it has been thought that the degeneration of nerves seen in Alzheimer’s disease was a result of exposure to the protein fragment beta amyloid. In healthy brains the fragments are broken down and eliminated, while in Alzheimer’s they accumulate to form insoluble plaques.
Results from a Phase II clinical trial reported last year found that dimebolin was around two-and-a-half times more effective than current medicines such as Pfizer and Eisai’s Aricept (donepezil) in improving cognition and memory in Alzheimer’s patients.
The drug’s activity in Alzheimer’s was discovered serendipitously when Russian scientist Sergey Bachurin was screening a number of compounds that could block both cholinesterase and NMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartic acid) – the targets for the current generation of Alzheimer’s treatments. It is currently being tested in Phase III clinical trials by US biopharmaceutical firm Medivation in collaboration with Pfizer.
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The antihistamine dimebolin has raised doubts about what we know about Alzheimer’s
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However, results from the latest experiments in mice, reported at a meeting in Vienna last week, indicate that dimebolin actually appears to increase levels of beta amyloid – undermining the idea that the plaques themselves are toxic. The results also raise questions about many of the other drugs that are being developed to treat the disease.
Samuel Gandy of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, who carried out the experiments, told Chemistry World that the findings were surprising. ‘Conventional wisdom in the field, regardless of one’s position on ‘the amyloid hypothesis’, is that an amyloid benefit would mean amyloid-lowering.’
‘The latest findings don’t mean we should toss amyloid,’ he says. ‘But we should be prepared to consider unconventional possibilities.’
Clive Ballard, research director of the Alzheimer’s Society in the UK, concurs with that view. ‘The data tie in with an alternative hypothesis, namely that other forms of amyloid – such as soluble amyloid oligomers – may actually be more neurotoxic than insoluble plaques, he says.
One school of thought is that plaques may in fact represent a protective mechanism in which the body sequesters toxic forms of amyloid to render them harmless. ‘The Gandy research may be showing that dimebolin is driving this process, stimulating conversion of amyloid strands into a non-toxic form,’ suggests Ballard.
The problem for the pharmaceutical sector is that some of the new drugs coming through late-stage clinical testing, including Wyeth and Elan Pharmaceuticals’ much-anticipated antibody bapineuzumab are designed to break down the plaques.
Gandy believes researchers should also be looking at what is going on with amyloid inside nerve cells, rather than the external manifestations of amyloid processing.
‘We should perhaps be paying more attention to intracellular oligomers,’ he says. ’There are mice models with elevated intraneuronal oligomers and these show impaired functions, so this is certainly an avenue worth exploring.’
Other drugs in the pharmaceutical pipeline, such as the gamma secretase inhibitor class being developed by Eli Lilly, Bristol-Myers Squibb and others might lower intracellular beta amyloid levels.
‘However, we might need different drugs from the ones that we have, all of which are optimised to lower beta amyloid levels in the cerebrospinal fluid and interstitial fluid,’ says Gandy.
Source: rsc.org
Astellas and REGiMMUNE to Collaborate on New Vaccine Technology
Last Updated on Friday, 21 August 2009 02:24 Written by Editor Friday, 21 August 2009 02:24
TOKYO and MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA–(Marketwire – July 22, 2009) – REGiMMUNE Corporation today announced that Astellas Pharma Inc. and REGiMMUNE have entered into a collaboration agreement to jointly research and develop a novel vaccine-platform technology. The partnership will combine Astellas’ broad range of capabilities in screening and developing natural source-derived compounds with REGiMMUNE’s immune liposome technology. Terms of the agreement have not been disclosed.
“Our goal is to develop a potent vaccine-platform technology that enables effective vaccination with novel adjuvant and immune liposome technologies, increasing the efficiency of delivery to immune cells. Our approach will eliminate many of the current limitations for vaccine development,” explained Haru Morita, CEO of REGiMMUNE. “This is particularly important for responding to new or changing virus strains. Astellas has a strong presence in immunology and is one of the largest vaccine distributors in Japan,” Mr. Morita continued. “We believe this collaboration can produce a technology that will allow a rapid response to various viral outbreaks spreading around the world.”
“We are pleased to initiate our first partnership with REGiMMUNE,” stated Masafumi Nogimori, President and Chief Executive Officer of Astellas. “Disease prevention through timely and adequate vaccination is a key to maintaining human health. Astellas is committed to developing a new vaccine platform and this collaboration with REGiMMUNE will strengthen our position in this important area of disease prevention.”
About Vaccines
Prophylactic vaccines need to elicit sufficient immune responses to protect individuals from the challenge by infectious agents. Most commonly, attenuated live viral particles are used to develop effective vaccines; however, development of live viral particles requires significant lead time and lengthy, costly manufacturing processes. While efforts have been made to develop improved adjuvants to enhance the potency of non-viral vaccines, Alum remains the only adjuvant approved by the U.S. FDA for use in humans. The Astellas-REGiMMUNE collaboration is expected to address these obstacles and provide a number of benefits over currently marketed products.
About REGiMMUNE
REGiMMUNE, with research and development operations in Tokyo, Japan, and Mountain View, CA, is a biotechnology company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of immune-regulatory therapeutics to treat life-threatening and debilitating conditions including allergies, autoimmune diseases and transplantation. The company’s proprietary platform technology, reVax, induces immune tolerance in an antigen-specific manner through pharmacological induction of regulatory T (Treg) cells. Treg cells are believed to play a central role in inducing and maintaining immune tolerance. Using its reVax technology, REGiMMUNE is developing a broad range of pipeline products. The lead compound, RGI-2001, which is in late preclinical stage, has the potential to become a first-in-class Treg-cell-inducing drug.
About Astellas
Astellas Pharma Inc., located in Tokyo, Japan, is a pharmaceutical company dedicated to improving the health of people around the world through the provision of innovative and reliable pharmaceutical products. The organization is committed to becoming a global category leader by combining outstanding R&D and marketing capabilities and continuing to grow in the world pharmaceutical market. For more information about Astellas Pharma Inc., please visit our website at www.astellas.com/en/.
Source: REGiMMUNE
Posted under Collaborations, Compound Screening, Natural Products, Press Releases | No Comments
Early testing for Alzheimer’s – Spinal fluid compounds can predict in many cases whether people with mild cognitive impairments will develop the disease
Last Updated on Friday, 21 August 2009 02:22 Written by Editor Friday, 21 August 2009 02:22
Elderly people with mild cognitive losses are at a heightened risk of progressing to Alzheimer’s disease if they have a combination of telltale compounds in their spinal fluid, researchers report in the July 22/29 Journal of the American Medical Association.
By testing for a shortage of a sticky compound called amyloid-beta in the spinal fluid and for excess amounts of two kinds of a protein called tau, the scientists could identify people at greatest risk.
The test isn’t foolproof, and a positive reading still warns of a disease for which there is no cure. But scientists are heartened by this and earlier studies (SN: 9/20/03, p. 179)because Alzheimer’s disease is difficult to foresee and its early symptoms are often mistaken for routine cognitive losses caused by aging.
Niklas Mattsson of a Gothenburg University-affiliated hospital in Mölndal, Sweden, and an international group of scientists recruited 750 elderly people in Europe and the United States from 1990 to 2007. At the time of enrollment, the volunteers had mild cognitive impairment — a loss of memory or other mental faculties — that wasn’t attributable to aging alone but fell short of Alzheimer’s disease. Each volunteer contributed a cerebrospinal fluid sample by undergoing a spinal puncture. The participants, average age 69, were monitored for about three years during the study.
Those who developed Alzheimer’s disease were more likely to have had less amyloid-beta or more tau in their spinal fluid than those who didn’t develop Alzheimer’s. People who had both low amyloid-beta and high tau levels were five times as likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease during the study as were those with normal spinal fluid profiles, Mattsson says.
The screening test correctly predicted incipient Alzheimer’s disease 83 percent of the time. Studies that track elderly patients longer may show an increased accuracy rate because patients whose spinal fluid tested positive may develop Alzheimer’s disease later, says Ronald Petersen, a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
Since spinal fluid bathes the entire central nervous system, its components can serve as markers for what’s going on in the brain. Although the precise biological course of Alzheimer’s is murky, many scientists theorize that amyloid-beta accumulates in the brain early in the disease process, leaving less to circulate in the spinal fluid, Petersen says. Later, tau is released from dying brain cells into the spinal fluid, increasing tau levels there.
Roughly half of all elderly people with mild cognitive impairments later develop Alzheimer’s disease, says Mattsson, a physician and neuroscientist. Currently available drugs treat only Alzheimer’s symptoms, not the disease.
By fine-tuning this screening test, Mattsson, Petersen and others are planning for the day when other research teams develop drugs to arrest or reverse the brain damage that marks the disease. There are up to 100 such experimental Alzheimer’s drugs currently in development, Petersen says. “Almost every major pharmaceutical house has a program for Alzheimer’s.â€
If such medications become available, accurate diagnosis will become paramount in determining how to prescribe them, Mattsson says. “It’s very important to interfere with the disease as early as possible, and this is where the diagnostic test comes in.†Screening for changes in amyloid-beta and tau in drug trial participants might also indicate which medications are thwarting the disease process, Mattsson says.
Source: Sciencenews.org
Posted under Alzheimer's disease, Drug Development, Press Releases | No Comments
SRI announces selection by the National Cancer Institute as a Chemical Biology Consortium center
Last Updated on Friday, 21 August 2009 02:19 Written by Editor Friday, 21 August 2009 02:19
Menlo Park, Calif.—July 22 , 2009—SRI International, an independent nonprofit research and development organization, announced today that SRI’s Center for Cancer Research was selected by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) for a leading role in the newly-formed “Chemical Biology Consortium” (CBC), a collaborative drug discovery partnership focused on advancing new cancer therapeutics active against novel molecular and genetic cancer targets. Based on its track record of cancer drug discovery and development, SRI was chosen to lead three of the CBC’s research and development centers: Comprehensive Chemical Biology Screening, Chemical Diversity, and Specialized Applications.
SRI has decades of experience in successfully identifying, developing and advancing novel compounds into clinical evaluation. SRI’s Center for Cancer Research, comprised of biologists and medicinal chemists with expertise in fundamental and applied cancer research, focuses on the study of tumor microenvironment, tumor metabolism, and aberrant signaling pathways that cause cancer. Through collaborative partnerships, SRI’s Center for Cancer Research has been successful in generating an extensive drug pipeline translating discoveries into beneficial treatments. SRI’s drug discovery process, guided by a combination of biological screens and computational methods, will be a key component of the NCI Chemical Biology Consortium program.
“SRI is proud to be selected to join this innovative NCI program and to continue our long-standing support of NCI’s mission to discover, develop, and bring new drugs to cancer patients,” said Lidia Sambucetti, Ph.D., senior director of SRI’s Center for Cancer Research. “Our multidisciplinary research team will bring proven expertise in fundamental and applied cancer research, backed by SRI’s fully-integrated preclinical capabilities.”
The goal of the Chemical Biology Consortium is to discover and develop new cancer therapeutics, particularly those that are beyond the scope of standard biopharmaceutical practice. The CBC will focus on therapeutic opportunities in high-risk, under-represented areas to advance the discovery of compounds active against novel molecular and genetic cancer targets.
Sambucetti will serve as the overall principal investigator of SRI’s CBC program and the Comprehensive Chemical Biology Screening Center. She will collaborate with Mary Tanga, Ph.D., an SRI senior director of medicinal chemistry, who will lead the Chemical Diversity Center, and Keith Laderoute, Ph.D., an SRI distinguished scientist, who will lead the Specialized Applications Center.
As the principal investigator of the Comprehensive Chemical Biology Screening Center, Sambucetti was invited to join the CBC Steering Committee, an NCI advisory panel that will work to ensure that CBC Centers are efficiently bridging the gap between basic scientific findings and NCI-supported clinical research.
To optimize high-quality leads and accelerate the drug discovery process, SRI will be working with BioComputing Group, Inc., a developer of computational screening, hit-to-lead, and lead optimization tools with particular emphasis on structure-guided drug discovery. These tools employ novel molecular descriptors that are derived from active compounds within the target family and from the structure of the target protein that can be applied to the evaluation of compounds from a library as well as compounds not yet synthesized. BioComputing Group, Inc. (www.BioPredict.com) has a significant track record of success in applying its tools in a hypothesis-driven paradigm to accelerate drug discovery efforts of its collaborators and clients, having placed multiple compounds into clinic with significantly reduced numbers of compounds screened and synthesized and with significantly shortened time frames.
This project has been funded in whole or in part with Federal Funds from the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, under Contract No. N01-C0-12400. The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Department of Health and Human Services, nor does the mention of trade names, commercial products or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
About SRI’s Biosciences Division
SRI International’s Biosciences Division teams with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, academia, foundations, and government agencies to solve important problems in global health. SRI Biosciences conducts basic research, drug discovery, and drug development, including contract research. SRI has all of the resources necessary to take R&D programs from “idea to IND”™—from initial discovery to investigational new drug applications to start human clinical trials—and specializes in cancer, immunology and inflammation, infectious disease, and neuroscience research. SRI’s internal drug pipeline has yielded several marketed drugs, several additional drugs currently in clinical trials, and more than a dozen programs in preclinical development or early discovery. In its CRO business, SRI has helped advance more than 100 drugs into clinical trials, several of which have reached the market. SRI is also working at the nexus of science and technology to create new technology platforms for the next generation of drug discovery and development in areas such as diagnostics, drug delivery, medical devices, and systems biology.
About SRI International
Silicon Valley-based SRI International is one of the world’s leading independent research and technology development organizations. SRI, which was founded by Stanford University as Stanford Research Institute in 1946 and became independent in 1970, has been meeting the strategic needs of clients and partners for more than 60 years. Perhaps best known for its invention of the computer mouse and interactive computing, SRI has also been responsible for major advances in networking and communications, robotics, drug discovery and development, advanced materials, atmospheric research, education research, economic development, national security, and more. The nonprofit institute performs sponsored research and development for government agencies, businesses, and foundations. SRI also licenses its technologies, forms strategic alliances, and creates spin-off companies. In 2008, SRI’s consolidated revenues, including its wholly owned for-profit subsidiary, Sarnoff Corporation, were approximately $490 million.
Source: www.sri.com
Posted under Cancer Research, Industry News, Press Releases, USA and Canada | No Comments
Sirona Biochem Optimizes Key Test for Diabetes and Obesity Drug Development
Last Updated on Friday, 21 August 2009 01:26 Written by Editor Friday, 21 August 2009 01:26
VANCOUVER, BC — (Marketwire) — 07/16/09 — Sirona Biochem Corp. (TSX-V: SBM) announced today it is now ready to begin testing its novel new compounds to fight diabetes and obesity.
The completion of the company’s key SGLT biological assessment test and testing will be done under contract with Richmond, BC based SignalChem.
Sirona Biochem owns the worldwide rights to a library of potential new sodium glucose transporter (SGLT) inhibitors developed to treat diabetes and obesity. SGLT Inhibitors are a novel new drug class currently under development that block the reuptake of excess sugars from urine in the kidney which can then reduce high blood sugar to normal levels. Excess sugar in the blood is a primary medical challenge associated with treating diabetes and obesity.
Sirona has a research and development agreement with TFChem (Rouen, France), where a significant number of SGLT drug analogs are being prepared for first stage evaluation. Preliminary primary stage testing conducted earlier this year provided positive indications to support Sirona Biochem’s project and provided key insights to optimize the new test that is now ready for use to evaluate the next library set of molecules.
Mark Senner, President, explained, “SGLT inhibitors are a new and exciting class of compounds that have great promise to treat both diabetes and obesity which are now at epidemic levels worldwide. This new drug class is one considered to have extraordinary market potential in the fight against diabetes and obesity.
“Development of this new drug class however is challenging due to the fragile nature of these ‘sugar’ based molecules that render them unstable and difficult to develop for clinical use. Given this challenge, it is believed that the use of the patented GlycoMim® technology, licensed from TFChem to develop SGLT Inhibitors, will increase drug stability and, therefore, improve their overall clinical effectiveness. Potential licensing and development partners have expressed interest in our concept of improving molecules in this new drug class. We intend to develop ‘best in class’ SGLT Inhibitors through use of this technology.
“The key and critical first test has been developed and optimized for use by SignalChem under contract from Sirona Biochem. Through use of this proprietary test, the company will be able to determine which molecules have the desired potency and selectivity compared to a reference standard. Screening of the current library of compounds will generate key data for ongoing drug development and provide first stage proof of concept necessary to secure future partnering opportunities. Sirona’s scientific team aims to identify lead compounds by the end of 2009,” continued Senner.
“The results from our new optimized test will be critical to direct our ongoing development of novel new SGLT inhibitors. The development and optimization of this sophisticated test, completed by SignalChem, is a significant and key milestone achievement for us. We are very pleased with the progress that we are making on our SGLT drug development program,” commented Senner.
Upon selection of compounds with the desired potency and selectivity for the SGLT 2 carrier protein, further preclinical screening for cytotoxicity, ADME properties, pharmacokinetics and in vivo efficacy will need to be carried out to select compounds for future clinical development. The primary objective of this critical first stage development plan with SignalChem was to develop, qualify and optimize the key test required for the initial development of SGLT inhibitors.
Investors are invited to visit the Sirona Biochem website at: http://www.sironabiochem.com where we feature the most recent information about the company and its activities. Alternatively, investors are able to e-mail all questions and correspondence to info@sironabiochem.com where they can also request to be added to the investor e-mail list to receive all future press releases and updates or call John Dougherty, Corporate Development at 604-641-4466.
About the Company:
Sirona Biochem Corp. (TSX-V: SBM) is a emerging biotech company dedicated to the discovery and development of novel drug compounds. The current focus is on treatments for Type II Diabetes and Obesity. Sirona has entered into a license agreement with TFChem S.A.R.L., a Drug Discovery company based in Rouen, France. TFChem licenses its technology of fluorinated carbohydrate mimics: GlycoMim®, and products in development to biotech companies. The license agreement with TFChem provides for research and development of new compounds known as S.G.L.T. inhibitors. S.G.L.T. inhibitors are a new and exciting class of compounds that have great promise and potential to treat both diabetes and obesity.
About SignalChem:
SignalChem, based in Richmond, B.C., Canada is a biotechnology company focused on the research, development and production of innovative cell signaling products to advance basic research and drug discovery efforts, with specific emphasis on the production of highly purified biologically active human recombinant proteins. SignalChem is emerging as a leader and a key contender in the life science recombinant protein market place. SignalChem offers a comprehensive discovery service which includes: gene cloning & expression of therapeutic ‘targets,’ custom assay & antibody development and compound profiling for drug ‘potency’ & ‘selectivity.’
Mark Senner President and Director
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Sirona Biochem
950-789 West Pender Street
Vancouver, B.C., V6C 1H2
Direct: 604-641-4466
Fax: 604-608-5471
info@sironabiochem.com
Source: www.sys-con.com
Posted under Compound Screening, New Drugs, North America, Press Releases, USA and Canada | No Comments
Drug Approvals, Natural And Unnatural
Last Updated on Friday, 21 August 2009 01:16 Written by Editor Friday, 21 August 2009 01:16
I seem to have been putting a lot of graphics up this week, so here’s another one. This is borrowed from a recent Science paper on the future of natural-products based drug discovery. It’s interesting both from that viewpoint, and because of the general approval numbers:
And there you have it. Outside of anomalies like 2005, we can say, I think, that the 1980s were a comparative Golden Age of Drug Approvals, that the 1990s held their own but did not reach the earlier heights, and that since 2000 the trend has been dire. If you want some numbers to confirm your intuitions, you can just refer back to this.
As far as natural products go, from what I can see, the percentage of drugs derived from them has remained roughly constant: about half. Looking at the current clinical trial environment, though, the authors see this as likely to decline, and wonder if this is justified or not. They blame two broad factors, one of them being the prevailing drug discovery culture:
The double-digit yearly sales growth that drug companies typically enjoyed until about 10 years ago has led to unrealistically high expectations by their shareholders and great pressure to produce “blockbuster drugs” with more than $1 billion in annual sales (3). In the blockbuster model, a few drugs make the bulk of the profit. For example, eight products accounted for 58% of Pfizer’s annual worldwide sales of $44 billion in 2007.
As an aside, I understand the problems with swinging for the fences all the time, but I don’t see the Pfizer situation above as anything anomalous. That’s a power-law distribution, and sales figures are exactly where you’d expect to see such a thing. A large drug company with its revenues evenly divided out among a group of compounds would be the exception, wouldn’t it?
The other factor that they say has been holding things back is the difficulty of screening and working with many natural products, especially now that we’ve found many of the obvious candidates. A lot of hits from cultures and extracts are due to compounds that you already know about. The authors suggest that new screening approaches could get around this problem, as well as extending the hunt to organisms that don’t respond well to traditional culture techniques.
None of these sound like they’re going to fix things in the near term, but I don’t think that the industry as a whole has any near-term fixes. But since the same techniques used to isolate and work with tricky natural product structures will be able to help out in other areas, too, I wish the people working on them luck.
Posted under Business and Investment, Drug Development, R & D, Reports | No Comments
Cognition Therapeutics Closes Series A Financing to Advance Drug Candidates for Alzheimer’s Disease
Last Updated on Friday, 21 August 2009 01:12 Written by Editor Friday, 21 August 2009 01:12
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Start-up company continues momentum with selection of disease-modifying small molecule drug leads for behavioral testing
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PITTSBURGH, July 16 /PRNewswire/ — Cognition Therapeutics Inc., a Pittsburgh-based drug discovery company developing small molecule disease-modifying treatments for Alzheimer’s, has closed on a $1.21M Series A financing. The round was led by Ogden CAP, LLC of New York City and includes M5Invest Partners of Villanova, PA, the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse, Innovation Works (Pittsburgh), and several individual investors. The round included both new investments and the conversion of existing convertible notes.
“This investment facilitates the advancement of our existing lead molecules towards a major milestone,” said Cognition Therapeutics President and CEO Hank Safferstein, Ph.D., J.D. “Our combination of novel, small molecule drug candidates and biologically-relevant screening methods is unique in the pharmaceutical industry. We’re pleased to have Ogden CAP and M5Invest join our other investors in supporting our pioneering approach to treat or prevent Alzheimer’s disease by targeting the proteins that cause the earliest stages of this disease”. “As early investors, we are impressed by Cognition Therapeutics’ combination of cutting-edge technology, influential and experienced leadership, and large clinical and commercial potential,” said Robert Gailus, senior advisor to Ogden CAP. “Alzheimer’s disease is a major health epidemic that places increasing strains on the world’s healthcare systems as the population ages. The drug candidates being developed by Cognition have the potential to significantly impact this devastating disease,” Gailus continued. Alzheimer’s disease affects an estimated four and a half million people in the United States today. That number is expected to exceed 12 million people by 2050. Funds raised in this round will support advancement of Cognition Therapeutics’ pioneering lead molecules that block the activity of the toxic oligomeric form of Abeta protein that interferes with normal learning and memory. Studies from the world’s leading academic laboratories indicate that the memory deficits caused by the oligomeric protein are among the earliest changes seen in Alzheimer’s disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment, the precursor to Alzheimer’s. These studies indicate that blocking the effects of this protein may halt or reverse Alzheimer’s disease. Cognition will use these funds to test its most promising lead molecules in behavioral models of Alzheimer’s disease. “The advancement of the company’s lead compounds into behavioral testing represents a significant milestone for the company,” says Dr. Franz Hefti, Chairman of the Board. “Cognition’s scientific approach is unique among the approaches being taken by the pharmaceutical industry today. Cognition has a novel Alzheimer’s disease model for the critical molecular step that causes memory loss. In addition, the company’s proprietary chemistry is based on natural molecular scaffolds which brought us effective drugs like aspirin, lidocaine and taxol. We anticipate new disease-modifying drugs for Alzheimer’s disease will result from this unique combination,” Dr. Hefti continued. About Cognition Cognition Therapeutics, Inc. is a leader in the discovery and development of small molecule therapeutics targeting the toxic proteins that cause the cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer’s disease and other degenerative diseases of the human brain. Toxic proteins play a crucial role in a large class of diseases, and there are currently no therapeutics available to prevent or block the destructive effects of toxic oligomeric proteins. Cognition has leveraged its scientific expertise with these difficult targets to pioneer the use of proprietary assays that emphasize functional responses and proprietary medicinal chemistry that ensures novel, high quality small-molecule drug candidates for the treatment of these diseases. Cognition has developed a number of screening strategies to identify small molecules capable of blocking the central toxicity of proteins in Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases. These assays emphasize phenotypic or functional responses of mature primary neurons to the toxic proteins. Cognition’s proprietary chemistry platform converts natural products into low molecular weight chemically stable druglike molecules, and is thus a source of novel pharmacophores and valuable drug candidates. These two technology platforms harken back to the origins of the pharmaceutical industry, when phenotypic responses were the sole screening method and natural product derivatives formed the starting materials for successful drug discovery. Cognition Therapeutics was founded on small molecule chemical libraries licensed from co-founder Dr. Gilbert Rishton at California State University Channel Islands and proprietary screening strategies established by co-founder and Chief Science Officer Dr. Susan Catalano. After initial investment and relocation to Pittsburgh, the company secured Dr. Hank Safferstein as President and CEO, bringing with him more than 15 years of leadership experience in drug development, commercialization and marketing for a number of public and private companies. www.cogrx.com. About Ogden CAP, LLC Ogden CAP, LLC is a New York company that has investments is a wide variety of asset classes, including venture capital. Over the past two years Ogden CAP, LLC has invested in 10 early stage companies. Besides its investment in Cognition, Ogden CAP, LLC has two other investments in the Pittsburgh area: FASTTAC, a document control and management company for the construction industry, and TSG, Inc. an energy company that converts coal to fuels. About the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse (PLSG) The Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse (PLSG) provides capital investments and customized company formation and business growth services to western Pennsylvania’s life sciences enterprises. The PLSG supports biosciences companies with promising innovations in the following concentrations: Biotechnology Tools, Diagnostics, Healthcare IT, Medical Devices and Therapeutics. The PLSG is propelling the sustainable growth of the region’s life sciences economy by accelerating research and technology commercialization with seed and early-stage companies; connecting investors with their Investment Portfolio companies; expanding established life sciences ventures and relocating biomedical companies to Pennsylvania. About Innovation Works (IW) Innovation Works provides risk capital and business expertise to the most promising early-stage technology companies in Southwestern PA to help them grow and succeed. Innovation Works is one of the most active seed-stage investors in the country, having invested in more than 120 emerging technology companies since beginning their seed fund in 1999. Those companies have gone on to raise over $600 million in additional capital from a diverse set of VCs, private investors, strategic partners and other sources of capital. |
SOURCE Cognition Therapeutics Inc.
Posted under Alzheimer's disease, Grants and Awards, Industry News, North America, Press Releases, USA and Canada | No Comments