Bio Screening Industry News

FREE Weighing & Pipetting Skills and Solutions Seminar on Thursday, December 3, 2009 at the Doubletree Hotel & Executive Meeting Center in Somerset, NJ.

In these challenging times where training budgets are stretched and laboratories are searching for new efficiencies to improve productivity, METTLER TOLEDO can help. This half-day Insight! Education seminar will focus on the METTLER TOLEDO Good Weighing Practice™ (GWP®) program and Pipetting 360° from RAININ, and will include an introduction to associated solutions for the laboratory. The seminar is valued at $495.00 per person, but is completely free of charge with your advance registration - however, space is limited, so register today!

Learn from Acknowledged Industry Authorities:

Proper weighing and pipetting skills and operations are fundamental laboratory functions critical to achieving accurate results in your analytical processes. Yet, there is often confusion on many aspects with regards to balance and pipette use and operation.

Instructor - Henry Oppermann, former Division Chief for Weights and Measures, National Instituted of Standards [NIST].

Learn the Good Weighing Practice (GWP®) approach to selection, use, calibration, and ongoing management of balances for your laboratory, department, or even entire organization from an acknowledged industry authority. During his career, Henry Oppermann has been instrumental in developing many of the guidelines and practices designed to improve weighing processes. Join him and experts from METTLER TOLEDO for this insightful session.

Together with knowledgeable experts on the RAININ 360° approach to pipette use and management, you’ll learn valuable risk-based approaches to working with two of the most common - yet critical instruments in the lab, that will enhance your skills, career and results in any industry setting!

Also, we’re pleased to introduce Quantos - a revolutionary innovation for routine and precise dosing of powder compounds in the lab. Quantos is the winner of the 2009 Lab Automation Association and R&D 100 Awards! Learn more about how Quantos can improve speed, safety, and savings in your lab. See Quantos and a variety of other METTLER TOLEDO solutions live following the seminar during our product exposition.

If you think a colleague would be interested in attending this informative seminar, then forward to a colleague.

Date:    Thursday, December 3, 2009
Time:    8:30 am - 12:15 pm (Continental Breakfast at 8:00am / Lunch following seminar.)
Cost:    FREE with Advance Registration. Hurry - Space is limited! Free parking.
Location:    Doubletree Hotel & Executive Meeting Center 200 Atrium Drive, Somerset, New Jersey 08873

Schedule

Time:
8:00am – 8:30am Arrival & Check-in with Complimentary Continental Breakfast
8:30am – 12:15pm Seminar and speakers
12:15pm – 1:30pm Complimentary lunch concurrent with product exposition
Free parking.

Cost:
FREE with Registration (A $495 Insight! Education value)

Agenda:

8:00 am – 8:30 am: Check-in and Complimentary Continental Breakfast

8:30 am to 10:15 am – Good Weighing Practice™ GWP® Presented by Henry Oppermann, Former Division Chief for Weights and Measures at the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Minimize weighing risks with a minimum of effort. Good Weighing Practice allows you to improve control of your whole measuring process from balance Evaluation, Selection, Installation, Calibration and Routine Operation. With Good Weighing Practice you weigh without risks, comply with regulations easily, and achieve consistent good quality of your product and analytical processes appropriate for your industry or application.  Click here to learn more about Good Weighing Practice.

10:15 am to 10:30 am – Break

10:30 am to 10:55 am - Minimizing Weighing Measurement Uncertainty
METTLER TOLEDO knows it is essential for you to produce accurate results, achieve compliance, and improve traceability in the lab. See how to address all requirements regarding measurement uncertainty as outlined in ISO 17025 and ISO 9000/9001. Ensure strict compliance with your Quality Management SOP’s. Verify all calibrations and automatically perform routine weight checks on schedule while efficiently capturing your weighing data transparently while meeting all regulatory requirements.

10:55 am to 11:20 am – A New Solution in Automated Powder Dosing
New QUANTOS™ from METTLER TOLEDO solves many of the challenges of repetitive weighing of powder materials, such as reference standards for use with chromatography and other analytical lab applications, capsule filling or inhaler work, bottling, and more. Precise dosing of small amounts of powder in the Bio/Pharmaceutical or the chemical laboratory is a difficult, time consuming, and potentially hazardous task. Often the scientist is in contact with highly potent compounds or has a limited amount of precious material, and dosing may be hindered by electrostatic or hygroscopic effects. QUANTOS solves these challenges and more. Click here to learn more about QUANTOS™.

11:20 am to 12:15 pm – Good Practices in Pipette Use and Management - Pipetting 360°
Pipette liquid handling involves a variety of principles and practical considerations. This informative presentation from RAININ will cover handling principles with practical considerations, address how to best maximize accuracy & performance technique in your pipette work, tip selection and application, calibration approaches and solutions, and steps you can take to improve your results and productivity. Click here to learn more about RAININ Pipettes.

12:15 pm – 1:30 pm – Complimentary Lunch and Product Exposition
A Free Product Exposition will run concurrent with and following a noon luncheon where you can see a variety of these and other METTLER TOLEDO and RAININ Solutions displayed and demonstrated, while having your questions answered.

Exposition Products and Technologies will include:

* Analytical, Precision, and MicroBalances from METTLER TOLEDO
* QUANTOS® Perfect Dosing Solution
* RAININ Pipette Solutions including the New Rainin Liquidator 96 Benchtop Pipetting System
* Pipette Calibration Workstations
* Potentiometric and Karl Fischer Titrators from METTLER TOLEDO
* Density & Refractometry Systems
* pH measurement solutions
* Thermal Analysis including DSC, TGA, TMA, and DMA technologies and melting point solutions
* Moisture Balances
* LabX Software for Balance and Instrument control and data capture.
* And more…

1:30 pm – Conclude

Doubletree Hotel & Executive Meeting Center
200 Atrium Drive
Somerset, New Jersey 08873

http://mt.com/us/en/home/events/fairs/somerset_semin.html

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

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

SOURCE Cognition Therapeutics Inc.

Horizon’s X-MAN (Mutant And Normal) cell-line technology provides the first genetically-defined and patient-relevant in vitro models of human cancer. These models are being used by a growing number of Pharma and Biotech companies to rationalize key steps of the ‘targeted’ drug development process, and thus accelerate and economize the burgeoning field of ‘personalised’ medicine.

Horizon Discovery is a translational genomics company founded in June 2007 and is headquartered at the Babraham Research Campus, Cambridge, UK and with additional research laboratories in Torino, Italy. Horizon’s goal is to convert new information on the genetic causes of cancer into laboratory models that will facilitate the discovery of drugs that target these defects. Central to this aim is Horizon Discovery’s offering of X-MAN cell-lines, which represent accurate models of defined cancer patient populations and their matched normal genetic backgrounds – a missing link in the rational and efficient development of novel targeted anti-cancer agents.

Source: Cambridge Network

The Vaccines Development Conference brings together scientists and industry experts from pharma, biotech, academia and government to share what’s working and not working for them, and to address your key vaccine development challenges and questions.

The Vaccines Development Conference

Top leaders and key decision-makers of major companies representing a broad range of industries will meet with distinguished scientists, public health officials, law enforcers, first responders, and other experts to discuss pandemic prevention, preparedness, response and recovery at the 1st International Swine Flu Summit.

At the summit, attendees will be able to draw on first-hand best practices to create the solid business continuity plans that their companies and organizations need in order to prepare for, respond to, and survive a pandemic.

The summit draws on the success of the seven previous Bird Flu summits which featured as speakers several distinguished personalities such as Dr. David Nabarro, the United Nations Coordinator for Avian and Human Influenza, Alex Thiermann of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and Dr. Wenqing Zhang of the WHO Epidemic and Pandemic Alert and Response.

Well-known emergency responders, heads of hospitals from around the world, and hog/swine industry leaders will speak in this summit.

Topics Include:
	Country Report & Situations Update
	Surveillance and Data Management
	Preparing Communities Strategies; Local Partnership and Participation
	Delivery of Vaccine and Antiviral Medication
	National Pandemic Influenza Medical Countermeasure
	Socio Economic Impact on Hog/Swine Industry
	Benefit-risk Assessment: Public Health, Industry and Regulatory Perspectives
	Prevention Education Efforts and Risk Communication
	Command, Control and Management
	Emergency Response Management
	Business-Based Planning
	School-Based Planning
	Community-Based Planning

http://new-fields.com/isfc/

Boston, Massachusetts, USA — April 30, 2009 — CLC bio’s enterprise platform for Next Generation Sequencing data analysis, CLC Genomics Server, has just been awarded the “Best of Show” prize at the Bio-IT World Conference & Expo 2009 - an award judged by a team of Bio-IT World magazine editors and leading industry experts.

Bio-IT World Editor-in-Chief Kevin Davies, PhD., comments, “Each year we go through a process where our judging panel debates the technical merits and likely business impact of the different technologies presented at the Best of Show awards. CLC bio’s success this year clearly reflects the importance of the incredibly exciting Next Generation Sequencing space, with a solution that is obviously gaining traction with it’s capabilities to handle the immense data management and analytical challenges required in this area.”

“Judging on several criteria, such as the importance of the problem being addressed and the elegance of the solution provided, it was clear to the judging panel that CLC Genomics Server, and the flexible plug-in structure it provides, delivers an ideal platform for researchers working with Next Generation Sequencing data.” says M. Michael Barmada, PhD. - member of the “Best of Show” judging panel and Director of the Center for Computational Genetics at the Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh. “It’s nice to see complex computational algorithms and routines presented with an elegant interface in a user-friendly way, which lowers the technical barriers for all researchers working with high-throughput sequence data analysis.”

CLC Genomics Server is CLC bio’s advanced and powerful bioinformatics solution which is built upon a powerful and modern three-tier server architecture, that yields flexible options of executing centralized services, easy integration with other applications and services, powerful database communication and data integration, and secure access control framework and central action logging. Customers already using this enterprise platform, includes J. Craig Venter Institute, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Veridex, and University of California - Berkeley. Read more about this solution here:
http://www.clcbio.com/index.php?id=1376

In Vitro and In Vivo Data Show AEZS-126 as Promising Oral Compound for

Future Clinical Development in Cancer

QUEBEC CITY, April 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - AEterna Zentaris Inc. (TSX: AEZ; NASDAQ: AEZS), a global biopharmaceutical company focused on endocrine therapy and oncology, today presented two posters on AEZS-126, a promising compound for clinical intervention of the PI3K/ Akt pathway in human tumors. The posters were presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado.

Poster #3705

Entitled, “AEZS-126, a new orally bioavailable PI3K inhibitor with antitumor effects”, I. Seipelt, S. Baasner, M. Gerlach, M. Teifel, J. Fensterle, L. Blumenstein, G. Mueller and E. Guenther, the poster focuses on ADMET and safety profiling of the compound, as well as in vivo pharmacokinetic experiments and mouse xenograft antitumor studies.

Results

AEZS-126 was identified as a potent inhibitor of class I PI3Ks in biochemical and cellular assays and demonstrated favorable properties in early in vitro ADMET screening including microsomal stability, plasma stability and screening against a large safety profile composed of receptors, enzymes and cardiac ion-channels. During the course of in vivo pharmacokinetic experiments and mouse xenograft antitumor studies, the oral bioavailability in mice was determined to be about 60%, leading to micromolar plasma levels which are well above the nanomolar IC50 values in in vitro studies. Significant antitumor activity was observed at 30mg/kg daily oral administration in Hct116 and A549 models.

Conclusion

These data suggest that AEZS-126 is a promising compound for clinical intervention of the PI3K/Akt pathway in human tumors.

Poster #3706

Entitled, “In vitro profiling of the potent and selective PI3K inhibitor, AEZS-126″, I. Seipelt, M. Gerlach, L. Blumenstein, G. Mueller, M.Teifel, E. Polymeropoulos and E. Guenther, the poster outlines the key in vitro characteristics of this compound that led to its selection for in vivo development.

Results

AEterna Zentaris has identified a new generation of low molecular weight pyridopyrazine compounds as highly potent and selective inhibitors of class I PI3Ks. Presented here, are the key in vitro characteristics of AEZS-126 that led to its selection for in vivo development. AEZS-126 inhibits PI3Ka with an IC50 value of 10nM and proved to be a potent inhibitor of Akt phosphorylation in cellular assays. Mode-of-action studies showed that AEZS-126 acts as an ATP competitive compound. The in vitro antiproliferative activity against different human tumor cell lines (MDA-MB 468, U87, Hct116, PC-3, A549 and others) was determined, with EC50 values in the nanomolar range.

Preventing and delaying the emergence of drug resistance is an essential goal of antimalarial drug development. Monotherapy and highly mutable drug targets have each facilitated resistance, and both are undesirable in effective long-term strategies against multi-drug-resistant malaria. Haem remains an immutable and vulnerable target, because it is not parasite-encoded and its detoxification during haemoglobin degradation, critical to parasite survival, can be subverted by drug–haem interaction as in the case of quinolines and many other drugs^{1, 2, 3, 4, 5}. Here we describe a new antimalarial chemotype that combines the haem-targeting character of acridones, together with a chemosensitizing component that counteracts resistance to quinoline antimalarial drugs. Beyond the essential intrinsic characteristics common to deserving candidate antimalarials (high potency in vitro against pan-sensitive and multi-drug-resistant Plasmodium falciparum, efficacy and safety in vivo after oral administration, inexpensive synthesis and favourable physicochemical properties), our initial lead, T3.5 (3-chloro-6-(2-diethylamino-ethoxy)-10-(2-diethylamino-ethyl)-acridone), demonstrates unique synergistic properties. In addition to ‘verapamil-like’ chemosensitization to chloroquine and amodiaquine against quinoline-resistant parasites, T3.5 also results in an apparently mechanistically distinct synergism with quinine and with piperaquine. This synergy, evident in both quinoline-sensitive and quinoline-resistant parasites, has been demonstrated both in vitro and in vivo. In summary, this innovative acridone design merges intrinsic potency and resistance-counteracting functions in one molecule, and represents a new strategy to expand, enhance and sustain effective antimalarial drug combinations.