Bio Research Services

Israeli group creating fund for drug research

Mon, 11 Jun 2007 20:01:39 -0400

The Israeli Life Sciences Industry group is helping set up a $300 million to $500 million initiative to spur the development of biotechnology and help finance drug research in the country. Chief Scientist Dr. Eli Opper says that the country is already in negotiations with multinational biotech companies to create development centers in Israel while the government is adding to the biotech/nanotech activities of Israel's universities. Care Capital partner Dr. Argeris N. Karabelas told the group that development collaborations with major companies were the best tool to engineering success in the field.

- read the report from Globes

Related Article:
Biotech Valley planned for Israel. Report

States compete for $450M government biodefense lab

Mon, 07 May 2007 20:01:39 -0400

About a dozen different states are competing to host a new, $450 million government BioDefense research lab that will employ about 300 researchers working on avian flu, anthrax, bird flu and more. Officials are expected to whittle down the prospective sites under review this summer as various groups show off their local scientific expertise. States most interested include Texas, California, Georgia, Kansas, Oklahoma, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Georgia, Kansas, Mississippi and Kentucky. But not everyone is beating the bushes to rouse support for a new lab. Some residents living near proposed sites have raised their objections to neighboring a lab that will focus on a host of deadly diseases.

- read the report from Time

Related Article:
The challenges of infectious disease. Report

Institutions lament squeeze on federal research funds

Mon, 26 Mar 2007 20:01:39 -0400

Research institutions are lining up to protest stalled federal funding for biomedical research. Dr. Edward D. Miller, the head of Johns Hopkins Medical, issued a stern warning to lawmakers that a failure to bump federal research funding at the National Institutes of Health could force a frustrating halt to important research. "The world's premier biomedical research engine is at risk," he said in a statement. A stagnant source of funds has left eight out of 10 research grant applications without funds, says Dr. Miller, while the National Cancer Institute says it can only fund about one in 10 applications. Johns Hopkins has a lot to lose in the current funding environment. The university's researchers traditionally garner more federal funds than any other institution in the country. Last year that amounted to $1.28 billion in federal funds. The university joined a lineup of institutions which produced "Within Our Grasp--Or Slipping Away? Assuring a New Era of Scientific and Medical Progress." The report outlines the advances made possible when NIH funding was doubled between 1998 and 2003.

- read the report from the Baltimore Business Journal

ALSO: There's a lot at stake for states like Florida, which has invested more than $850 million in a trio of new research institutions. Editorial

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Johns Hopkins to host cardiovascular research 'grid'

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 20:01:39 -0400

A group of three universities has banded together to create a research grid that will allow cardiovascular researchers to share data, analytical tools and models on healthy and diseased patients. The Institute for Computational Medicine at Johns Hopkins University will host the grid--which is being funded with an $8.5 million federal grant--and work with Ohio State University and the University of information that can be shared by everyone who is connected. And that's a big advance from the traditional research model, in which individual labs work in California, San Diego. Research teams will be the nodes in the grid, feeding in new isolation.

"In the past, biomedical research was mainly done in individual labs," said Raimond Winslow, director of the institute at Johns Hopkins. "The Cardiovascular Research Grid will enable us to assemble large, geographically distributed research teams and bring together the leading experts in the world to focus on a common problem, regardless of their location."

- check out Johns Hopkins' release on the grid
- read the report from Computer World

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Johns Hopkins leads in total research spending. Report
Universities create cardiac data grid. Report

Scientists advance uses of lab-on-chip technology

Wed, 14 Feb 2007 19:01:39 -0500

MIT researchers have pushed the envelope on lab-on-a-chip technology that could significantly increase the vast array of chemical interactions that drug developers rely on to find new drug candidates. They have found that using intersecting channels to direct tiny bubbles on a microfluidic chip can replace the pumps and valves that have been in use. That switch would reduce the money spent in the discovery process and speed research. Experts say that dispensing with the pumps and valves makes the lab-on-a-chip far more compact. The new technology theoretically allows a researcher to test all the possible combinations of 20 different chemicals.

- read the report from MIT's Technology Review

Related Article:
Polymers show promise in lab-on-a-chip tech. Report

Budget tightening raises concerns at NCI

Wed, 31 Jan 2007 19:01:39 -0500

A variety of groups are criticizing efforts by the Bush administration to slice spending at the National Cancer Institute by 1 percent. The move would represent the second year in a row for cuts at the NCI. Top researchers say that the strategy could ultimately undercut the quality of research in oncology at the same time progress in the field is cutting the number of deaths from cancer in the U.S. for the first time. The head of the NCI, John Niederhuber (photo), is concerned that he could lose up to 10 percent of his budget by ax-wielding legislators. Members of the administration, though, note that overall spending at the NCI has doubled in the past 10 years.

The latest news comes on top of a report that NIH Director Elias Zerhouni is pooling five percent of its money into a special fund supporting research that cuts across the NIH's research groups. Fears are being raised that some of the internal fiefdoms at the NIH could lose big if Zerhouni gains power over the budget.

- read the report on the NCI from USA Today

ALSO: The biomedical group FASEB is calling for enough government funds to make up for inflation in their field. Cutbacks at the NIH, they say, threaten the country's leading position in biotechnology. Report

Texas touts $3B plan for cancer research

Wed, 24 Jan 2007 19:01:39 -0500

Taking a page from the California playbook on biomedical research, Texas has announced plans to invest $3 billion in cancer research over the next 10 years. Not surprisingly, the project draws on some of the state's highest-profile research organizations. The state is already home to the Lance Armstrong Foundation, named after testicular cancer survivor and high-profile athlete Lance Armstrong, the Susan G. Komen breast cancer foundation and the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Under the new project, the three will work together along with universities, medical schools and for-profit companies. Gov. Rick Perry didn't hide the fact that the project has a commercial as well as a humanitarian purpose, noting that the new fund would draw high-tech companies and high salaries to the state. To date, it's not clear where the funds will actually come from--though one proposal involves borrowing against bonds to produce $300 million a year--but two of the state's Republican lawmakers have at least committed to sponsor a bill creating the fund. A number of states have jumped on the bandwagon to provide funds for research. New York is examining a proposal from its new governor to offer $2 billion in funding, half of which would go to stem cell research.

- read the Washington Post report on the initiative

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MIT researchers develop tiny tumor sensor

Wed, 17 Jan 2007 19:01:39 -0500

Researchers at MIT have developed a tiny sensor that can be used to detect changes in tumors. Shaped like a cube measuring 2 millimeters on each side, the device contains nanoparticles that can check for substances linked to tumor growth or for therapies. The nanoparticles can work like a sensor during magnetic resonance imaging. Lead researcher Michael Cima says it's a new and improved way to see if a therapy is actually working, an important part of developing personalized drugs for cancer.

- check out the report on the sensor from the Boston Herald

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Biotech research bill rings up at $1.2B average

Wed, 15 Nov 2006 19:01:39 -0500

Biotech drugs take longer and cost more than the traditional medicines fielded by the FDA, according to a new survey from Tufts University's Center for the Study of Drug Development. On average, a complex biologic costs $1.2 billion to approval over a period of 97.7 months. That's 7.4 months longer and much higher than the $899 million average cost the center figured for traditional meds in 2005. The numbers are likely to be heavily featured in the debate over the retail cost of biologics. Many new biotech drugs are coming onto the market with six-figure price tags. The developers want everyone to know that there is a substantial investment that has to be covered when marketing a new biotech. One stat in biotech's favor: approval ratings. The FDA approved 30.2 percent of biotech applications compared to 21.5 percent coming out of the traditional pipeline.

- read the report on the costs from the San Diego Union-Tribune

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Trial researchers target efforts to enroll patients

Wed, 11 Oct 2006 20:01:39 -0400

In an effort to rein in the high cost of drug trials, developers are spending more money to speed the identification and enrollment of patients, according to a new report from Thompson CenterWatch. Patient recruitment spending has grown from $275 million in 2000 to $530 million in 2004. Much of that money is going to new campaigns on the Web and in mainstream media to appeal for volunteers. Some funds are being used on database analysis to ID the patients that would consider enrolling and the doctors who treat the patients they're looking for. About 30,000 of the 50,000 trials underway in the world are in the U.S. with only about five percent in emerging markets--despite a tremendous amount of hype about the role of India, China and others in the field.

- read the Red Herring article

NIH program to create academic research consortium

Wed, 04 Oct 2006 20:01:39 -0400

The National Institutes of Health is injecting $100 million into a new project to create a consortium of universities that will cooperate on research projects. By 2012, the government plans to bring funding up to $500 million a year and expects to have 60 academic research centers involved, working cooperatively on advancing medical research. The goal is to push cooperation as medicine gets increasingly specialized and new genomic data is gathered. The NIH wants to end the days when lone researchers plugged away in isolated labs and herald a new era that will advance new therapies and speed investigative work. Among the first group to be involved: Columbia University; Rockefeller University; Mayo Clinic College of Medicine; Oregon Health & Science University; University of California, Davis; University of Pennsylvania; University of Rochester; University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston; Yale University.

- here's the AP report on the financing

PLUS: Scientists around the country say the new financing system can spark a revolution in the way research is translated into new therapies that are approved for use. Report

Polymers show promise in lab-on-a-chip tech

Wed, 30 Aug 2006 20:01:39 -0400

An international team of scientists led by researchers at the University of Alberta say they've demonstrated how liquid crystal polymers can be used to develop a tiny lab-on-a-chip. Applying LCPs in a thin film on glass, the researchers found that LCPs can be patterned on a microscale, essentially working as microscale building blocks. These polymers have been described as "artificial muscles" that can convert thermal, chemical and electromagnetic stimuli into mechanical energy. The quest for a lab-on-a-chip is driven by the desire to create tiny systems that can, for example, complete blood analysis far quicker and less expensively than current techniques. Much of the current research has focused on silicon, which is used in semiconductors.

"Based on our research of liquid crystalline polymers, we anticipate the emergence of exciting new techniques in microfabrication that can be used to cheaply and efficiently pattern response materials," said Anastasia Elias, a PhD student in Dr. Michael Brett's group in the U of A Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the first author of the paper. The Canadian researchers worked with colleagues at the Eindhoven University of Technology and Phillips Research Laboratories in the Netherlands.

- see the release in the polymer technology

PLUS: Purdue University researchers, meanwhile, say that tiny nanocantilevers made up of silicon may form new sensors to detect viruses or bacteria, noting that they vibrate at different levels as contaminants stick to them. Release

Community hospitals find new niche in bioresearch

Wed, 16 Aug 2006 20:01:39 -0400

More community hospitals have decided to launch their own research projects, competing for grant money and publishing their results in peer-reviewed publications. Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, for example, has a $56 million budget to research such topics as the use of gene therapy for prostate cancer. Baylor Health Care System in Houston has increased its research budget to $50 million over just the last six years. For the hospitals, it's a chance to burnish their reputation while gaining fresh revenue as their Medicare reimbursements fall. And much of the work is being done for drug companies who are testing therapies. Altogether, 120 healthcare systems are doing research work independently.

- here's the Baltimore Sun article on bioresearch