454 Life Sciences (Branford) said that SAIC-Frederick, a  wholly owned subsidiary of Science Applications International Corporation, will use Roche NimbleGen Sequence Capture arrays and 454 Sequencing systems to perform cancer gene sequencing. SAIC-Frederick’s Core Genotyping Facility will assess the ability of a new solution-based sequence capture technology from Roche NimbleGen, the SeqCap EZ System, to capture specific regions of the genome of a cancer research sample. The captured DNA will then be sequenced on the ultra high-throughput Genome Sequencer FLX System. Implementation of this technology could accelerate the identification of genetic variants, such as DNA polymorphisms, that contribute to cancer outcomes.

Achillion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (New Haven) announced that the Company has completed Phase 1a of its ongoing clinical trial of ACH-1625, a protease inhibitor for the treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, and has begun dosing HCV-infected patients in the Phase 1b segment of the trial.

Amarin Corporation (Dublin/Mystic) announced October 1 it had reached an agreement with the lenders of the Company’s $5.5 million bridge financing to extend the maturity date to October 16, 2009. This extension provides the Company with additional time to continue its previously disclosed plans to obtain longer term financing.

Boehringer Ingelheim (Ingelheim, Germany/Ridgefield) announced the conclusion of pivotal Phase 3 clinical trials of its diabetes drug linagliptin, including more than 4,000 patients in 40 countries worldwide. Linagliptin belongs to the dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4) inhibitor class, a newer class of oral hypoglycemics that target the incretin hormones GLP-1 and GIP, which are believed to be involved with regulating blood sugar.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (New York/Wallingford) said that according to a recent retrospective analysis of the pivotal Phase 3 CRYSTAL study, ERBITUX® (cetuximab), when added to FOLFIRI, was shown to increase median overall survival to 19.9 months in an intent-to-treat population of first-line metastatic colorectal cancer patients compared to 18.6 months in those receiving FOLFIRI alone.

Danbury Hospital (Danbury) said that pediatric pulmonology is among the many pediatric specialty services available at Danbury Hospital’s new Children’s Health and Wellness Center at 79 Sand Pit Road in Danbury. Opened in summer 2009, the child-friendly facility brings pediatric subspecialists under one roof, making it more convenient for families in Connecticut and New York to access high-quality, specialized care, the hospital says. The Center includes pediatric specialists in endocrinology (diabetes), pulmonology (asthma), psychiatry, cardiology, genetics, physiatry and gastroenterology.

GlaxoSmithKline plc (Research Triangle Park, NC) said that the European Commission has granted marketing authorization of GSK’s pandemic (H1N1) adjuvanted vaccine Pandemrix™ for protection against pandemic H1N1 2009 influenza.

HistoRx (New Haven) has entered into a partnership with Aperio Technologies of Vista, CA to provide an integrated solution for whole-slide imaging with fluorescence. The partnership integrates Aperio’s new ScanScope® FL, a multi-slide fluorescence scanning system designed to meet the growing demand for multiplexing with fluorescent biomarkers and quantitative analysis, with HistoRx's AQUA® (Automated Quantitative Analysis) software for fluorescent image analysis that provides in-depth scientific insights from biomarker measurements.  Aperio will be a value-added reseller of the AQUA software.

In a statement to shareholders, Vincent Fert, CEO of Ipsogen (Marseille, France/New Haven), said: "We have recorded an excellent first half of 2009, not only for our activity but also for the fine tuning of our expenses. Due to our good visibility we anticipate that 2009 will demonstrate strong growth allowing the company to enter 2010 in good conditions. Backed by these facts and by the good visibility we have on our markets, in 2009 we anticipate further buoyant annual growth and the maintaining of our gross margin at a high level."

Johnson & Johnson (New Brunswick, NJ) and Crucell, N.V. of the Netherlands have entered into a strategic collaboration focusing on the discovery, development and commercialization of monoclonal antibodies and vaccines for the treatment and prevention of influenza and other infectious and non-infectious diseases.

MannKind Corporation (Valencia, CA/Danbury) presented data at a European Association for the Study of Diabetes meeting in Vienna that indicate MannKind's AFRESA® (insulin human [rDNA origin]) Inhalation Powder is a well-tolerated, ultra rapid acting insulin able to more closely replicate normal glucose suppression than currently available insulins.

The Pfizer Oncology unit of Pfizer Inc. (New York, NY/Groton/New London) announced it will initiate a global, Phase 3 clinical trial of its investigational oral c-Met and ALK (anaplastic lymphoma kinases) inhibitor, PF-02341066, versus standard of care chemotherapy in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer carrying the ALK fusion gene, who have progressed on one prior treatment with a platinum-based chemotherapy.

Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) (Washington, DC) said a new report shows that America’s pharmaceutical research and biotechnology companies are testing a record 183 new diabetes medicines. The medicines listed in the report are being tested in human clinical trials or are awaiting approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Protein Sciences Corporation (Meriden) is pursuing several influenza vaccines. (See story in this issue.)

Rib-X Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (New Haven) announced that it intends to enter into a Clinical Trials Agreement with the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health. The purpose of this agreement is to advance the clinical development of an oral formulation of Rib-X's novel fluoroquinolone delafloxacin, in the treatment of Neisseria gonorrhoeae. N. gonorrhoeae, a gram-negative bacteria, is the cause of the sexually transmitted disease gonorrhea which affects more than 700,000 people in the United States annually.

Separately, Rib-X announced that Tony Zook has been appointed to the Company's Board of Directors, succeeding Joseph Amprey, MD, Ph.D. Mr. Zook is President of MedImmune, Chief Executive Officer of AstraZeneca North America, and Executive Vice President of Global Marketing AstraZeneca.

Vascular Insights LLC (Madison) reported at meetings in Monaco and Philadelphia results of the initial clinical trial of its ClariVein™ catheter used in a minimally invasive treatment for varicose veins. "Initial results were very encouraging, and the success rates continue to be excellent as we follow patients over a longer period," said Dr. Stephen Elias, principal investigator. "The success rates are equal to the early results of radiofrequency or laser treatment of great saphenous vein disease. The main advantage is that the technique does not require tumescence anesthesia infusion, thus saving significant time and decreasing patient discomfort. In addition, no generator is required and capital and maintenance cost is reduced. This in-office procedure takes about 15 minutes to perform and patients resume normal activity that day. All patients would recommend the procedure to others."

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

UConn Health Center researchers in collaboration with scientists from China have revealed the potential for human stem cells to provide a vaccination against colon cancer, reports a study published in Stem Cells. more

An article by faculty members of the UConn School of Business suggests that any proposal for regulating the price of drugs — even talk of a proposal — can have a negative impact on the amount of money a company invests in pharmaceutical research and development. See the story in this issue.

Shiva Kotha, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering, has won a coveted five-year, $430,000 NSF Early Career Development (CAREER) Award to support his research on strategies for improving the body’s ability to repair damaged bone. more

Professor Leslie Loew, director of the Center for Cell Analysis and Modeling at the UConn Health Center, is part of a team of researchers who have received federal funding to systematically assemble functional human kidney tissue from tissue modeled on a computer. more

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

Faculty at Yale University have been awarded over 100 research grants totaling $36 million since February 2009, when the federal stimulus package (the American Recovery and Revitalization Act of 2009) was signed into law. "Yale scientists are enormously grateful for this new funding, which will create jobs while accelerating the rate of biomedical research," said Carolyn Slayman, Sterling Professor of Genetics, Professor of Cellular and Molecular Physiology, and Deputy Dean for Academic & Scientific Affairs.

In the journal Science, Susan Baserga, professor of molecular biophysics and biochemistry, genetics, and therapeutic radiology and her colleagues describe the elusive structure of an RNA and protein enzyme essential to making ribosomes. Lead researcher on the Science paper was Franziska Bleichert of Yale.  Vinzenz M. Unger was the other Yale author of the paper, which included contributors from North Carolina State and Harvard.

A team of scientists from Yale University and Dartmouth College used a novel source of data — the presence and absence of different microRNA genes — to investigate the evolutionary relationships of annelids, a kind of segmented worm. MicroRNAs are small, non-coding genes that have long been known to play an important role in developmental biology but which have never before been used to study the evolutionary relationships between organisms. The team’s findings appear online in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Lead author Erik Sperling is a graduate student in Yale’s Department of Geology and Geophysics.

In papers published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Alan Garen of the Department of Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry at Yale and his colleague Xu Song explain how cancer may overcome an organism’s natural “stop sign” for cell division. Garen’s team working with mice found that an RNA molecule from an area of the genome that does not produce proteins prevents a type of tumor-suppressor protein from inactivating incipient cancer genes.  The TSP protein they studied, called PSF, is virtually identical in mice and humans, he said.

The hormone leptin, which is critical for normal food intake and metabolism, appears to regulate bone mass and suppress appetite by acting mainly through serotonin pathways in the brain, according to a recent study published in Cell by Yale School of Medicine researchers and colleagues at Columbia University. "Our study challenges the view that the hypothalamus is the critical brain site where leptin acts directly to alter neuronal circuit function to suppress appetite and bone metabolism," said Yale researcher and study co-author Tamas Horvath, who is chair and professor of comparative medicine and professor of neurobiology and obstetrics & gynecology at Yale School of Medicine.

Damage to the brain caused by chronic stress or lead poisoning can be repaired by blocking a key molecular pathway, Yale University researchers report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The Yale team, led by senior author Amy Arnsten, professor of neurobiology at Yale and her graduate student, Avis Brennan Hains, succeeded in protecting against the effects of stress by blocking the action of protein kinase C in rats.

Yale University researchers report in the September 21 to 25 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that they have discovered the molecular switch in the brain that turns off the reproductive system in times of severe hunger. The same molecule also may play a key role in obesity, drug addiction and depression. Senior author is Meenakshi Alreja, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobiology at the Yale School of Medicine.

Yale University researchers using advanced imaging technology have successfully tracked the loss of nicotinic receptors with age, according to a report in Neurobiology of Aging. Senior author is Christopher H. van Dyck, Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobiology and Director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Unit. Nicotinic receptors reinforce addictions such as smoking, but also facilitate learning and memory. Autopsies of dementia patients have revealed a significant decline of these receptors.

A team led by Pasko Rakic, professor and chairman of the Department of Neurobiology at Yale and head of the Kavli Institute for Neuroscience, has found a molecular mechanism that allows the proper mixing of neurons during the formation of columns essential for the operation of the cerebral cortex, they report in the online issue of Nature.

Researchers at the Yale School of Public Health have identified a gene associated with multiple cases of alcoholism, drug abuse and other addictive behaviors in white women of European origin. The research appears in this week’s online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Heping Zhang, Ph.D., professor in the division of Biostatistics at the Yale School of Public Health, is senior author of the paper.

Researchers from the Yale School of Medicine have obtained the first close-up look at a membrane-embedded potassium ion channel that, when defective, can cause high blood pressure or epilepsy. The research appears August 30 in Nature’s Advance Online. "The technique opens up a new way to study the many important molecular machines of cellular membranes," said Fred Sigworth, Ph.D., of the Department of Cellular and Molecular Physiology at the Yale School of Medicine. Co-author is Liguo Wang, Ph.D.

The learning ability of mice and their sensitivity to cocaine are influenced by the shape of their brain cells, Yale University researchers report in the Sept. 7-13 issue of the journal of Proceedings of the National Academies of Science. The Yale team includes Jane Taylor, professor of psychiatry, Anthony Koleske, a professor of molecular biophysics and biochemistry, and neurobiology and Shannon Gourley, a postdoctoral fellow in psychiatry.

Yale engineers have for the first time observed and tracked E. coli bacteria moving in a liquid medium. Their findings, which appear online in Physical Review Letters, could lead to a better understanding of how bacteria move from place to place and, potentially, how to keep them from spreading. The study team included Hur Koser, associate professor at Yale’s School of Engineering & Applied Science, and postdoctoral asscitae and lead author Tolga Kaya.

In the first surgery of its kind in Connecticut, and among the first in New England, surgeons at Yale School of Medicine and Yale-New Haven Hospital successfully removed the gallbladder of a 21-year-old woman through her vagina. Lead surgeon Kurt E. Roberts, M.D., of Yale Medical Group, believes removal of the gallbladder transvaginally is a major improvement over traditional and even laparoscopic methods. “Surgical tools and endoscopic cameras can be passed through this orifice to perform the surgery, completely avoiding any external incisions,” he explains.

Two Yale faculty members have been named MacArthur Foundation Fellows for 2009, the John D. and Catherine T. Foundation announced. Mary Tinetti, M.D., the Gladys Phillips Crofoot Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology and Public Health, and Richard O. Prum, the William Robertson Coe Professor of Ornithology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, will each receive a five-year, $500,000 “genius” grant to spend as they see fit.

Two internationally renowned experts on evolution have been hired to anchor the new Microbial Diversity Institute at Yale’s West Campus. Nancy A. Moran, Regents’ Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Howard Ochman, Regents’ Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics — both from the University of Arizona — will become professors in Yale’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. They are scheduled to begin work at Yale on January 1.

Creating a video game to help teens avoid sex, drugs and alcohol use — behaviors that could lead to HIV infection — is the aim of a five-year, $3.9 million research grant to Yale from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The grant, to be paid out over five years, will fund work by Lynn Fiellin, M.D., assistant professor of medicine at Yale School of Medicine.

The majority of general surgery residents in the United States say they are satisfied with their training and confident of their ability to perform, but a significant number feel that the hours and stress are straining their family life, and many express worries about future income and career prospects, according to a study by the Yale School of Medicine and the Yale School of Public Health appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Lead author is Heather Yeo, M.D., M.H.S.R., a fourth-year surgery resident at Yale.

Seven of America’s leading public health and economics experts are urging passage of taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages. Kelly Brownell, Director of Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, notes: "A tax on sugared beverages has four features that make it unique: It would have immediate impact; it would have a beneficial effect on the nation’s diet; unlike education programs, it costs nothing; and it would generate considerable revenue that could support key health programs. I know of no other approach that meets all these criteria."

For more member news, see the September 2009 issue of CURE News