Bio Saga Blog - A Chronicle of Life Sciences & Informatics

BANGALORE, Indian Researchers have achieved a breakthrough, identifying a protein pathway that triggers cancer in the human body owing to its erratic behaviour. Researchers at Bangalore’s National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) led by Satyajit Mayor and Neha Vyas have identified what is known as the Hedgehog pathway and the ways in which it forms and leads to cancer. The researchers, who have published their work in the journal, Cell, say this pathway is formed when the proteins (called hedgehog), which are separate, get drawn to each other by electrostatic interactions between amino acids present around the proteins. A small cluster of proteins then gets formed and goes on to form a mega-cluster. This travels to other cells and creates effects that are good or bad — the cluster could be normal and help organ regeneration or tissue repair, or the cluster could get hyperactive and affect other cells, which is the sign that cancer is coming. Simply put, the NCBS research indicates...

The National Institutes of Health will allow the average award value of competing grants for fiscal 2008 to increase by three percent for fiscal 2009, in line with the three percent increase the institutes received under this year's budget appropriation from Congress, NIH said this week. NIH is predicting that this year's appropriation of $30.3 billion from the omnibus spending bill will allow its institutes and centers (ICs) to support approximately 9,800 new and competing research project grants. The ICs are expected to maintain the average number of new investigators as it did in the five most recent years, and to continue to use the NIH Director's Innovator Awards and the NIH Pathway to Independence awards within the common fund. The ICs also are expected to continue to use the NIH Director's Bridge Award Program, which gives continued but limited funding to meritorious investigators whose applications were close to the funding range of the relevant IC, but which ...

The Alzheimer Research Forum ( http://www.alzforum.org ), a dynamic, biomedical Web community that is heavily used by Alzheimer researchers around the world, is preparing to migrate to a new platform that will enable it to more fully exploit social networking (" Web 2.0 ") and the Semantic Web ("Web 3.0"). Founded 13 years ago when the Web was still in its infancy, the "Alzforum" has more than 5,000 registered members and is familiar to most Alzheimer scientists in the world. Ever since launching in 1996, the Alzforum Web site has been interactive, posting researchers' comments on published papers and research news. The site has published thousands of peer commentaries and mini-reviews by leading scientists in the field, and has established itself as the "go to" Web site for anyone who wished to be up to date on Alzheimer research. Members can post commentaries on any journal article or news story, and can participate in live discussion for...

Bangalore, India — Indian Life Sciences Informatics Company, Molecular Connections announced today, the launch of XTractor Premium ( www.xtractor.in/premium ), a new Knowledge Management Platform designed to enable Pharmaceutical Companies, Researchers, Scientists identify, verify and develop predictive relationships from PubMed Literature. “ The release of XTractor Premium reflects the evolution of our client’s knowledge management needs and our continued commitment to provide knowledge solutions which add value & bring better efficiencies in Drug discovery,” said Jignesh Bhate CEO Molecular Connections. Leveraging the ability to transform DATA to KNOWLEDGE to assist experts is crucial to the success of drug development today. XTractor Premium offers several enhancements over the beta version in managing large volume of published biomedical data to accelerate decision making in drug discovery. Data Search: One would be able to perform searches over the entire XTra...

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers have demonstrated that a gel composed of small, woven protein fragments can successfully carry and release proteins of different sizes, potentially enabling the delivery of drugs such as insulin and trastuzumab (Herceptin). Researchers can control the rate of release by changing the density of the gel, allowing for continuous drug delivery over a specific period of time. The team is led by Shuguang Zhang, associate director of MIT's Center for Biomedical Engineering. The gel, known as a "nanofiber hydrogel scaffold," enables a gradual release of the proteins from the gel over hours, days or even months. The gel itself is eventually broken down into harmless amino acids - the building blocks of proteins. Peptide hydrogels are ideally suited for drug delivery as they are pure, easy to design and use, non-toxic, non-immunogenic, bio-absorbable, and can be locally applied to a particular tissue. Composed of self-assembli...

Roche has reached an agreement with Innovatis to buy the cell analysis company for €15 million ($19.5 million), the Swiss life sciences firm said today. Roche said that the acquisition of the Bielefeld, Germany-based company, which focuses on automated cell analysis solutions including cell counting, viability testing, and cell function, fits with its strategy to strengthen its cell research market offerings. Innovatis will become a fully integrated part of Roche Applied Science, and it will develop and market its products through that part of Roche's diagnostics division. Roceh said that Innovatis' technology will complement its existing cell analysis products and is synergistic with its xCelligence technology, which was launched last year. " Roche has been one of our key customers for many years, in particular since the successful development of our cell analysis technology over 10 years ago," Innovatis CEO Michael Grohmann said in a statement. Roche said it ex...

The personal genetics service firm 23andMe , the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, and the Parkinson's Institute and Clinical Center announced yesterday that they are enrolling 10,000 people to be part of a new Parkinson's disease community. The effort is aimed at establishing the resources necessary for future genome-wide association studies and other research initiatives. In an effort to entice individuals with Parkinson's disease to participate, 23andMe is slashing the price of its service from $399 to $25 for a limited time for up to 10,000 individuals with Parkinson's disease who sign up through the Parkinson's Institute or the Michael J. Fox Foundation. Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who is married to 23andMe co-founder Ann Wojcicki, will ante up an undisclosed amount of cash to subsidize the genotyping costs. To be eligible, individuals must have physician-diagnosed Parkinson's disease and agree to provide saliva samples and fill ...

Roche has upped its offer for Genentech to $93 a share, believing that this will be sufficient to bring the drawn out takeover to a close. The bid is still a long way short of the $112 that Genentech is alleged to have valued itself at, according to a Roche filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Despite this, and the possibility that positive data from Avastin trials could send Genentech’s share price over $100, Franz Humer, chairman of the Roche Group, is confident the deal will go through. Genentech has urged shareholders not to act until the Special Committee has taken a formal position, which will happen “ promptly ”. Roche - Genentech takeover timeline on Dipity . Be part of XTractor community. XTractor the first of its kind - Literature alert service , provides manually curated & annotated sentences for the Keywords of your choice XTractor maps, extracted entities (genes, processes, drugs, diseases etc) to multip...

The year of the mega-merger continues with Merck & Co’s move to buy Schering-Plough for $41.1bn, with the intention of boosting its pipeline, entering new markets and creating a “ powerful biologics presence ”. Merck follows Pfizer and Roche to become the third company this year to launch a takeover bid worth over $40bn, drawing on their sizeable cash reserves in an attempt to equip themselves for challenging years ahead. Although critics argue that mergers of scale do not maximise stockholder value and diminish R&D returns, many feel they are necessary to ensure earnings per share continue to grow in the current environment. Among the proponents of mega-mergers is Merck’s CEO Richard Clark, who believes the acquisition of Schering will create “ a strong, global healthcare leader built for sustainable growth and success ”. Clark added: " The combined company will benefit from a formidable research and development pipeline, a sign...

At the White House signing this afternoon of an executive order to overturn the previous administration's ban on using human embryonic stem cells in research, US President Barack Obama also signed a memorandum that he said is aimed at insulating science from politics. Obama said today that the Scientific Integrity Presidential Memorandum charges the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy with development of "a strategy for restoring scientific integrity to government decision making." He said that his administration will "base our public policies on the soundest science …[and] appoint scientific advisors based on their credentials and experience, not their politics or ideology." In addition, Obama said that his administration will be "open and honest with the American people about the science behind our decisions." He also said that promoting science is about more than providing resources, but also involves "ensuring that scientif...

Pfizer has entered into a series of agreements with Aurobindo Pharma, a pharmaceutical company based in India, to commercialize medicines that are no longer patent protected, and have lost market exclusivity in the US and Europe. Under the terms, Pfizer has acquired rights to 39 generic solid oral dose products in the US and 20 in Europe, plus an additional 11 in France. These medicines cover a range of therapeutic areas including cardiovascular disease and Central Nervous System disorders, and will be commercialized in the US through Pfizer's Greenstone subsidiary. The company has also acquired rights to 12 sterile injectable products in the US and Europe. These medicines are antibiotics including penicillins and cephalosporins. The global non-exclusive market represents about $270 billion with solid oral dose products representing the largest drug category. This category is anticipated to continue its rapid increase in market share and has an estimated growth potential of over $5...

A group of leading HIV experts call for the exploration of a new approach to treating HIV – one that could ultimately help eradicate the virus– through a collaboration involving academia, industry, government and patient advocates. This new approach to HIV treatment is discussed in a perspective article published in the March 6, 2009 issue of Science . The article, provocatively titled, “The Challenge of a Cure for HIV Infection,” is authored by three academics, Doug Richman, UCSD; David Margolis, UNC; Warner Greene, UCSF; one community advocate, the late Martin Delaney, Project Inform; and two industry scientist leaders Daria Hazuda, Merck; Roger Pomerantz, Tibotec. This diverse group came together to set a goal for the next era in HIV therapeutics – drug free remission – and assemble a coordinated initiative to identify potential interventions and a clinical assessment to reach this goal. The initiative, which the authors coined a “collaboratory,” aims to accelerate the progress of...

Microbes as bio-defence against chemical weapons, a skin-thin membrane to protect soldiers against toxic environments and cost-effective bio-diesel to fuel military vehicles are among the contributions researchers in the city are set to make for the Indian solider. Developing these futuristic systems is Anna University , with funding from the Defence Research and Development Organisation ( DRDO ). Of the 12 projects the university submitted, DRDO has approved four and allocated Rs 88 lakh as the first instalment. "The projects are research for bio-defence against pathogens and toxins, development of membranes for gas and organic vapour separation, development of novel anti-fouling nano and ultra filtration membranes (these membranes will prevent the solider from imbibing nano-sized toxins) and development of alternative source for bio-diesel from non-edible oils," D Mohan, a senior scientist with Anna University told the press. The most important among these is the research...

Indian generics firm Piramal Healthcare says it " has no intention to dilute current ownership levels, " but has not commented on rumours that it is in talks with French firm Sanofi Aventis. Speculation emerged last week in an article where it was claimed that Sanofi was willing to pay a premium for a “ significant stake ” in Piramal and had already completed a due diligence review of the deal. In response, the Indian firm’s share price jumped some 17 per cent when the story broke.When contacted Piramal would not elaborate on the statement but, while most observers view the comments as scotching last week’s rumours, the lack of an outright denial of the Sanofi deal and careful choice of words still leave the possibility of an outright sale. While Sanofi would not comment, the $2bn (€1.6bn) price tag that emerged on earlier speculation that GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) was interested in Piramal, would fit with recent statements by CEO Christopher Viebacher tha...

Genentech believes a far-sighted approach to patent expiration, unique and life saving drugs and an unrivalled scientific culture will protect it from recession and ensure greater growth than Roche envisions. The comments were made by several Genentech executives at its annual investors meeting, at which the biotech sought to justify its financial model and its belief that Roche’s offer is inadequate. Genentech’s analysis of threats it faces in coming years, and their impact upon the business, included two issues that appeared in President Obama’s budget, namely follow-on biologics and Medicaid reform . Obama backing generic biologics. Ian Clark, executive vice president, commercial, explained that the damage caused by follow-on biologics had been mitigated through planning since 2004. The financial hit that Genentech will take is incorporated into its November financial model but Clark feels that the company is well prepared to face its patent expiration period, which spans 201...