Arizona Biotech Companies

Here is a list of the major biotech companies in AZ. Most of them are here in the valley and the rest is in Tucson. The list obviously is not a complete list but I'll add more names as I find more. It is hard to classify companies as biotech or not biotech since the range of areas they focus vary considerably. You may look at this list as the places you may look for a job or an internship if you plan to stay in Arizona once you're done with your Computational Biosciences (or similar) degree.

Headquarters in AZ

TGen
International Genomics Consortium
OrthoLogic
Amplimed
Ribomed
Ventana
Innexus
Intrinsic BioProbes
GW Medical Technologies
Biomarker Technologies
Medipacs
SynCardia Systems
Molecular Profiling Institute
Integrated Biomolecule
5AM Solutions
Gore (Flagstaff is the hub of Gore's medical-products division, the site of development and manufacturing of implantable medical devices.)
Zila


Office in AZ

Medtronic
Genzyme
LabCorp

Computational systems biology comes to a lab bench near you

The Commission of the European Union has awarded EUR 9 million over five years for a new Network of Excellence that will make computational systems biology accessible to bench scientists throughout Europe and beyond. ENFIN, which stands for 'Experimental Network for Functional INtegration,' brings together some of Europe's best computational and experimental biology labs – 20 groups across 17 institutions in 13 countries – to build a virtual institute that will put Europe at the centre of the systems biology revolution.

Genome sequencing and other high-throughput technologies have triggered a renaissance in computational biology: there's now a large, open-access database for almost every type of biological information. Yet the average biologist at the lab bench uses only a tiny proportion of the information that is relevant to the questions s/he is trying to answer. Why is this? "To the bench scientist, computational biology is like driving around an unfamiliar city: you might be able to see your hotel, but finding your way to the car park through the oneway system can be a nightmare," explains the EMBL­European Bioinformatics Institute's Ewan Birney, who will coordinate ENFIN. "ENFIN will revise the town plan so that frustrating one-way system no longer exists: researchers will be able to go straight to the public data that they want, combine it with their own unpublished data and perform truly integrated analyses using data from different types of experiments." ENFIN

Anti-flu vaccine race gets new entry

The flu vaccine-making system that serves as the best available protection against a pandemic relies on millions of chicken eggs, takes nine months to produce each year's flu shots and has changed little in decades.

This creaky system poses a big problem if a new, deadly strain emerges once the annual and inflexible production process begins.

Several biotechnology companies are at work on a new and quicker way of making a flu vaccine they hope can replace one that requires people to be inoculated with the entire influenza virus. Their technique: extract just a few genes from the virus and inject it into people.

The nascent technology, called DNA vaccines, is a form of gene therapy that proponents argue is the best way to overhaul a 50-year-old vaccine manufacturing system... arizona daily star

California Computer Scientist Double Volume of Data in NIH Biotech Repository

Faster Computation of Haplotypes Provides Insight into Genetic Basis of Human Disease

San Diego, CA, October 26, 2005 -- High-throughput sequencing of an individual's DNA yields a map of genetic variation which can give clues to the genetic underpinning of human disease. The current technologies collect genotypes, or information from the individual's two chromosomes. Yet many scientists believe that drilling down to the variations between individuals' DNA at the level of each chromosome -- so-called haplotypes -- will permit more accurate study of genetic differences and their consequences for medical research and the study of evolution.

Experimental methods for deriving these haplotypes are expensive and time-consuming. But now experts in bioinformatics at two California research institutes have used a different, very fast and relatively low-cost computational tool to 'crunch' the world's largest repository of genotypes to predict their haplotypes -- and they did so in less than 24 hours, approximately 1,000 times faster than the prevailing technology until now. Their findings are featured in a special issue of the journal Genome Research, published today...NIH Biotech Repository

Lineage trees for cells

Some fundamental outstanding questions in science – "Where do stem cells originate?" "How does cancer develop?" "When do cell types split off from each other in the embryo?" – might be answered if scientists had a way to map the history of the body's cells going back to the fertilized egg. Now, a multidisciplinary team at the Weizmann Institute of Science has developed an analytical method that can trace the lineage trees of cells.

This accomplishment started with a challenge to common wisdom, which says that every cell in an organism carries an exact duplicate of its genome. Although mistakes in copying, which are passed on to the next generation of cells as mutations, occur when cells divide, such tiny flaws in the genome are thought to be trivial and mainly irrelevant. But research students Dan Frumkin and Adam Wasserstrom of the Institute's Biological Chemistry Department, working under the guidance of Prof. Ehud Shapiro of the Biological Chemistry and Computer Science and Applied Mathematics Departments, raised a new possibility: though biologically insignificant, the accumulated mutations might hold a record of the history of cell divisions. These findings were published today in PLoS Computational Biology.... continue

Large volume genomic DNA purification

Tecan has released the Freedom Evo gDNA XL for the automated purification of genomic DNA (gDNA) ready for use in downstream applications including genotyping, genome analysis and real-time PCR. Eluted gDNA can be prepared from fresh, refrigerated or frozen whole Blood Samples by incorporating the recently launched chemistry of the Promega MagneSil Genomic Large Volume System with the flexible Freedom Evo workstation technology. The Freedom Evo gDNA XL is described as a powerful, fully automated system that purifies gDNA from samples from primary tubes, for example Vacutainer tubes, without needing user intervention for further treatments such as pellet resuspension... dna purification

Gene fusion identified in prostate cancer

Using a novel bioinformatics approach, researchers found that the majority of prostate cancers carry a specific gene fusion, a common feature of blood cancers but relatively rare in solid tumors, according to this week's Science. A team led by Arul Chinnaiyan found that in over 75% of prostate cancer samples, the regulatory region of the TMPRSS2 gene is fused to a gene encoding an ETS transcription factor, either ERG or ETV1, causing over-expression of the factor and, in turn, cancerous growth.

"There was a general consensus that the mechanism [of] translocation was not [found] in the major types of epithelial tumors," said Stephen Baylin at Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, Md., who did not participate in this study. "This is a big sort of hint that functional translocations are much more common in solid tumors. That's a fascinating step."... continue

Special Lecture at the Bidesign Institute's Center for Innovation at ASU

The Center for Innovation at the Biodesign Institute Presents:
Greg Lucier, Chairman and CEO, Invitrogen

2 PM Tuesday, November 1st, 2005
Biodesign Building A, LL Rooms 10/14

The Biodesign Institute is pleased to host Greg Lucier, Chairman and CEO of
Invitrogen, a company that is a world-wide leader in science innovation and
discovery. Invitrogen is a key partner in the global life science community.
Invitrogen conducts business in more than 70 countries employing approximately
4,500 scientists and other professionals and had revenues of more than $1
billion in 2004. The mission of the company is to better the human condition
through innovations in science and technology by providing products and services
that support academic and government research institutions as well as
pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies; Greg Lucier will discuss
"Invitrogen: Past, Present, and Future".

Covance to Build Major Lab Facility in Suburban Phoenix

Covance Laboratories Inc., a division of New Jersey-based Covance Inc., is planning a major research facility in Chandler, Ariz., on a 38-acre parcel of vacant land it purchased recently. The land is zoned for agricultural use, and before development on the research facility can begin, the parcel will need to be rezoned for light industrial use.

"Arizona laid out an Arizona Bioscience Roadmap to build a world-class research industry and attract companies like ours to the state," noted a Covance spokesperson, adding that Arizona also has business climate and quality-of-life advantages that the company likes, and that it's close to the company's West Coast-based clients... continue

TGen spinoff gets $7.5 mil

A firm created to commercialize discoveries at the Translational Genomics Research Institute has received $7.5 million in equity funding, its largest capital infusion to date. It's also one of the largest investments in an Arizona start-up company this year.

Molecular Profiling Institute Inc.'s executive vice president, David Mallory, said the money from three biomedical companies will be used to launch new molecular tests for breast cancer, prostate cancer and lymphoma. Recent investments by AmeriPath Inc., Affymetrix Inc. and Gen-Probe Inc. give Molecular Profiling opportunities for expansion, Mallory said.

Gen-Probe, a San Diego producer of diagnostic and blood-screening products, has developed a test for prostate cancer that Molecular Profiling will help validate and market... continue

'Start of life' gene discovered

Scientists have found the gene responsible for controlling a first key step in the creation of new life.

The HIRA gene is involved in the events necessary for the fertilisation that take place once a sperm enters an egg.

Faults in this gene might explain why some couples struggle to get pregnant despite having healthy sperm, say the researchers from the UK and France.

Although their work in Nature is based on fruit flies, the same genetic processes are present in humans. HIRA gene

Gene map points to personal drugs

Scientists have completed a map of the most common differences in the human genome, which could lead to personalised treatments for diseases.

An international team mapped the entire genome of 269 people, and identified tiny differences in key areas of DNA.

The "HapMap" study will make it easier to look for genetic variations linked to common diseases such as diabetes.

But some experts said HapMap, detailed in Nature, told "half the story" as it could not be used for rare diseases. hapmap project

Gene map pattern provides breakthrough for scientists

SCIENTISTS have mapped patterns of tiny DNA differences that distinguish one person from another, a step that will speed up the search for genes that promote common illnesses such as heart disease and diabetes...
...But the new "HapMap" — taken from the genetics term, haplotype — opens the door to launching comprehensive searches through the human DNA for those genes, said Altshuler, who does research at the Broad Institute, which is a collaboration of Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and at Massachusetts General Hospital. shanghaidaily

Flipped Genetic Sequences Illuminate Human Evolution and Disease

By comparing the human genome with that of the chimpanzee, man's closest living relative, researchers have discovered that chunks of similar DNA that have been flipped in orientation and reinserted into chromosomes are hundreds of times more common in primates than previously thought. These large structural changes in the genome, called inversions, may account for much of the evolutionary difference between the two species. They may also shed light on genetic changes that lead to human diseases.

Although humans and chimpanzees diverged from one another genetically about six million years ago, the DNA sequences of the two species are approximately 98 percent identical. Given the 2005 publication of the draft chimpanzee genome sequence, researchers can now readily identify the differences between the human and chimp genomes. These differences lend insight into how primates evolved, including traits specific to humans. continue

Marine Microbe Caught Stealing Body

Oct. 26, 2005— In an act straight out of "Invasion of the Bodysnatchers," a marine microbe has been caught red-handed merging with green algae on a Japanese beach.

By engulfing a single cell of algae, the single-celled Hatena microbe is able to remake itself from a sleek, colorless predator into a fat, verdant sunbather.

The strange switcheroo resembles a pivotal evolutionary step in which early, single-celled organisms took in and eventually formed permanent, long-term relationships with what are today the green, solar-energy-capturing chloroplasts in modern plant cells. discovery

Arizona Technology Council Announces Six New Board Members

TEMPE, Ariz.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 26, 2005--The Arizona Technology Council today announced the names of six new members of its board of directors and designated Todd Bankofier, VP/GM Arizona operations for Ensynch, as the chairman of the board of directors: new board members

Novel protein in St. John's Wort found to suppress HIV-1 gene expression

A novel protein, p27SJ, extracted from a callus culture of the St. John's wort plant (Hypericum perforatum) suppresses HIV-1 expression and inhibits its replication, according to researchers at Temple University School of Medicine's department of neuroscience and Center for Neurovirology (CNV).

Their findings, "p27SJ, a novel protein in St. John's wort, that suppresses expression of HIV-1 genome," will be published online in the Oct. 27 issue of Gene Therapy.

Gene that fights malaria in mosquitoes discovered

US researchers claim to have discovered a gene in mosquitoes that can fight off malaria parasites.

Anopheles mosquitoes transmit malaria parasites to nearly 550 million people worldwide each year, which result in more than two million deaths annually.

Researchers said that the protective gene SPRN6 in mosquitoes helped insects or other life forms fight off infection by the Plasmodium parasite, which causes malaria in humans. malaria in mosquitoes

Chandler scores a coup with drugmaker

... in the Salt River Valley, some of the first fruits of the region's quest for biosciences businesses are becoming apparent. Covance Laboratories Inc., one of the world's largest drug-development companies, wants to build a 400,000-square-foot operation in Chandler that would employ 400 people. Wendell Barr, president of the Madison, Wis., company's early development division, said Covance works with virtually all the major pharmaceutical companies... continue at AZ Republic

Expression Project for Oncology (expO) Collects 1,000th Malignant Tumor Specimen

Phoenix, AZ, October 24, 2005-The International Genomics Consortium's (IGC) Expression Project for Oncology (expO) today announced that it has collected its 1,000th frozen cancer specimen, which exceeds original expectations for the project while marking a milestone that is recognized by researchers, industry and academia. Gene _expression analysis with clinical information on hundreds of these specimens is now publicly available online.

The purpose of expO is to obtain cancer tissue samples under uniform and standardized conditions, perform gene _expression analyses, and collect the long-term clinical outcome of the patient. The data is both collected and shared in a way to ensure the protection of patient confidentiality, while still making the "de-identified" information available online for researchers worldwide. Open and free access to the data will accelerate genetic discoveries and the development of tests and therapies... visit intgen

Researchers find gland that tells fruit flies when to stop growing

Many baffled parents have wondered whether their teenagers would ever stop growing. The answer is obvious, but researchers have never really quite understood just how an organism determines when it has reached its optimal size and growth should cease.

Now University of Washington biologists studying the physiology of Drosophila melanogaster, the common fruit fly, have discovered an organ that assesses the size of the juvenile and signals when it has reached a critical weight to begin metamorphosis into an adult.

The team, led by postdoctoral researcher Christen Mirth, found that the prothoracic gland, a major endocrine organ situated just in front of the brain, assesses the fly's size as it grows during the larval stage. The gland then sends hormonal signals when it senses the fly has reached a size appropriate to enter adulthood.

The scientists found they could use the pathway that sends insulin to a fly's cells to genetically manipulate the size of the prothoracic gland, part of a more complex structure called the ring gland, and send false signals about a fly's weight. Enlarging the gland by increasing insulin signaling triggered metamorphosis at smaller sizes than usual. Suppressing the gland's growth by decreasing insulin signaling allowed larvae to grow larger than usual before entering the pupal stage that precedes adulthood.

Scientists Discover Secret Behind Human Red Blood Cell's Amazing Flexibility

A human red blood cell is a dimpled ballerina, ceaselessly spinning, tumbling, bending, and squeezing through openings narrower than its width to dispense life-giving oxygen to every corner of the body. In a paper published in the October issue of Annals of Biomedical Engineering, which was made available online on Oct. 21, a team of UCSD researchers describe a mathematical model that explains how a mesh-like protein skeleton gives a healthy human red blood cell both its rubbery ability to stretch without breaking, and a potential mechanism to facilitate diffusion of oxygen across its membrane. continue

Teens with missing part of a chromosome confirm genetic role in schizophrenia

A study in youth who are missing part of a chromosome is further implicating a suspect gene in schizophrenia.

Youth with this genetic chromosomal deletion syndrome already had a nearly 30-fold higher-than-normal risk of schizophrenia, but those who also had one of two common versions of the suspect gene had worse symptoms. They were more prone to cognitive decline, psychosis and frontal lobe tissue loss by late adolescence, when schizophrenia symptoms begin to emerge, found the study, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the National Institute on Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)... continue

Molecular biology: DNA twists and flips

DNA can shape itself into many forms to achieve its purposes in life. The crystal structure of the junction between two of its forms provides insight into how DNA might accomplish some of these acrobatics.

Crick and Watson's famous structure of DNA has become an icon of our age, somewhat eclipsing DNA's other structural forms. Imagine unravelling the familiar helix (termed B-DNA) and then twisting it up the other way around. The result — Z-DNA — is not so visually appealing, and not so stable, but it has some intriguing biology... DNA twists and flips on Nature

Yale Researchers Make Cell Biology Quantitative

New Haven, Conn. — Yale researchers have reported a method to count the absolute number of individual protein molecules inside a living cell, and to measure accurately where they are located, two basic hurdles for studying biology quantitatively.

“The method makes possible accurate measurements of proteins inside cells using microscopic methods usually used just to show where proteins are located,” said senior author Thomas D. Pollard, Chair and Higgins Professor of Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology at Yale, of the work published in Science.

Postdoctoral fellow Jian-Qiu Wu attached a tag called yellow fluorescent protein to proteins of interest, allowing these proteins to be detected in live yeast cells with a light microscope. He used seven sample proteins to demonstrate that the brightness of the fluorescence is directly correlated with the amount of that protein in the cell... Yale

The So-Called 'Junk DNA' Is No Junk at All

Genetic material derisively called “junk” DNA because it does not contain the instructions for protein-coding genes and appears to have little or no function is actually critically important to an organism’s evolutionary survival, according to a study conducted by a biologist at UCSD.

In the October 20 issue of Nature, Peter Andolfatto, an assistant professor of biology at UCSD, shows that these non-coding regions play an important role in maintaining an organism’s genetic integrity. In his
study of the genes from the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, he discovered that these regions are strongly affected by natural selection, the evolutionary process that preferentially leads to the survival of organisms and genes best adapted to the environment.continue

Cancer battle alliance forged

Scottsdale Healthcare is launching a clinical research center to connect patients with new cancer drugs and patient-specific treatments based on genetics research.

"Our goal is reducing the time it takes to get new treatment discoveries from the research lab to the patient," said Susan Brown, Scottsdale Healthcare’s associate vice president for oncology services. continue

Monitoring Genetic Stability in Human Embryonic Stem Cells

WebTalk:
Monitoring Genetic Stability in Human Embryonic Stem Cells


Monday, October 31, 2005
1:00 pm, Pacific Standard Time (GMT -08:00, San Jose)
Free Registration. Seating will be limited.
Meeting password: stemcells


A WebTalk on monitoring genetic stability in human embryonic stem cells, highlighting stem cell data collected while using Affymetrix products.

Speaker:
Dr. Anirban Maitra
Assistant Professor of Pathology and Oncology
Affiliate, McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine
The Sol Goldman Pancreatic Cancer Research Center
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Baltimore, Maryland

Attend the web talk.

TGen Awarded $15 Million to Discover and Develop New Therapies for Patients with Pancreatic Cancer

Phoenix, AZ, October 20, 2005-The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) has been awarded a five-year $15 million grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to lead a group of research centers in the discovery and development of new therapies for patients with pancreatic cancer.

This federally funded multi-center program project grant is the first of its kind that focuses exclusively on pancreatic cancer. The grant funds three projects with the key theme of accelerating the delivery of new treatments for patients with pancreatic cancer, one new compound for each year of the grant. Dr. Daniel D. Von Hoff will serve as the principal investigator for the study. TGen

Non-coding DNA adapts

Much of the "junk" DNA in Drosophila shows signs of either negative or positive selection, according to a study in this week's Nature. An analysis by Peter Andolfatto of the University of California, San Diego, reveals that around half of non-coding Drosophila DNA is evolutionarily constrained and that much of the remaining divergent DNA has undergone adaptive evolution. Both types of selection show that "this non-coding DNA actually has functional importance to the organism," said Andolfatto... theScientist

Biotech Cotton 8: Bugs 0

Biotech cotton has beaten back pink bollworm eight years running, reports a team of scientists from The University of Arizona in Tucson.

The surprising finding is good news for the environment. Arizona farmers who plant the biotech cotton known as Bt cotton use substantially less chemical insecticides than in the past.

Insect pests sometimes evolve resistance to such chemicals in just a few years, a fate that was predicted for biotech crops genetically altered to produce Bt toxin, a naturally occurring insecticide. UofA

Scottsdale Healthcare, TGen announce strategic alliance

"SCOTTSDALE – Scottsdale Healthcare today announced a strategic alliance with the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) in which Scottsdale Healthcare will become a primary clinical research site for TGen.

Opening Oct. 24, the TGen Clinical Research Services (TCRS) will include a Genomics Medicine and Individual Therapy Center and a Pancreatic Cancer Center, and will be located in the Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center at Scottsdale Healthcare. Additional clinical research programs focused on other cancer types are planned in the near future.

Daniel D. Von Hoff, MD, TGen's Senior Investigator and Director of the Translational Drug Development Division will serve as medical research leader of TCRS. As the new program grows it is expected to move into a larger space in the Cancer Center's adjoining Research Pavilion.

"The TGen-Scottsdale Healthcare alliance embodies our vision of setting the standard for excellence in personalized healthcare," said Tom Sadvary, president & CEO. "The combination of world-class researchers, community physicians and university faculty in the Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center provides unprecedented access to new therapies for the citizens of Arizona... continue

ASU's Sudhir Kumar big in India

"Sudhir Kumar, director of the Center for Evolutionary Functional Genomics in the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University, recently joined the elite ranks of most-cited researchers, having the fourth-highest number of citations in the field of computer science over the last decade.

Kumar was the sixth-highest ranked researcher in the field of computer science (out of 1,826 authors) over the last decade. The data was gathered from the Institute for Scientific Information's (ISI) Essential Science Indicators from January 1995 to June of this year..." HindustanTimes.Com

Drug discovery: Playing dirty

"It's not often that a science lecture can turn a person on to the idea of promiscuity. But when Michael Heinrich heard a talk about a promising new cancer drug, it triggered a transformation of his ideas about how to target disease. It sounds heretical, but Heinrich and others are now saying that 'magic bullet' drugs designed to hit single biological targets might not be the answer to treating complex illnesses such as cancer and cardiovascular disease. The future, they say, could be in drugs that are less picky about their molecular partners..." Nature

International stem cell bank open

A bank that will create and supply new lines of embryonic stem cells for research around the world has been opened in Seoul, South Korea.

The project is being led by cloning expert Dr Woo Suk Hwang, who has pioneered the development of stem cells tailored to individual patients.

It will serve as the main centre for an international consortium, including the US and the UK. BBC

Geographic Spread of an AIDS-Resistant Mutation

The discovery in the 1990s of a gene variant that thwarts HIV infection triggered development of a promising new class of medications. The gene normally encodes a protein receptor, called CCR5, that sits on the surface of white blood cells. HIV gains entry to these cells through CCR5. The variant gene, or allele, contains a mutation—called Δ32, because 32 base pairs are deleted—that produces truncated CCR5 receptors that are useless to the virus, conferring resistance to individuals with both copies of the mutation, and delaying disease progression to those with one copy. The Δ32 mutation also raised interesting questions for evolutionary biologists.

About 10% of Europeans and inhabitants of western Asia carry the mutation, which researchers think evolved at least 700 years ago—yet HIV emerged only about 50 years ago. According to population genetics theory, for a mutation to be neutral, or confer no selective advantage, it would have to be much older to occur at such a high frequency in the population. This inconsistency raised the possibility that the mutation spread because it provided an advantage against some other selective factor, now thought to be smallpox... continue on PLoS

Anti-malaria mutations 'cancel each other out'

"Two genetic mutations that, individually, can protect people from malaria, cancel each others' protective effect if they are inherited together, say scientists.

They say their findings, published online yesterday (16 October) by Nature Genetics, could help researchers better understand how genes make some people immune to malaria, and why one of the mutations is not widespread in sub-Saharan Africa.

The two mutations are best known for causing the genetic disorders alpha-thalassaemia and sickle-cell disease. Both alter haemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen around the body..." continue on SciDev.Net

Close watch on strain that could mutate into deadly human virus

"Like the biggest lout in a clan of bad neighbors, the H5N1 bird flu virus is just the worst of a large family of avian influenzas that regularly threaten poultry farms and sometimes menace human health. The bird flu that has been making headlines in recent months -- spanning the globe from Indonesia to Romania -- has been a grave concern for scientists since 1997, when it decimated chicken flocks in Hong Kong and killed six people.

While the discovery that bird flu could jump directly to humans is relatively new, avian influenzas have been troublesome for agriculture at least since 1878, when Italian poultry were beset with a disease labeled fowl plague.

Because of the way influenza viruses readily mutate and juggle genes, there are now 144 possible subtypes of influenzas that can infect birds. Out of this variety, a handful of combinations bearing names such has H5N1, H5N2, H7N7 and H7N3 regularly pose a serious risk to poultry..." SF Chronicle

Life In Deadly Conditions: Sequencing Genome of Master of Adaptation

"Archaea, small single-celled organisms, are particularly interesting for scientists because they are able to live under extreme environmental conditions, for instance under high salt concentrations, high pH-values, or high temperatures. Nature’s masters of adaptation, they are model organisms from which researchers can draw conclusions about the first organisms on earth. The scientists studied mechanisms that make survival possible for the single-celled organisms, which are rod-shaped and are only five hundredths of a millimetre in size. At the Department of Membrane Biochemistry, led by Professor Dieter Oesterhelt, Max Planck researchers have shown, using genomic and proteomic methods combined with physiological experiments, how to explain the amazing abilities of these extreme organisms.

Friedhelm Pfeiffer, the research group’s bioinformatics expert, created a database for halophile (Greek "salt-lovers") archaea, called HaloLex (see link below). Using the database, genetic and protein data about the organisms is tied to information about their structure and function. The newest genome on HaloLex is now that of Natronomonas pharaonis, whose genetic information was made available by Michaela Falb, Friedhelm Pfeiffer, Peter Palm, Karin Rodewald, Volker Hickmann, Jörg Tittor and Dieter Oesterhelt. This information is made of some 2.6 million base pairs (about one thousandth of the human genome), and encodes the synthesis of 2,843 proteins..." continue

Mathematics + Biology = ?

...The cancer that would be most affected by research such as this is the particular type of brain tumor known as glioma, which, when detected, tends to predict a life expectancy of nine to 12 months. So, the problem for researchers is to find a virus that reproduces fast enough and is able to avoid enough of the immune system to effectively reduce the tumor. Although Friedman’s group found some parameters that would cause the tumor to be reduced, it is now up to the biologists to create a virus that matches such parameters... continue

Machines Behave Like DNA

"Oct. 14, 2005— Just like the biological components inside a cell can replicate a segment of DNA and self-correct when something goes out of whack, so too can a newly developed set of miniature robots.

Created by a team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the three-inch-long autonomous machines have mechanisms, both physical and computational, that allow them to meet up randomly, latch together, decide if they should stay connected, and then either let go or remain paired..." Go to discovery and I suggest you watch the video.

Emergence of Young Human Genes after a Burst of Retroposition in Primates

The origin of new genes through gene duplication is fundamental to the evolution of lineage- or species-specific phenotypic traits. In this report, we estimate the number of functional retrogenes on the lineage leading to humans generated by the high rate of retroposition (retroduplication) in primates. Extensive comparative sequencing and expression studies coupled with evolutionary analyses and simulations suggest that a significant proportion of recent retrocopies represent bona fide human genes. We estimate that at least one new retrogene per million years emerged on the human lineage during the past ∼63 million years of primate evolution. Detailed analysis of a subset of the data shows that the majority of retrogenes are specifically expressed in testis, whereas their parental genes show broad expression patterns... continue on PLoS

InvestBio invests more than $2M in Arizona Biotech Company Amplimed

"InvestBio Ventures AmpliMed II, L.P., an InvestBio Ventures Partnership, announced today that it has completed an early stage investment of $2,308,153.79 into AmpliMed Corp., an Arizona based biotechnology company. The investment helped AmpliMed Corp. complete the Series B Preferred private placement of approximately $6 million.

AmpliMed Corp. develops novel drugs for the treatment of cancer. The lead product, Amplimexon(TM) (imexon inj.), has particular promise for the treatment of pancreatic cancer, malignant melanoma, lung cancer and multiple myeloma. Other products in the portfolio have promise in ovarian, breast, prostate and other common cancers..."
read the press release

Prof develops cancer nanobomb

University of Delaware researchers are opening a new front in the war on cancer, bringing to bear new nanotechnologies for cancer detection and treatment and introducing a unique nanobomb that can literally blow up breast cancer tumors.

The nanobombs are superior to a variety of current treatments because they are powerful, selective, non-invasive, nontoxic and can incorporate current technology, including microsurgery.

An advantage over other carbon nanotube treatments being considered by scientists is that with nanobombs, the carbon nanotubes are destroyed along with the cancer cells. Once the nanobombs are exploded and kill cancer cells, macrophages can effectively clear the cell debris and the exploded nanotube along with it. continue

Gene may be linked to Tourette's Syndrome

Researchers said on Thursday they have found a gene that helps cause Tourette's Syndrome, but that many other genes are also likely to be involved in the complex disorder.

Tourette's may affect as many as one in 100 people and is marked by muscle and vocal tics including repeated sudden movements or vocalizations. Children with Tourette's also often have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder or depression.

In a report published in Friday's issue of the journal Science, Dr. Matthew State of the Yale University School of Medicine and colleagues at several other institutions said a gene called SLITRK1 appears to contribute to some cases of Tourette's. reuters

Double Trouble: Cells With Duplicate Genomes Can Trigger Tumors

"BOSTON -- Abnormal cell division that yields cells with an extra set of chromosomes can initiate the development of tumors in mice, researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have shown, validating a controversial theory about cancer causation put forth by a scientific visionary nearly 100 years ago.

The so-called "double-value" cells are produced by random errors in cell division that occur with unknown frequency. The generation of these genetically unstable cells appears to be a "pathway for generating a tumor," says David Pellman, MD, a pediatric oncologist at Dana-Farber and at Children's Hospital Boston. He is the senior author on a report in the Oct. 13 issue of Nature. Takeshi Fujiwara, PhD, and Madhavi Bandi of Dana-Farber, are the paper's co-first authors..." continue

Arizona must pull as team to make biotech work

"Look inside the new Translational Genomics Research Institute in downtown Phoenix: Talented scientists from around the world are working on research that could lead to cures for diseases. This is no pipe dream, and neither are Arizona's ambitions to become a player in the biosciences.

Now Arizona is entering a period that's as important as the time three years ago when a remarkable public-private effort came together to win TGen. Among the goals are to build a world-class research base, to develop a critical mass of biotech firms and to push for policies that favor the growth of these enterprises..." AZ Republic

Flea protein may repair arteries

"A protein responsible for fleas' astonishing jumping power could be harnessed to repair damaged arteries.

Scientists have taken the gene that produces resilin and used it to create a super-strong rubbery polymer with potential use in surgery.

They actually extracted the gene from fruit flies and cultured resilin in large quantities in E.coli bacteria.

The work, by Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, features in Nature..." BBC

Embryonic stem cells can kill cancer cells

University of Minnesota scientists, in groundbreaking research, say they have used human embryonic stem cells to kill cancer cells.

The stem cell scientists say they coaxed human embryonic stem cells to create cancer-killing cells in the laboratory, paving the way for possible future treatments for various types of cancers. webindia

Flinn Foundation Awards TGen Additional $9 Million

Latest Commitment Helps Launch TGen Naming Initiative

"Phoenix, AZ, October 12, 2005-The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) announced today the receipt of a $9 million unrestricted grant from the Flinn Foundation designed to help accelerate research discoveries across a broad spectrum of diseases. The Phoenix-based Flinn Foundation had awarded the largest private gift to establish TGen in 2002; this new grant brings the Foundation's total commitment to $24 million. One third of this most recent grant will serve as a match challenge for the TGen Foundation's Naming Campaign..." tgen

Translational Genomics Research Institute Names Guerra Chief Operating Officer

Phoenix, AZ, October 11, 2005-The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) today named Ms. MaryAnn Guerra as Chief Operating Officer (COO).

Ms. Guerra, who joined TGen in 2004, was previously TGen's Sr. Vice President of Operations. In this capacity, she implemented novel and sound business practices across all administrative and scientific programs to assure a business enterprise that matched resources to high priority research.

DNA Studies Suggest Emperor Is Most Ancient of Penguins

"Penguins are some of the most improbable animals on the planet. They have wings and feathers but cannot fly. They are not fish, but they have been recorded as deep as 1,755 feet underwater. And the most improbable is the emperor penguin, which waddles across 70 miles of Antarctic ice to reach its breeding grounds. New research on penguin DNA suggests that the emperor also has the most ancient lineage of living penguins.

Scientists have long recognized a link from penguins to petrels and albatrosses. While albatrosses have more conventional bird bodies, they share subtle traits with penguins, like the arrangement of beak bones. They are generally considered the closest living relatives of penguins..." The NY Times

Sex detected in placozoans

"This week, scientists reported the first evidence that one of the most ancient surviving animal lineages, placozoans, have sex. The finding, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests placozoans could prove an excellent model organism for understanding metazoan evolution, co-author Ana Signorovitch at Yale University in New Haven, Conn., told The Scientist.

For instance, researchers could breed placozoans and chart their complete life cycle, then observe which development stages are shared between placozoans and sponges, Signorovitch noted. This exercise "could help answer questions such as what the relationships between the basal groups are," she explained.

Placozoans could also prove to be an essential model organism, Signorovitch added, since they are "easier than fruit flies" to culture in the lab, requiring only seawater, food such as red algae and light, and petri dishes kept at room temperature..." read the rest

More Flores 'Hobbits' described

"Scientists have discovered more remains of the strange, small people that once lived on Flores island, Indonesia.

The announcement last year detailing a single, partial skeleton caused a sensation when it was claimed to be a human species new to science.

Homo floresiensis, as it was called, was little more than a metre tall and lived 18,000 years ago.

Now, the same team tells Nature journal it has skeletal remains from at least nine of the "Hobbit-like" individuals..." continue

Genetic study reveals how HIV causes dementia

A genetic analysis of HIV taken from the brain of a patient who died with severe HIV-associated dementia has shown that dementia may be caused by rapid evolution of HIV in certain brain regions, leading to a cycle of infection of macrophages and inflammation. The findings were presented in the September edition of the Journal of Virology. continue

Arizona hospitals and the biotech factor

Arizona's hospital industry is an economic engine that is revving up for 2006.

Nearly 3,000 health care jobs will be added next year at 17 Arizona hospitals that responded to a survey conducted by The Business Journal and the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association this week...

...The nonprofit Translational Genomics Research Institute will add between 250 and 300 jobs, said Jeff Trent, president and scientific director of TGen.

In 2005, the research organization added 100 jobs, with 48 percent of the new hires holding advanced degrees and 25 percent coming from Arizona universities.

As TGen forges partnerships with universities and businesses, it will continue to grow and attract other companies and jobs to the state. So far, it has more than 100 partnerships with industry and academia -- 25 of them international arrangements and 26 in Arizona, Trent said. continue

Glowing insects 'to cut malaria'

"A protein that makes the sex glands and sperm of male mosquitoes glow could help reduce malaria infection rates, UK scientists say.

They used the protein to tag male mosquito larvae, the genes of which can be manipulated to make them infertile.

As malaria is spread only by female mosquitoes, the scientists hope sending such sterile males into the wild could help kill off infective populations..." BBC News

Biotech stocks rise on bird flu scare

"New York - Shares of biotechnology companies developing treatments to fight a possible outbreak of avian flu rose on Friday as delegates from around the world met to discuss plans for battling the illness.

Shares in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, a small biotech company in Birmingham, Alabama, soared as much as 20 percent to their highest price in nearly five years, while Gilead Sciences' shares rose 5 percent to touch an all-time high..." continue reading rise of biotech stocks

Large-scale sequencing of human influenza reveals the dynamic nature of viral genome evolution

"Influenza viruses are remarkably adept at surviving in the human population over a long timescale. The human influenza A virus continues to thrive even among populations with widespread access to vaccines, and continues to be a major cause of morbidity and mortality1, 2. The virus mutates from year to year, making the existing vaccines ineffective on a regular basis, and requiring that new strains be chosen for a new vaccine. Less-frequent major changes, known as antigenic shift, create new strains against which the human population has little protective immunity, thereby causing worldwide pandemics. The most recent pandemics include the 1918 'Spanish' flu, one of the most deadly outbreaks in recorded history, which killed 30−50 million people worldwide, the 1957 'Asian' flu, and the 1968 'Hong Kong' flu3..." continue

TGen and St. Joseph's Launch Pediatric Neurogenetics Center

New clinic is 'last refuge' for children with neurological disorders

Phoenix, AZ, October 7, 2005-The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) has teamed up with the Children's Health Center at St. Joseph's Hospital and the Barrow Neurological Institute to establish a new Pediatric Neurogenetics Center. The center will provide a multidisciplinary diagnostic setting for children with complex and tragic neurogenetic disorders.

"This clinic is a last refuge for children with neurological disorders that remain unexplained. We will seek to use state-of-the-art research tools to decipher diseases and offer solutions to children and families," said Dr. Dietrich Stephan, head of TGen's Neurogenomics Division. "This is a unique effort which complements the significant expertise and focus in Arizona on keeping our children safe and healthy."
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Aussie unveil cancer vaccine

"A cervical cancer vaccine could be available next year following an Australian breakthrough hailed as one of the biggest advances in women's health since the contraceptive pill.

Lead researcher Prof Ian Frazer, of the University of Queensland Centre for Immunology and Cancer Research, said trial results were exciting

"A vaccine's a good vaccine if it gives you 90 to 95 per cent effectiveness, but so far this has given 100 per cent, which is very encouraging," he said from New York..." continue

Cerus and Arizona State are working on vaccine candidate discovery

"...Under the terms of the contract from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (part of the National Institutes of Health), Cerus gets $2.8 million from the $23 million total over a period of three years. Other members of the consortium are Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute, in Albuquerque, N.M., Arizona State University, and the University of Texas at San Antonio..."
read the whole story here.

Phoenix the top major metro area for entrepreneurs

An excerpt from an article in AZCentral.

...Biotech is thought to be off to a good start in Arizona, but as the Goldwater Institute has pointed out, job growth in the sector is just keeping pace with job growth in the state generally. It's not yet growing as a share of the state's economy.

Last week's Phoenix Business Journal contained some sobering and useful perspective on the industry as a whole. Forty-one states are now chasing biotech, which currently employs only around 200,000 people nationwide. Publicly traded biotech firms lost $4.3 billion last year.

Meanwhile, Entrepreneur Magazine highlighted what really drives the Arizona economy, naming Arizona the top state, Phoenix the top major metro area and Tucson the second-best midsize metro area for entrepreneurs. The rankings were based on the percentage of businesses in an area that are established but relatively young - four to 14 years - in operation, and the job growth they have experienced...

Catastrophic flu virus of 1918 is decoded

Scientists have pieced together the 1918 flu virus, resurrecting for the first time the cause of a pandemic that killed tens of millions worldwide. Scientists say replicating the virus could help understand and prevent avian flu outbreaks.

Two research teams report separately today that the virus, which was re-created using genetic information from a 1918 victim exhumed from Alaskan permafrost in 1997, offers clues to the virulence of the avian flu strain that has killed 65 people in Southeast Asia and is the focus of a global meeting of health experts today in Washington, D.C. (Related site: Past flu pandemics)

Doctors say the research might provide information that could help prevent the next pandemic. "We have to understand much better how pandemics like this evolve their virulence," says Anthony Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. USAToday

NOISE AND DELAYS EXPLAIN WHY SOME GENES OSCILLATE IN ACTIVITY

"Geneticists have debated for decades the relative importance of nature versus nurture in determining how an animal looks and behaves, and now UCSD scientists report that the coupling of noise and time delay could also be an important factor in determining the variability in gene expression that may affect phenotype.

In a paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences released online Sept. 30, the scientists led by bioengineering professor Jeff Hasty and physicist Lev Tsimring reported that unscripted biochemical variations, or noise, combined with time delays in certain biochemical reactions may lead to oscillations in gene regulation that couldn’t otherwise be predicted. Such noise is routinely described by cell biologists who record large phenotypic differences between supposedly identical cells in a single flask of growth medium..." continue

Brussels says no to gene technology ban

"A proposed moratorium on genetically modified organisms, similar to a current Swiss initiative, has been rejected by the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

On Wednesday the ECJ threw out an application from the Austrian province of Upper Austria for a moratorium..." continue

Lecturer Charles Pasternak says curiosity separates man from animals

A smart chimpanzee and a dim-witted human are not as indistinguishable as people think, said a renowned biochemist and author who spoke at ASU Tuesday.

"The great apes can do a lot more than we give them credit for," said Charles Pasternak, speaking to a packed crowd of more than 100 people at ASU's College of Law.

Titled "Quest: The Essence of Humanity," Pasternak's lecture examined how different species share similar genes.

He held a signing and reception for his book of the same title afterward.

Pasternak is the director for the Oxford International Biomedical Center, a charitable organization in the United Kingdom that aids developing countries.

He has taught at the University of Oxford, St. George's Medical School and Yale University. His uncle was Boris Pasternak, the author who wrote "Doctor Zhivago." read the rest.

Mayo Clinic research collaboration discovers why some DNA repair fails

Significant for Huntington's disease and colon cancer
ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Mayo Clinic researchers have discovered the inner workings of a defective DNA repair process and are first to explain why certain mutations are not corrected in cells. The finding is important because genetic instability and accumulations of mutations lead to disease. This discovery may lead to ways of fixing the process to avoid Huntington's disease and some types of colon cancer.

The Mayo team discovered that under certain conditions, a key protein fails to recognize a specific form of DNA that it needs to begin the repair process by recruiting additional proteins. They report their findings in a recent issue of Nature Structural and Molecular Biology. (http://www.nature.com/nsmb/journal/v12/n8/pdf/nsmb965.pdf). By failing to initiate repair, the defective mechanism may give rise to disabling inherited brain diseases such as Huntington's disease, which causes select brain nerve cells to waste away. Huntington's affects 30,000 adults in the United States, and another 150,000 Americans may be at risk of inheriting it. Friedreich's ataxia is another neurodegenerative disease that may one day have a treatment based in part on this finding, as could a form of heritable colon cancer (hereditary non-polyposis colon cancer). continue

Human Genome lupus drug misses main goal

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Human Genome Sciences Inc. said on Wednesday its experimental lupus drug failed to meet main targets in a mid-stage study, sending shares down nearly 28 percent in premarket trading.

The biotechnology company, which is based in Rockville, Maryland, said a 449-patient, Phase II trial of the monoclonal antibody LymphoStat-B showed the drug was safe and well tolerated, but it did not meet primary efficacy goals.

The trial was designed to evaluate the drug in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, or SLE, a form of lupus that is diagnosed in 200,000 to 500,000 Americans.

The drug failed to reduce signs and symptoms of the disease after 24 weeks and did not increase the time to the first "flare" of the disease at 52 weeks -- primary goals of the trial. reuters

China to develop biotechnology sector

China aims to become a leading player in the fast-growing biotechnology sector by capitalizing on research costs that are one-fifth those of Europe or the United States, a top official said yesterday. In the past, the country's drug industry has largely consisted of manufacturing cheap generics and producing traditional Chinese medicine. Now the government is making biotechnology a priority, Professor Wang Hongguang, director-general of the China National Center for Biotechnology Development, told a pharmaceutical conference in London. The change is reflected in some startling figures. China already boasts more than 20 biotech parks dotted around the country and 500 biotech enterprises, he said. Reuters

TGen Foundation Announces New Cancer Fund

"The TGen Foundation today announced the receipt of a gift from Scottsdale philanthropist Troy Richards to establish the Advancing Treatments for Adrenocortical Carcinoma (ATAC) Fund, designed to support genetic research efforts toward the disease. In addition to donating $100,000 to the fund, Mr. Richards will work with the TGen Foundation to raise additional funds for the project, which will use the institute's genetic technologies to analyze adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) tumors.

ACC is a rare cancer of the adrenal cortex that affects one to two people per million. The adrenal cortex is the outside layer of the adrenal glands, which are located above each kidney in the back of the upper abdomen. When cells in the adrenal cortex become cancerous, they may overproduce hormones, which can cause symptoms such as high blood pressure, weakening of the bones, or diabetes..." tgen

Fitting in: Newly evolved genes adopt a variety of strategies to remain in the gene pool

The largest-ever experimental analysis of duplicated genes provides insight into mechanisms of evolution

"Zürich, Switzerland – When Mother Nature creates an identical copy of a gene in an organism's genome, the duplicated copy is usually deleted, inactivated, or otherwise rendered nonfunctional in order to prevent genetic redundancy and to preserve biological homeostasis. In some cases, however, gene duplicates are maintained in a functional state. Until now, the biological and evolutionary forces behind the maintenance of these duplicates as functional components of the genome have remained unclear..." continue

Human Genome wins anthrax order

"Human Genome Sciences Inc. plans to announce a deal with the U.S. government Monday that could lead to the firm providing as many as 100,000 doses of an experimental anthrax drug, the Washington Post reported.

To start, the Rockville, Md.-based company will sell the government a third of an ounce of the drug for $1.8 million, an amount sufficient for government testers to compare the product with competitors, the paper said..." CNN

Biotech fever

An article on MSNBC. It looks like Phoenix has a lot of competition.

"...And so are other states, such as Arizona and Florida. Arizona is investing $440 million in university research and development facilities to complement its success in recruiting the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen). Arizona officials are confident Phoenix can become a leading biotech hub.

"Why not?" said Micah Miranda, biosciences manager for the Arizona Department of Commerce. "We're not going to be a passive player."

Cortright said "the odds there are very strongly against them." Even with TGen, he said, Phoenix has "just a tiny fraction of the scale" of the medical research needed to become a major biotech player. Last year, Arizona ranked 27th in NIH awards..."

Did oxygen boost fuel rise of large mammals?

"A sharp increase in the Earth’s atmospheric oxygen levels about 50 million years ago was responsible for the rise of the large mammals, a new study claims.

“We argue that the rise in oxygen content allowed mammals to become very, very large – mammals like 12-foot-tall sloths and huge sabre-toothed cats,” says Paul Falkowski at Rutgers University in New Jersey, US, who led the study. Higher oxygen levels means animals can grow larger and still maintain the supply of oxygen to their muscles..." continue