454 Life Sciences (Branford) announced that a Genome Sequencer FLX System has been installed at the Institute of Genomics & Integrative Biology in Delhi, India. The Institute plans to use the system for all applications possible within this revolutionary technology, with a special focus on metagenomics and de novo genome sequencing.

Achillion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (New Haven) announced additional positive safety and efficacy results from its ongoing Phase 2 trial studying elvucitabine in patients infected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Elvucitabine, Achillion's HIV product candidate, is an L-cytosine nucleoside analog reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI) that has previously demonstrated potent antiviral activity against HIV, including strains resistant to other NRTIs.

Alexion Pharmaceuticals (Cheshire) reported data indicating that Soliris® (eculizumab) therapy improved the often disabling fatigue experienced by patients with the rare blood disorder paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH).

Applied Spine Technologies (New Haven) recently enrolled its 100th patient in a randomized, controlled study related to its Stabilimax NZ® Dynamic Spine Stabilization System. The study is comparing posterior dynamic stabilization in patients using the Stabilimax NZ device to patients receiving traditional fusion surgery to treat their lumbar spinal stenosis, a common lower-back disorder where deterioration of the joints and discs leads to increased pressure on the spinal nerves.

Bayer HealthCare (Leverkusen, Germany/West Haven) said that results from an adjuvant trial in high-risk melanoma patients demonstrated that a majority of patients treated with Leukine® (sargramostim) achieved disease-free and/or overall survival.

Boehringer Ingelheim (Ingelheim, Germany/Danbury) reported data that suggest that up to one in ten women are living with a condition called Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder (HSDD), with only a third of these seeking advice or help from their healthcare professional. According to the company, HSDD is a prevalent yet under-diagnosed medical condition that can have a serious effect on women’s lives, causing significant psychological distress and negatively impacting their relationships with their partners.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (New York/Wallingford) announced results from an exploratory Phase II study of 56 individuals that suggested that ORENCIA® (abatacept), a prescription drug for adults with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis, may delay its development in people with undifferentiated inflammatory arthritis.

Cantor Colburn LLP (Hartford) has added eight new attorneys to meet demand for its intellectual property services. more

CuraGen Corporation (Branford) announced the treatment of the first patient in its CR011-vcMMAE Phase 2 breast cancer study. CR011-vcMMAE targets a protein known as glycoprotein NMB (GPNMB), which is overexpressed in a variety of cancers including breast cancer, melanoma, and brain tumors. "We believe that GPNMB is a promising target in breast cancer, and we look forward to better understanding how CR011-vcMMAE could be used in the treatment of this disease," commented Dr. Timothy Shannon, president and CEO of CuraGen.

Danbury Hospital (Danbury) said that, as part of a treatment for arthritis, the hospital's F. Scott Gray, M.D., Department of Surgery, Section of Orthopedic Surgery, performed the first ankle replacement in Western Connecticut. 

A digital collage created by Dr. Gualberto Ruanño of Genomas Inc. (Hartford) was featured in a recent New York Times article on personalized medicine. more

GlaxoSmithKline (Research Triangle Park, NC) has completed its acquisition of Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, Inc. GlaxoSmithKline says that the acquisition has significantly enhanced its metabolic, neurology, immunology, and inflammation research efforts by establishing a presence in the field of sirtuins, a recently discovered class of enzymes that is believed to be involved in the ageing process.

HistoRx (New Haven) said that the pathology core facility at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston will begin making the company’s AQUA® technology for protein biomarker profiling available to the more than 900 Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center scientists serviced by the facility. Brigham and Women's purchased a HistoRx PM-2000™ tissue analysis platform instrument, which incorporates the proprietary AQUA® technology, in 2005.

Ipsogen (Marseille, France/New Haven) announced it is entering the breast cancer diagnostic market with the European launch of MapQuant Dx™ Genomic Grade, the first molecular diagnostic test to accurately measure tumor grade, a consensus indicator of tumor proliferation, risk of metastasis, and response to chemotherapy.

Centocor, Inc., a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson (New Brunswick, NJ), said that the FDA has unanimously recommended the approval of ustekinumab, a new subcutaneous, investigational biologic therapy for the treatment of adult patients with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis.  Ustekinumab is a new human monoclonal antibody with a novel mechanism of action that targets the cytokines interleukin-12 (IL-12) and interleukin-23 (IL-23), naturally occurring proteins that are important in the body’s regulation of immune responses and that are also believed to play an important role in psoriasis.

NanoViricides, Inc. (West Haven) said that excellent efficacy of its EKC-Cide™ nanoviricide drug candidate was revealed upon statistical analyses of clinical scores from a first animal study. The company had previously posted photos on its website which show the rapid response to treatment using the Company’s nanoviricide drug candidate against epidemic kerato-conjunctivitis.

Separately, the company said that its anti-HIV drug candidates demonstrated significant therapeutic efficacy in recently completed preliminary animal studies in Boston.

Neurogen Corporation (Branford) suspended a Phase 2/3 clinical trial in chronic insomnia patients with the company's insomnia agent, adipiplon, after receiving reports of higher-than-anticipated next-day effects. The company theorized that the bilayer tablet formulation used in the trials may not be performing as expected. The company said it would take two to three months to fully evaluate what happened and to decide whether to continue investment in its insomnia program.

The company said it was continuing Phase 2 studies of its compound aplindore in Parkinson's disease and restless leg syndrome.

Pfizer Inc. (New York, NY/Groton/New London) has named Garry A. Nicholson general manager of its Oncology business unit. Nicholson will have the title of senior vice president, reporting directly to Ian Read, president of Pfizer Worldwide Pharmaceutical Operations. He previously served as head of Eli Lilly & Co.'s global oncology program, where he oversaw many facets of a division that accounted for more than $2.5 billion in sales in 2007.

Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) (Washington, DC) said it applauds efforts to bolster Congressional appropriations for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and looks forward to working with Congress to secure a funding boost.

Protein Sciences Corporation (Meriden) rebutted allegations in a lawsuit filed by potential merger partner Emergent BioSolutions. more

Quinnipiac University (Hamden) announced that Cynthia Lord, director of its physician assistant program, has been appointed president of the American Academy of Physician Assistants.

Rib-X Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (New Haven) announced the initiation of a Phase 2 clinical trial for an intravenous form of antibiotic compound RX-3341 in the treatment of complicated skin and skin structure infections. The company also announced positive results of a two-part Phase 1 study with the same candidate. "We've made significant progress in advancing this next-generation broad spectrum antibiotic further toward clinical use," said Dr. Susan Froshauer, president and CEO.

Triumvirate Environmental, Inc. (Somerville, MA) was recently listed #5 of " Best Places to Work" in the Boston Business Journal. This is the third year in a row the company has made the list.

At the 13th Congress of the European Hematology Association, Vion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (New Haven) presented data from a previously conducted Phase II trial of its lead anticancer agent Cloretazine® (VNP40101M) in elderly patients with acute myelogenous leukemia and high-risk myelodysplastic syndromes. 

Following is recent news from The University of Connecticut (Storrs) and the University of Connecticut Health Center (Farmington).

Five new companies have joined, and two companies have "graduated," from UConn's Technology Incubation Program (TIP).

(New biotech R&D lab space will be available in 2009 at the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington as part of the TIP. more)

Joining in Farmington are Arbor Fuels, which intends to manufacture renewable, cost-competitive biofuels and solvents using proprietary microbial cell lines; Global Blood Resources, which has invented the Hemobag, a device that simplifies surgeries by capturing and returning patients' own blood; and Revegen, which uses technology based on computer simulation to identify therapeutically active molecules.

Joining in Storrs is Affinimark, a firm focused on developing rapid response, lateral flow-based devices for medical diagnosis. Joining at Avery Point is NativeNano, which is developing a power generation system that relies on relatively slow water flow across an airfoil that turns a generator whose electrical output is then fed to the “grid.”

Allerquest, which has been developing a penicillin allergy reaction test, is moving to expanded facilities in Plainville. Evergen, which is developing animal models for pharmaceutical discovery and service supporting transgenic technology, is moving to new quarters in Vernon.

Because the cost of developing new medicines is so high, pharmaceutical companies have started outsourcing research and development to countries such as China and India. Yadagiri Pendri has a different idea: Do such work in a start-up company based at UConn.“The pharmaceutical outsourcing industry is still very much in its infancy,” says Pendri, founder and CEO of Escientia Life Sciences, the newest client in UConn’s Technology Incubation Program. more

A nationally prominent orthopaedic surgeon and administrator from the University of Virginia was appointed vice president for health affairs at the UConn Health Center. Cato T. Laurencin, M.D., Ph.D will become the seventh dean of the School of Medicine. He will hold the Van Dusen Chair in Academic Medicine and a professorship in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. more

Rashmi Bansal, an associate professor of neuroscience at UConn Health Center,  recently won a grant from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society for her research focusing on a specific protein and its role in mulyile sclerosis. more

Mardi Hayden, a UConn Health Center respiratory therapist, earned national recognition earlier this year, when she was named Cambridge Who’s Who Professional of the Year in respiratory therapy. more

Sixty-nine students from 16 Connecticut schools took part in this year’s High School Mini Medical/Dental School, a program of the Health Center’s Department of Health Career Opportunity Programs. "The goal is to inform and excite students about cutting-edge basic science research that is being conducted by some of the outstanding professors at the Health Center," says Dr. Marja Hurley, associate dean of the medical school and program director. more

Following is recent news from Yale University and the Yale School of Medicine (New Haven).

Yale University has announced the appointment of James E. Rothman, one of the world's leading cell biologists, as chair of Yale School of Medicine's Department of Cell Biology.  Additionally, Rothman will launch the Center for High-Throughput Cell Biology at Yale's West Campus, formerly the site of Bayer Pharmaceuticals. Rothman will come to Yale from Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons, where he is now a professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics, the Clyde and Helen Wu Professor of Chemical Biology and director of the Columbia Genome Center. Under Rothman's leadership Yale's Department of Cell Biology will be significantly expanded, and will be co-located at the West Campus along with its present location at the main campus of the School of Medicine.

A six-part series in the Yale Daily News outlines plans for the West Campus, the property recently acquired by Yale from Bayer HaelthCare. more

Yale-New Haven Hospital was recently named one of the top 20 hospitals in the country by U.S. News & World Report.

Metastasis, the spread of cancer throughout the body, can be explained by the fusion of a cancer cell with a white blood cell in the original tumor, according to Yale School of Medicine researchers, who say that this single event can set the stage for cancer's migration to other parts of the body. Their work was published in the May issue of Nature Reviews Cancer. The studies, spanning 15 years, have revealed that the newly formed hybrid of the cancer cell and white blood cell adapts the white blood cell's natural ability to migrate around the body, while going through the uncontrolled cell division of the original cancer cell. This causes a metastatic cell to emerge, which like a white blood cell, can migrate through tissue, enter the circulatory system and travel to other organs. "This is a unifying explanation for metastasis," said John Pawelek, a researcher in the Department of Dermatology at Yale School of Medicine and at Yale Cancer Center, who conducted the studies with colleague Ashok K. Chakraborty and several other Yale scientists.

Cells on their way to forming bone also produce an estrogen-like substance that mimics the naturally occurring female sex hormone estradiol, investigators at the Yale School of Medicine report. Researchers in the laboratories of Thomas L. McCarthy and Michael Centrella in the Department of Surgery isolated this estrogen-like molecule from rat-derived osteoblasts, or cells that can build bones.

Yale University researchers have determined how a key component of many vaccines activates an immune system response, a finding that opens up promising new avenues of research on better ways to prevent infections. A team of scientists led by Stephanie C. Eisenbarth and Richard A. Flavell of the departments of immunobiology and laboratory medicine at the Yale School of Medicine describe one way aluminum hydroxide - a key adjuvant used in many of the world's vaccines - helps fight off pathogens in a paper published in the online edition of the journal Nature.

Acute kidney injury, a common complication of cardiac surgery during hospitalization, is linked to increased and prolonged risk of death in heart attack patients who have been discharged from the hospital, according to a study published in Archives of Internal Medicine by Yale School of Medicine researchers. Led by Chirag Parikh, M.D., associate professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at Yale School of Medicine, the study examined the relationship between AKI and long-term mortality risk in 147,000 elderly patients enrolled in the Cooperative Cardiovascular Project.

Research by Yale scientists shows that males and females have essentially unisex brains - at least in flies - according to a recent report in Cell designed to identify factors that are responsible for sex differences in behavior. The researchers showed that a courting "song and dance" routine that only male flies naturally perform - one wing is lifted and wiggled to make a humming "song" - can also be triggered in female flies by artificially stimulating particular brain cells that are present in both sexes. It isn't what you've got - it's how you use it, the authors say. "It appears there is a largely bisexual or 'unisex brain.' Anatomically, the differences are subtle and a few critical switches make the difference between male and female behavior," said senior author Gero Miesenboeck, formerly of Yale University and now at the University of Oxford.

Ronald J. Vender, M.D., a nationally recognized gastroenterologist, has been named chief medical officer (CMO) of the Yale Medical Group (YMG), the physician practice of Yale University faculty. He has also been named associate dean for clinical affairs at the School of Medicine. Both appointments are effective June 1. Vender, who graduated from the Yale School of Medicine and completed his internship, residency and fellowships at Yale-New Haven Hospital, has held leadership roles at several New Haven-area hospitals. His appointment follows an exhaustive national search. As CMO, Vender will report to David J. Leffell, M.D., chief executive officer of the YMG and deputy dean for clinical affairs. In this newly created position Vender will assume operational responsibilities and will work to continue to advance the clinical practice of the School of Medicine.

Yale University’s Christine Jacobs-Wagner has been designated an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, a non-profit medical research organization that is one of the nation’s largest philanthropies. Jacobs-Wagner, the Maxine Singer Associate Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, becomes one of 17 Yale scientists who now hold the prestigious appointment. HHMI was founded to supplement biomedical research efforts of some of the nation’s top scientists.

Pasko Rakic, professor of neurobiology and neurology at Yale University School of Medicine, was named one of the inaugural recipients of the Kavli Prizes, for his key role in changing our understanding of the cerebral cortex, the seat of human cognitive function. The million-dollar Kavli Prizes complement the Nobel Prizes, which since 1901 have been given for achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace. The three new awards will be presented biannually to scientists who have transformed human knowledge in the fields of nanoscience, neuroscience and astrophysics. Rakic was one of seven scientists honored with the first Kavli Prizes.

Joan Steitz of Yale University - a pioneer in the study of RNA - is one of the first two women scientists to be named recipients of the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research, America's largest prize in medicine. She will share the award with Elizabeth Blackburn of the University of California, San Francisco. Steitz, Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale, is best known for her pioneering work in RNA. She discovered and defined the function of small ribonucleoproteins (snRNPs) in pre-messenger RNA - the earliest product of DNA transcription, and was the first to learn that these cellular complexes (snRNPs) play a key role in processing messenger RNA by excising non-coding regions and splicing together the resulting segments. This process creates the templates for making proteins.

Karyn Frick, associate professor of behavioral neuroscience in the Department of Psychology at Yale, has been awarded the third annual Society for Women's Health Research Medtronic Prize for Scientific Contributions to Women's Health for her research on the effect of hormones on learning and memory. Frick received $75,000 from the society at its annual awards banquet on April 28. Frick's lab is studying how the hormones estrogen and progesterone influence the brain's ability to learn and remember.

Joel Rosenbaum, professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology at Yale, has received an honorary degree in molecular biology from the University of Siena, Italy for his basic cell biological studies on flagella assembly in a green alga, which provided new insight into Polycystic Kidney Disease. Rosenbaum, who has spent his recent sabbatical at Sienna, was acknowledged for his groundbreaking basic research on the formation and maintenance of cilia and flagella by a process known as Intraflagellar Transport. Cilia and flagella filaments act as motors in single-celled algae and as non-motile sensors in cells of many types from kidney tubules to the retina of the eye.

Gestational age has long been the factor most commonly used to predict whether an extremely low-birth-weight infant survives and thrives, but four additional factors that can help predict a preemie's outcome have been identified by the National Institutes of Health Neonatal Research Network, of which Yale is a member. Birth weight, gender, whether the baby is a twin and whether the mother was given antenatal steroid mediation to aid the baby's lung development are all factors that affect survivability and risk of disability, according to an article in the New England Journal of Medicine by a consortium of researchers in the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Neonatal Research Network. The 19-center network includes Yale School of Medicine and Yale-New Haven Hospital.

The feminine features and elongated head of ancient Egypt's King Akhenaten may be attributed to two genetic defects called aromatose excess syndrome and craniosynostosis, said Yale School of Medicine dermatology professor Irwin Braverman, M.D. Because no mummy of Akhenaten exists, Braverman used only artwork of the ancient pharaoh to make his medical diagnosis. Akhenaten was often portrayed in sculptures and carvings with a thin neck, elongated head, large buttocks, breasts, and even a prominent belly, suggesting pregnancy.

Drug users can be taught to identify and quickly respond to overdoses of heroin or other opioids as effectively as medical experts, a Yale University study suggests. The study supports efforts of some drug counselors, physicians and public health experts who have started community-based programs to train addicts and supply them with the opioid antagonist drug naloxone in order to respond to potentially fatal drug overdoses.  Naxolone, a medication lacking in abuse potential and routinely used by emergency medical personnel to treat heroin and other opioid overdoses, can be administered by a simple muscular injection. The drug temporarily combats effects of an overdose until medical help can arrive. Critics of such a harm-reduction strategy, however, have questioned whether drug users have the ability to recognize an overdose and can properly administer the drug. This study, recently published in the early online edition of the journal Addiction, suggests this concern is unwarranted. "You have to keep people alive long enough to get access to drug treatment for their addiction,'' said Traci Craig Green, a doctoral candidate in the Yale School of Public Health and lead author of the research "You can't treat a dead person."

Women who eat chocolate are at decreased risk of developing preeclampsia, a potentially dangerous complication of pregnancy, a Yale study suggests. The conclusions are reported in the current issue of the journal Epidemiology. A team headed by Elizabeth Triche of the Yale Center for Perinatal, Pediatric and Environmental Epidemiology wanted to see if chocolate, particularly dark chocolate which had been previously linked to improved cardiovascular health, might also offer protection to pregnant mothers against preeclampsia. Preeclampsia is a disorder characterized by dangerously high blood pressure and protein in the urine. Pregnant women who suffer from the condition sometimes complain of swelling, sudden weight gain, headaches and vision problems.

In response to a Lancet Journal letter suggesting that obese people are significantly contributing to world oil demands and global food scarcity, Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, cautioned that the data are interesting, but how they are framed will make a big difference. "Saying that obese people are contributing to climate change is highly stigmatizing and assigns blame to the individuals who are obese rather than the conditions driving the obesity in the first place," said Brownell.

Cancer researchers and physicians have warned of the link between unprotected sun exposure and the development of skin cancer for decades, but experts from Yale Cancer Center warn that recent publicity about a new study linking a decreased risk of breast cancer to increased levels of vitamin D may be confusing. "While ultraviolet B radiation from the sun is the primary source of vitamin D in our body, unprotected sun exposure is not a recommended way to reduce a person's risk of developing breast cancer," said David J. Leffell, M.D., Yale Cancer Center member and Professor and Section Chief of Dermatologic Surgery at Yale School of Medicine. 

For more member news, see the May 2008 issue of CURE News