The first Canadian Science Policy Conference was held at the end of October this year, and video and audio of the event is now available at the conference website. I’d encourage you to check out the whole thing, but definite highlights include:
- Preston Manning and Bruce Alberts (links to conference videos), who both called for greater involvement of scientists in politics at all levels. I discussed Bruce Alberts’ proposals in a blog post at the time. Also,
- On the third day of the conference, there was a great panel on science journalism, media, and communication (audio only), which was moderated by Paul Wells (senior columnist for Maclean’s) and included Mark Henderson (managing editor of Research Money), Nicola Jones (commissioning editor of Nature), Chantal Barriault (co-director of the science communication graduate program at Science North) and Peter Calamai (a science reporter from the Toronto Star whose remarks were read by Mr. Wells). Each had very interesting things to say about science journalism and scientists’ communications to the public.
I also had the privelege of moderating a panel that included Tom Brzustowski, Ronald Dyck, Jorge Niosi and Mark Romoff, who presented a range of approaches to commercialization strategy. There’s no video of our panel, but you can listen to it here, and I have located a visual aid…
If you look closely, I believe you can see Ron Dyck praying that I’m almost done talking. I’m not sure when the picture was taken, exactly, but it is statistically unlikely that his prayer was granted.
Categories: Jeremy Grushcow
Tagged: Bruce Alberts, Canadian Science Policy Conference, Chantal Barriault, CSPC 2009, Jorge Niosi, Mark Henderson, Mark Romoff, Nicola Jones, Paul Wells, Peter Calamai, Preston Manning, Ronald Dyck, Tom Brzustowski
This was a fairly busy week for Canadian biotech deals, including a new brain-y collaboration for MaRS; peace at Patheon; some overallotment and some underallotment; some diversification by Canadian pharma (even if not on quite the scale of Pfizer’s deal with Protalix); and some trans-Atlantic acquisitiveness of a Canadian company’s own devicing [sic., sorry]. Don’t stop now… Keep reading →
Categories: Jeremy Grushcow · Monday Deal Review
Tagged: Agrisoma, Amorfix, Aptilon, Baycrest, Cogniciti, Dow AgroSciences, IMRIS, Intelliject, Jenex Corporation, JLL Partners, MaRS, Oncolytics, Patheon, Prism Medical, sanofi-aventis Canada, Sentinelle Medical, Siemens Healthcare, SQI Diagnostics, Ultrasonix Medical
Universal Cancer Signalling Pathway: This is an interesting new twist on cancer signalling that may make scientists rethink how to tackle the disease. It is thought that there is no single cure for cancer as the hetergenous disease may arise from mutations in a number of different pathways. In this report, however, researchers demonstrate that many of the cancers converge on HIF-2a, part of the oxygen-sensing system that is required for tumours to grow. By inhibiting HIF-2a, they could attenuate the growth of a diverse number of aggressive cancers including glioblastomas, colorectal tumours, and non-small cell lung carcinomas. This universal cancer axis converging on HIF-2a could turn out to be a silver-bullet for cancer therapy. Dr. Stephen Lee at the University of Ottawa led the team and describes the research in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
SKP’ing Stem Cells: A special type of cell called SKPs (skin-derived precursors) may be the elusive adult dermal stem cell involved in regenerating skin, wound-healing, and keeping hair healthy and growing. In the study, researchers characterized the specialized population of cells and determined that SKPs can self-renew, maintain their ability to transform into other cells types, and regenerate hair follicles or other dermal cell types when grafted. These properties are suggestive that SKPs are indeed THE dermal stem cells and may have important future applications such as in hair restoration and wound-healing. Dr. Jeffrey Biernaskie completed the research in the lab of Dr. Freda Miller at Sickkids Hospital and recently started his own group at the University of Calgary. The report appears in this latest edition of Cell Stem Cell.
Comparative Genomics Links Autism and Schizophrenia: A new study comparing the genomes of autistic patients and schizophrenic patients proved the connection between the two disorders that were previously thought to share behavioural similarities. Both illnesses are associated with anomalies in the same region of the genome but differ substantially in the nature of the genetic changes. Part of the genomic region is missing in autistic patients whereas extra copies of the genome are present in schizophrenic patients. The affected genes appear to control head size and brain growth with overdevelopment of the brain in autistic patients and underdevelopment in schizophrenics. By knowing that the two disorders are genetically linked, research on one disorder immediately provides clues for the other and will aid in advancing treatment options for both. The study was conducted by Dr. Bernard Crespi’s group at Simon Fraser University and is reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Signalling Links in Neurological Disorders: Perturbations in either Dopamine or BDNF (brain-derived nerutrophic factor) pathways are implicated in neurological disorders. Researchers have now defined the molecular relationship linking the two pathways to similar disorders. The calcium signalling cascade is the key intermediate between dopamine receptor activation and BDNF production leading to neuronal growth. With this new understanding of the pathways associated with schizophrenia, depression, and drug addiction, additional molecular targets are available for potential therapeutic intervention. The study was led by Dr. Susan George at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (Toronto) and is reported in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Small Molecule Pathway Database: SMPDB (www.smpdb.ca) is an interactive, visual database containing more than 350 small-molecule pathways found in humans. It is designed to support drug discovery research and pathway elucidation by employing clinical metabolomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and systems biology information. The pathways describe relevant organs, organelles, subcellular compartments, protein cofactors, protein locations, metabolite locations, chemical structures and protein quaternary structures. SMPBP is a very useful tool that was put together by Dr. David Wishart’s group at the University of Alberta and is described in detail in Nucleic Acids Research.
Categories: Friday Science Review · Richard Chan
Tagged: autism, BDNF, calcium signalling, cancer, depression, dermal skin cells, dopamine, drug addiction, genomics, HIF-2a, hypoxia, schizophrenia, small molecule, stem cell
For anyone following the U.S. Supreme Court’s emerging case law on FDA approval and preemption (as we have been here, here, here, and here), it looks like the next frontier is going to be state law. With the Supreme Court’s ruling that drug manufacturers are subject to state tort claims even if they have undergone a full FDA review, liability depends on individual decisions by state legislatures and courts, which still have the power to exempt FDA approved drugs and 510(k) medical devices from tort liability in their states.
A recent decision by the Supreme Court of Arkansas has done just that. In DePriest v. AstraZeneca, the court dismissed claims brought under Arkansas’ Deceptive Trade Practices Act, holding that the Act contains a safe harbor that:
“specifically permits drug manufacturers to promote their drugs to consumers in a manner that is consistent with and supported by the labelling approved by the Food and Drug Administration.”
The court also dismissed the common law claims against the manufacturer on the grounds that FDA approval was sufficient to show that the manufacturer’s statements were not false or misleading.
Read the full opinion here (pdf).
Categories: Audrey Fried-Grushcow · News
Tagged: Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, AstraZeneca, DePriest, drug labelling, drug manufacturers, FDA approval, Preemption, safe harbor, state tort law
As part of our Biotech Trends series, we’ve been following the increasing commercialization activity shown by non-profits (although they’ve been having as hard a time succeeding as everyone else). Two recent stories highlight the important role foundations are playing in this market environment.
- JDRF Canada – FedDev Ontario Clinical Research Collaboration. The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) Canada is partnering with the Federal Economic Development Agency of Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario) to fund a clinical trial network for diabetes research. FedDev Ontario is committing $20 million and JDRF is committing $10 million. JDRF will collaborate with Southern Ontario universities and research institutions to work on:
- Speeding advances in cures and therapies for diabetes and its complications;
- Positioning Southern Ontario as an international hub for translational research; and
- Attracting the best international scientists and institutions to Ontario.
- ALS Foundations-Academia-Industry Project. Three philanthropic organizations (The Angel Fund, The ALS Therapy Alliance and Project ALS) are financing a new collaboration between Dr. Robert Brown and RXi Pharmaceuticals Corporation (NASDAQ: RXII). Dr. Brown will study the use of RXi’s self-delivering rxRNA™ (sd-rxRNA™) compounds as a potential treatment for ALS in a SOD1-overexpressing mouse model.
Each takes a novel approach:
- JDRF Canada, by collaborating directly with the government and by focusing on clinical activity; and
- the ALS project by allowing each party to perform in its specialty — academics on research, corporations on commercialization and the philanthropies on fundraising.
My bottom line:
In a stubbornly difficult financing environment, funding sources other than VCs step up because they derive non-financial (or at least indirect financial) benefits from their investments: corporate VCs get access to future partnership prospects; governments stimulate job growth; and charitable foundations are committed to finding cures and treatments. These two projects are perfect examples of the work-arounds that committed participants can produce.
Categories: Jeremy Grushcow · Trends in 2009
Tagged: ALS, FedDev Ontario, JDRF Canada, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Project ALS, RXi Pharmaceuticals Corporation, The ALS Therapy Alliance, The Angel Fund
The United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments today in a case we noted in June in which amici curiae PhRMA and BIO urged the Supreme Court to limit whistleblower suits under the False Claims Act (FCA). Feel like you were really there by reading the full transcript of the oral argument (pdf). Out loud. In your best Supreme Court Justice Voice.
Categories: Audrey Fried-Grushcow · News
Tagged: BIO, False Claims Act, FCA, oral argument, PhRMA, Supreme Court, whistleblower suits
In Canada, linkage regulations similar to the Hatch-Waxman Act in the U.S. ensure that generics manufacturers have to address relevant patents listed on the Patent Register (the analog to the Orange Book) if they want to market their product prior to the expiry of listed patents. Generics manufacturers can do so either by accepting the terms of the patents, or by filing a Notice of Allegation (NOA) alleging, amongst other things, that they will not infringe the patent or that the patent is invalid.
Three recent decisions litigated in this context contain important notes for pharma companies, biotech companies, generics companies and their patent attorneys and agents.
- The Patent Act (post-1996) Imposes a Duty of Candour and Good Faith. In Lundbeck Canada Inc. et al v. Ratiopharm Inc., Lundbeck’s patent was invalidated because the patent agents failed to “fully and fairly describe[]” the prior art in responding to an obviousness rejection raised by the patent examiner. This decision may take on a broader impact, particularly if it is interpreted to require Canadian applicants to affirmatively inform examiners of aspects of the prior art that are both favourable and unfavourable.
- Formulation Patents Must Claim All Medicinal Ingredients. In Bayer Inc. v. Canada (Minister of Health) et. al., Bayer’s patent was held to be ineligible for listing on the Patent Register, despite reading on the product. Where the approved product contains a formulation with more than one medicinal ingredient, only patents that claim formulations containing all of the approved medicinal ingredients may be listed on the Patent Register, regardless of whether the product is covered by the patent claims.
- Disclaimers Can Be Validly Filed After Receipt of a NOA. In sanofi-aventis Canada Inc. v. Hospira Healthcare Corporation, sanofi responded to Hospira’s NOA by filing a disclaimer in respect of a portion of one of sanofi’s listed patents. Hospira argued that the Court should consider the sanofi patent as it read on the date the NOA was served and not as it read after the disclaimer was filed. Although the court held (in favour of sanofi) that the patent should be read as of the date of the hearing, it also held that sanofi’s particular disclaimer was invalid because the patentee had not unequivocally testified that the disclaimer was a result of claiming too broadly in the patent as issued. Such an admission was necessary to the validity of the disclaimer. The court also held that having attempted a disclaimer, sanofi could not subsequently assert against Hospira the portions of the patent it had attempted to disclaim.
Thanks to Kavita Ramamoorthy and the whole Life Sciences team.
Categories: Jeremy Grushcow · News
Tagged: Bayer, Canada, generics, Hatch-Waxman, Hospira Healthcare, Linkage Regulations, Lundbeck Canada, NOA, Notice of Allegation, Orange Book, PM(NOC), Ratiopharm, Sanofi-Aventis
It was a fairly quiet week last week, but you still have options (har) after the jump, as well as an equity line, a debt settlement, a rights offering, licenses, and deals closing in a reasonably timely manner.
Keep reading →
Categories: Jeremy Grushcow · Monday Deal Review
Tagged: Advitech, Botaneco, CardioComm Solutions, Inc., Labopharm, Oncolytics, Sonomax Hearing Healthcare, WEX Pharmaceuticals
Two quick reviews on studies addressing Alzheimer’s and lung damage therapy…
An ‘- omics’ Study of Lipids in Alzheimer’s Disease: Clues to the underlying molecular mechanisms of amyloid plaque proteins causing Alzheimer’s disease were revealed using a lipidomic method (think broad ‘-omics’ type profiling of lipids). In diseased tissue, accumulation of certain isoforms or types of lipids is associated with hyperphosphorylation of the tau protein, which destabilizes neuronal cells and leads to neuronal cell death. The researchers also demonstrated that pharmacological modulation of lipid metabolism has positive effects in protecting the integrity of the neurons and may be a strategy to prevent further decline in patients suffering from the disease. Dr. Steffany Bennett and her research team at the University of Ottawa published the study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Stem Cell Therapy for Lung Damage: Premature newborns often suffer lung damage that leads to chronic lung disease. However, new research using mesenchymal stem cells injected into the lungs shows promise in stimulating lung repair. The study by Dr. Bernard Thébaud and his team at the University of Alberta in Edmonton used newborn rats as the subjects to test their hypothesis. What is surprising is that it does not appear that the stem cells establish themselves in place of the damaged cells. Instead, they act protectively to allow the lung to repair themselves and this may involve the release of factors from the stem cells to stimulate the regeneration process. This strategy holds a lot of promise and hopefully the same is true in humans. The study is a first on stem cell therapy in newborn lungs and is reported in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
Categories: Friday Science Review · Richard Chan
Tagged: Alzheimers, amyloid, lung, mesenchymal stem cells, Omics, regenerative medicine, stem cell therapy
One of the trends we’ll be following for 2010 is synthetic biology — efforts to create entirely novel organisms and systems from “scratch.” A fundamental question in the quest to create novel life forms is what the minimal genome is that will comprise a living organism.
Scientists have been looking for, and at, existing organisms with small genomes to try to answer that question; but a series of reports on the genome of one such organism suggests they may be looking in the wrong place.
Mycoplasma pneumoniae has one of the smallest known genomes among free-living organisms — just 816,000 base pairs — so it seemed like a good candidate for understanding life’s minimal requirements. However, three Science papers this week show that the organism uses a bunch of very sophisticated tricks to squeeze a lot of function out of its small genetic pantry.
My guess is that it will be easier to deduce minimal requirements by experimenting on organisms with better characterized, though larger, genomes than by trying to decipher all the tricks of the Mycoplasma trade.
Categories: Biotech Trends in 2010 · Jeremy Grushcow · News
Tagged: minimal genome, Mycoplasma pneumoniae, synthetic biology
Categories: Jeremy Grushcow · Monday Deal Review
Tagged: Advanced Photodynamic Technologies, AIM Health Group, Cathedral Energy, Enzo Clinical Labs, GeneNews, iCo Therapeutics, Medicago, Microbix Biosystems, NUCRYST, Oncolytics, Ondine Biopharma, OPMEDIC Group, Resverlogix, Riso Pharma, SemBioSys Genetics Inc., Smith & Nephew
Intestinal disease genomics and how hedgehogs cause arthritis…
Genetic Clues to ‘Belly Aches’ in Children: The largest genomic investigation into early onset inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis involved the efforts of an international research team. In total, genetic information from 3,400 children with IBD and 12,000 healthy children were compared. This study resulted in the identification of five genetic regions associated with susceptibility to pediatric and adolescent IBD. The team is now taking a closer look at these regions to try to identify the specific proteins that may explain why or how the disease develops. Another question that they would like to address is why some individuals develop IBD early whereas others develop it later in life. Two Toronto researchers, Dr. Anne Griffiths (Sickkids) and Dr. Mark Silverberg (Mount Sinai Hospital), contributed their expertise to the study, which appears in this week’s issue of Nature Genetics.
Colon Cancer Susceptibility Genes: In another intestinal disease research project, scientists noticed that different strains of mice exhibited different levels of resistance or susceptibility to colon cancer induced by a chemical carcinogen. Using genetic studies, the determining factor was mapped to a specific region in chromosome 3 that they designated as colon cancer susceptibility locus 3 (Ccs3). Within this region are about 94 known genes and they have identified a subset that are expressed at high levels in the colon. What is also interesting is that Ccs3 in mice is homologous to regions in human chromosome 1 and 4, which also contain genes known to be associated with inflammatory bowel disease and colorectal cancer. This mouse model will be a very useful tool for future studies on the pathogenesis of colon cancer. Dr. Philippe Gros led the research team at McGill University and published the study in the journal Oncogene.
Hedgehogs are Key to Osteoarthritis: An unexpected discovery may hold the key to solving painful osteoarthritic disease. Elevated expression or activity of a group of proteins called Hedgehog resulted in the development of osteoarthritis in mice. In simple terms, the balance of this signalling pathway in chondrocyte cells determines whether they go on to make cartilage or bone. In the animal model of osteoarthritis, Hedgehog levels are high and there is less cartilage being produced from the chrondrocytes. Obviously, Hedgehog becomes an immediate pharmacologic target for the treatment or prevention of osteoarthritis. You may find it strange that this study on a disease primarily affecting adults is from The Hospital for Sick Children but it just shows that research is full of surprises and you never know where it may take you! Dr. Benjamin Alman and his research team reported their study in the online edition of Nature Medicine.
Pathway Signalling Antibody Production: A key signalling pathway required for the efficient production of antibodies was identified recently and verified using knockout mice. A receptor on T cells called ICOS (Inducible Costimulator) is required for their conversion into a specialized type of T cell called Tfh cells (follicular B helper T cells). As the name implies, their role is to help B cells make the right antibodies to the target. Dr. Woong-Kyung Suh’s team at Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal discovered that ICOS activates an enzyme called phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K), which eventually leads to the release of factors that trigger the formation of Tfh cells. With this knowledge, researchers may find ways to tweak the system to suppress (in autoimmune disease) or enhance (in infectious disease) antibody production as required. The study is reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Categories: Friday Science Review · Richard Chan
Tagged: antibody, arthritis, chondrocytes, colon cancer, Crohn's Disease, genomics, Hedgehog, IBD, PI3K, T cells, ulcerative colitis
The Ontario Genomics Institute has a Pre-commercialization Business Development Fund (PBDF) that makes investments to fund proof-of-principle (aka proof-of-concept) programs. They are soliciting applications for 2010 investments, with a deadline of January 29, 2010.
The project or business has to “involve genomics, proteomics, or associated technologies,” but the potential business areas are broad, including:
biofuels; cell, macromolecular, or small-molecule strategies for disease therapeutics; crop or livestock trait improvements; diagnostics; environmental management; laboratory and medical devices; nutraceuticals; and associated technologies such as analysis and organization of data resources (informatics, databases), high-throughput robotics, and information technology.
If you’re thinking about applying, you should note the following fund criteria:
- The investment increases the likelihood of a near-term (i.e., within 24 months), ‘next-step’ event by offering concrete, definitive milestone(s) and uniquely enables rapid progress towards the marketplace for the outcome(s) of genomics-related technologies.
- The opportunity forges a partnership between academe and industry.
- The proposal demonstrates that the PBDF represents a unique funding opportunity for the project.
- The applicant provides a matching investment in cash or in kind, whether from internal resources or other investors or from granting institutions.
- The opportunity is of interest to an entity capable of and committed to further commercializing the outcome.
Caught your eye? Here’s some diligence material.
Done with that? Here are the application materials:
Go get ‘em! Good luck!
Categories: Jeremy Grushcow · News
Tagged: OGI, Ontario Genomics Institute, Pre-commercialization Business Development Fund
Awardees were announced today for CIHR’s Canadian Health Research Awards and for the Prix Galien Canada. It’s great to see awards that cross such a broad spectrum: basic and applied research; and molecular and population-based approaches.
The CIHR awardees are:
- Dr. Nahum Sonenberg at McGill for his pioneering work on translation control mechanisms, opening the door to new treatments for diseases such as cancer and HIV/AIDS.
- Dr. Michael Boyle at McMaster for his work on the relationship between children’s health and their environment, and for his work to improve research techniques and methodology in this area.
- Dr. Lynne-Marie Postovit at Western for her work on how oxygen levels and other micro-environmental signals influence the behaviour and development of normal and cancer stem cells.
The Prix Galien Canada consists of two prizes — the Research Award and the Innovative Product Award:
- Dr. Donald Weaver at Dalhousie is receiving the Prix Galien Research Award for his efforts to design novel drug therapies to treat chronic neurological disorders such as epilepsy and Alzheimer’s.
- Pfizer Canada Inc. is receiving the Prix Galien for Innovative Product for Champix™ (pdf), the first in a new class of prescription medications to help people stop smoking.
Congratulations to the winners! Hope everyone had a good time in Ottawa tonight.
Categories: Jeremy Grushcow · News
Tagged: Canadian Health Research Awards, CIHR, Donald Weaver, Lynne-Marie Postovit, Michael Boyle, Nahum Sonenberg, Pfizer Canada, Prix Galien Canada
November 16, 2009 · 1 Comment
This week’s Canadian biotech roundup features a dose of all kinds of deals, though common shares appear to be figuring more prominently lately than they were earlier in 2009. Lots of multijurisdictional activity too, with the U.S., the UK and Germany all participating in this week’s transactions. Other notable cross-border developments include the acquisition of IMS Health by CPP (and TPG), and Agrium’s continuing play for CF Industries. Keep reading after the jump…
Categories: Jeremy Grushcow · Monday Deal Review
Tagged: Andurja, Cangene, Dimethaid, Immunovaccine, Medicago, MedMira, NUCRYST, Nuvo Research, Prism Medical, Ranbaxy, Smith & Nephew, SQI Diagnostics, Vitest, Westaim
No bad luck here in unraveling new genetic and proteomic links in disease…
Gene Variants Linked to Hearing Loss: A genetic link to hearing loss in children who are being treated with the chemotherapy drug, cisplatin, has been identified. Cisplatin is a widely used anti-cancer drug but one of the harmful side effects is hearing loss experienced by over 60% of young cancer patients. In the study by Dr. Michael Hayden’s team (Child & Family Research Institute, Vancouver), they analyzed 220 drug metabolism genes and found variants in two particular genes that are associated to hearing loss in children – one gene is called TPMT (thiopurine methyltransferase) and the other is COMT (catechol-O-methyltransferase). With this information, doctors can perform genetic tests to determine the patient’s susceptibility to developing hearing loss and seek alternative treatment if necessary. Further studies investigating how these enzymes contribute to cisplatin-induced hearing loss could lead to drugs to counteract these effects while receiving the benefits of cisplatin therapy. The study appears in this week’s Nature Genetics.
The Missing Links in 5q- Syndrome: In patients with 5q- syndrome, a portion of chromosome 5 is deleted and the result is abnormal function of bone marrow cells leading to severe anemia. We now know what is missing in this region of chromosome 5 that have key roles in maintaining the integrity of bone marrow cells. In the investigation reported in Nature Medicine, Dr. Aly Karsan at the University of British Columbia and BC Cancer Agency discovered that two microRNAs (miRNAs), miR-145 and miR-146a, are lost in 5q- syndrome. MicroRNAs are short, single-stranded RNA that act to down regulate expression of specific target genes. The targets of miR-145 and miR-146a are two proteins called TIRAP and TRAF6, which play important roles in immune signalling but should be turned off in hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells during blood cell development. In support of their hypothesis, the researchers demonstrated in mice that forced expression of TRAF6 results in a condition that is similar to human 5q- syndrome.
Cancer Genes Now Linked: Researchers at Queen’s University studying C. elegans worms identified a connection between two genes involved in cancer. PTEN is a tumour suppressor and loss of function mutations are known to be involved in a number of cancers. Eph receptor signalling is required in developmental pathways and its expression level is elevated in some cancers. New evidence now connects PTEN and Eph receptors in development and cancer. The research led by Dr. Ian Chin-Sang’s team demonstrated an inverse relationship where Eph receptors can phosphorylate and downregulate PTEN. Conversely, PTEN activity can modulate Eph receptor signaling. If there is an imbalance in this relationship, then the (negative) effects may be amplified quickly. The study report appears in the current issue of Developmental Cell.
Determining Thryoid Hormone Receptor Complexes in Yeast: This is a neat genetic array assay using yeast as a simple model system to unravel co-regulators in thyroid hormone receptor (TR) activity. A yeast strain expressing TR was systematically crossed with each of 384 yeast strains bearing deletions of known genes. From this unbiased assay, researchers identified four genes that are deemed essential for thyroid hormone function and are also conserved in humans. Dr. Paul Walfish (Toronto Mount Sinai Hospital) and his team focused on one of these genes, CCR4. They validated its role in thyroid hormone receptor action by performing a series of CCR4 expression and deletion analyses in cultured human cells and proved its association with TR in response to thyroid hormone. Details of their findings appear in the early online edition of The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
FGFR3 Phosphorylation Network in Disease: An emerging field in proteomic studies is large-scale phospho-proteomic analyses using mass spectrometry to map signalling pathways. This technique was applied to define the FGFR3 phosphorylation network in multiple myeloma and other cancers. The researchers also demonstrated in their work the ability to quantitatively detect the upregulation or downregulation of over 60 phosphorylation sites on proteins that either responded to growth factor stimulation or inhibition by the pharmacologic drug PD173074. One could apply this general method for pharmacodynamic monitoring of any drug inhibitor to fully understand its implications in the cell. Dr. Michael Moran’s research team at the Hospital for Sick Children and University of Toronto published their report in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Categories: Friday Science Review · Richard Chan
Tagged: bone marrow, cancer, chemotherapy, cisplatin, Eph receptor, FGFR, MicroRNA, multiple myeloma, phosphorylation, proteomics, PTEN, Thyroid hormone
Some closings, some new deals, some MDS and some PBM all in this week’s deal review.
Keep reading →
Categories: Jeremy Grushcow · Monday Deal Review
Tagged: Calotto Capital, Danaher, GLG Life Tech, Hamilton Thorne, IMRIS, MDS Inc., Medicago, Oncolytics, Spectral Solutions, SXC Health Solutions
The shut-down of Ontario’s Chalk River reactor, which used to supply 30% of the world’s medical isotope requirements, and 60% of U.S. isotope needs, has prompted Congressional action in the U.S.
Yesterday, the House passed H.R. 3276 — the American Medical Isotopes Production Act of 2009 — finding that “[t]he United States should move expeditiously to ensure that an adequate and reliable supply of molybdenum-99 can be produced in the United States, without the use of highly enriched uranium.”
Both parts of that finding are important:
- supply of molybdenum-99 produced in the United States, because of the heavy impact on U.S. patients (16 million medical procedures annually); and
- without the use of highly enriched uranium, because reducing the need for highly enriched uranium is part of the U.S.’ nuclear security agenda.
The bill would provide funding of $163,000,000 (over FYs 2010-2014) for a program to evaluate and support projects for domestic production of medical isotopes.
In Canada, the latest plan is to spin off and privatize the “reactor business” unit of Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL). The Chalk River reactor is facing $70 million of repairs and/or an uncertain long-term future.
Categories: Jeremy Grushcow · News
Tagged: AECL, Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., chalk river, H.R. 3276, Medical Imaging, medical isotopes, molybdenum-99, nuclear isotopes
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