Bio Screening Industry News

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

I had a printout of the structure of maitotoxin on my desk the other day, mostly as a joke to alarm anyone who came into my office. “Yep, here’s the best hit from the latest screen. . .I hear that you’re on the list to run the chemistry end. . .what’s that you say?”

This is, needless to say, one of the largest and scariest marine natural product structures ever determined (and that determination has been no stroll past the dessert table, either).

But that’ hasn’t stopped people from messing around with it. And there’s much speculation that other people are strongly considering messing around with it, too - you synthetic chemists can guess the sorts of people that this might be, and their names, and what it might be like to sit through the seminars that result, and so on.

I fear that a total synthesis of maitotoxin would be largely a waste of time, but I’m willing to hear arguments against that position. Just looking at it, though, inspires thought. This eldrich beastie has 98 chiral centers. So let’s do some math. If you’re interested in the SAR of such molecules, you have your choice of (two to the 98th) possible isomers, which comes out to a bit over (3 times ten to the 29th) compounds. This is. . .a pretty large number. If you’re looking for 10mg of each isomer to add to your screening collection (no sense in going back and making them again), then you’re looking at a good bit over half the mass of the entire Earth. And that’s just in sheer compounds; we’re not counting the weight of vials, which will, I’d say, safely move you up toward the planetary weight of a low-end gas giant. We will ignore shelving considerations in the interest of time.

Recall that yesterday’s post gave a number of about 27 million compounds below 11 heavy atoms. You could toss 27 million compounds into a collection of ten to the 29th and never see them again, of course. But that brings up two points: one, that the small-compound estimate ignores stereochemistry, and we’ve been getting those insane maitotoxin numbers by considering nothing but. The thing is, with only 11 non-hydrogen atoms, there aren’t quite as many chances for things to get out of control. The GDB compound set goes up only to 110 million or so if you consider stereoisomers, which actually isn’t nearly as much as I’d thought.

But the second point is that this shows you why the Berne group stopped at 11 heavy atoms, because the problem becomes intractable really fast as you go higher. It’s worth remembering that the GDB people actually threw out over 98% of their scaffolds because they represented potential ring structures that are too strained to be very stable. And they only considered C, N, O and F as heavy atoms (even adding sulfur was considered too much to deal with, computationally). Then they tossed out another 98 or 99% of the structures that emerged from that enumeration as reactive and/or unstable. Relax your standards a bit, allow another atom or two, bump up the molecular weight, do any of those and you’re going to exceed anyone’s computational capacity. Update: the Berne group has just taken a crack at it, and managed a reasonable set up to 13 heavy atoms, with various simplifying assumptions to ease the burden. If you want to mess around with it, it’s here, free of charge).

Source: Corante

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/

Last October, TimTec and Collaborative Drug Discovery (CDD) established a collaboration in which CDD’s web-based data management system would host two TimTec Natural Products libraries on their free community Public Access site.  Through this partnership, researchers would be able to register for a free account with CDD allowing them to chemically mine the contents of these TimTec compound libraries using CDD’s powerful, intuitive web-based database software.

TimTec is now offering three more libraries on the CDD Public Access database:

The TimTec ActiTarg-K Kinase Modulators library contains over 6,000 compounds known to inhibit protein kinase activity:

http://www.timtec.net/actitarg-k-kinase-modulators.html

The TimTec OGT Inhibitors Analogs library contains more than 300 compounds analogous to three known O-GlcNAc Transferase inhibiting molecules:

http://www.timtec.net/o-glcnac-transferase-inhibitors.html

Finally, the TimTec resourceful Diversity Set is a general screening collection of drug-like compounds that present most diversified selection from TimTec stock. This screening library contains 10,000 of the most diverse compounds, all complying with the Lipinski Rule of Five:

http://www.timtec.net/diversity-set-10k.html

TimTec’s five databases join more than 25 other databases containing chemical and biological data hosted on CDD Public Access, including:

• 47,000 Ki values for 20,000 compounds against 699 GPCR targets from the NIMH Psychoactive Drug Screening Program at the University of North Carolina
• Over 15,000 compounds with Malaria assay data from 5 public data sources
• 48,818 compounds from the Distributed Drug Discovery (D3) at Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
• Almost 7,500 compounds with Tuberculosis antibacterial and cell viability information from 4 public data sets and growing thanks to their collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

About TimTec, LLC.

TimTec LLC. - http://www.timtec.net - is a privately held company located in NewarkDelaware, USA. It was founded in 1995 and began its work in the areas of acquisition and distribution of synthetic organic and natural compounds, custom synthesis, and laboratory equipment to become a full service partner for drug discovery. TimTec has established a global network of thousands of scientists from research centers around the world. The company has developed strong in-house expertise assembling general and targeted library collections for variety of research purposes. International customers include major pharmaceutical, biotech, agricultural, and educational companies and institutions, which use TimTec products for research and development programs.

For more information on TimTec library collections, please contact:

Kay Denisova
Business Development
TimTec LLC
Harmony Business Park Building 301-A
Newark, DE 19711
Tel 302 292 8500
Fax 302 292 8520
info(at)timtec.net
http://www.timtec.net

About Collaborative Drug Discovery, Inc.

Collaborative Drug Discovery, Inc. (CDD) - http://www.collaborativedrug.com - provides web-based software that organizes preclinical research data to help scientists advance new drug candidates more effectively. The CDD database enables scientists to “archive, mine, and collaborate”® around preclinical chemical and biological drug discovery data through a web-based interface. The software helps distributed research groups to safely store and intelligently analyze small molecule, enzyme, cell and animal bioactivity data accumulated from both low-throughput and high-throughput screens. Unique collaboration features and CDD’s community-oriented approach help unite globally dispersed humanitarian efforts against neglected infectious diseases. Similar collaborative strategies are also rapidly gaining prominence in the commercial arena. CDD offers its industrial-strength database software at a price affordable to academic laboratories, research foundations, and small companies.

For further information please contact:

Barry Bunin, PhD
President & CEO
Collaborative Drug Discovery (CDD)
1633 Bayshore Hwy, Suite 342
Burlingame, CA 94010
info(at)collaborativedrug.com

Kiev, Ukraine, August 23 - 27, 2009

ASMC09 in Kiev is being prepared by EFMC (European Federation for Medicinal Chemistry) and ChemBridge Corporation, in the series of events which started with ASCMC04 Moscow followed by ASMC07 St. Petersburg.

Prof. Erick Carreira, ETH Zurich, Switzerland and Dr Scott Biller, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Cambridge, USA, have kindly accepted to be the Chairmen of the Symposium.

The scientific program of the International Symposium on Advances in Synthetic and Medicinal Chemistry will include:

* 28 invited plenary lectures, presented by highly recognized scientists from academia and the pharmaceutical and biotech industry from Europe, USA and former USSR countries.
* 10 short oral communications which will be selected from submitted abstracts
* poster sessions

The scientific program will be complemented by an attractive cultural program in Kiev.

The topics to be covered during this symposium include:

* New Synthetic Methodologies, Total Synthesis of Natural Products and Heterocyclic Chemistry
* Diversity- and Target-Oriented Synthesis and Chemical Biology
* Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Discovery & Development

The program will also include a commercial exhibition and a half-day Business Mini-Symposium “Small Molecule Screening Libraries in Drug Discovery: Experience and Trends”.

The official language of the symposium is English.

http://www.ldorganisation.com