Drug Discovery & Technology News articles from January 2002

Drug Discovery & Technology News archives from January 2002

INDUSTRY OUTLOOK: Discovery, Technology-and Drugs to Come.(Industry Overview)
January 1, 2002... The year 2000 looked to be a hard act to follow, with the sequencing of the human genome as the marquee event. The year 2001 had no such gaudy achievement, although history will record that the gene map was not actually published until...

DRUG TARGETS: Tumors Depend on Polyamine.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine, in conjunction with colleagues from Lund University in Sweden, report that tumor growth was blocked in vitro and in laboratory mice by interfering with a cell's...

Trp tRNA Synthetase Is Anti-Angiogenic.(Scripps Research Institute releases two reports)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Two reports by Scripps Research Institute (SRI, 10550 N. Torrey Pines Rd., La Jolla, CA; Tel: 858/784-1000) scientists describe the antiangiogenesis activity of a fragment of the human protein tryptophanyl-tRNA synthetase (TrpRS). The reports...

Angiogenesis Inhibitor Binds to Integrin.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... A team of researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) offered another explanation for how angiogenesis is inhibited in the body that is much different than that of the Scripps study (above). The study, which appears in the...

Targets for Cancer Therapy Patented.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Agensys, Inc. (formerly UroGenesys) (1545 17th St., Santa Monica, CA 90404; Tel: 310/820-8029, Fax: 310/820-8489; Website: www.agensys.com) has announced the issuance of U.S. patents on two of the company's targets for cancer therapy or for...

Protein Essential for HIV Assembly.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Bonnie L. Firestein and her colleagues have identified a human protein they call HP68 that is critical to the formation of the AIDS virus' outer shell or capsid. Treatments that target this protein possibly may stop HIV production while...

PROTEOMICS: Combining Biology with Mass Spec.(MDS Proteomics Inc. reports results of study)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Researchers from MDS Proteomics, Inc. (251 Atwell Dr., Toronto, M9W 7H4, Canada; Tel: 416/646-6351; Website: www.mdsp.com) have developed and industrialized ways to look at cells in action in order to gain insights into disease processes....

Map of Yeast Proteome Published.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Cellzome AG (Meyerhofstrasse 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany; Tel: 49-6221-137-57-0, Fax: 49-6221-137-57-202; Website: www.cellzome.com) scientists have published their own draft of a functional map of the yeast proteome in the January 10 issue...

DRUG DELIVERY: Nanoparticle Delivers to the Eye.(BioSante Pharmaceuticals Inc. tests drug delivery system)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... BioSante Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (111 Barclay Blvd., Lincolnshire, IL 60069; Tel: 847/478-0500; Website: www.biosantepharma.com) has released results of a preclinical trial demonstrating the effectiveness of its calcium phosphate...

DIAGNOSTICS: Fingerprinting Those Bad Bugs.(Bacterial BarCodes Inc. and Caliper Technologies Corp. to co-distribute clinical diagnostic systems)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Caliper Technologies Corp. (1275 California Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94304; Tel: 650/842-1960, Fax: 650/842-1970) and Bacterial BarCodes, Inc. (8080 N. Stadium Dr., Suite 1200, Houston, TX 77054; Website: www.bacbarcodes.com) will co-distribute...

HIV Drug Resistance Higher Than Suspected.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The first national assessment of HIV drug resistance has revealed that 78% of HIV patients with measurable levels of virus in their blood are infected with an HIV strain that is resistant to one or more AIDS drugs. The study, which used...

PEPTIDES: Mirror Images Are Active Antimicrobials.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Demegen, Inc. (1051 Brinton Rd., Pittsburgh, PA; Tel: 412/241- 2150, Fax: 412/241-2161; Email: info@demegen.com, Website: www.demegen.com) scientists David Rothstein and Philip Friden, and investigators Uma Sajjan and Janet Forstner from the...

NEW COMPOUNDS: Synthetase Inhibitor Stops Fungus.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Pliva Pharmaceutical Co. (Holeckova 777, 150 00 Praha 5, Czech Republic; Tel: 420 2 5732 7544, Fax: 420 2 5732 8949; Website: www.pliva.hr) has developed an antifungal compound PLD-118, which demonstrates in vitro activity against many...

Hepatitis C Protease Inhibitor Developed.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Eli Lilly and Co. (Lilly Corporate Center, Indianapolis, IN 46285; Tel: 317/276-2000, Fax: 317/277-3354; Website: www.lilly.com) and Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (130 Waverly St., Cambridge, MA 02139; Tel: 617/577-6000, Fax: 617/576-2109)...

Antagonist to Treat Parkinson's.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Vernalis Group, plc (Oakdene Court, 613 Reading Rd., Winnersh, Wokingham, Berkshire RG41 5UA, U.K.; Tel: 44 0 118 977 3133, Fax: 44 0 118 989 9300; Website: www.vernalis.com) has selected a lead development compound in its Adenosine A(2A)...

INDUSTRY NEWS: Contract for Bioterror Control.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The North Shore-Long Island Jewish Research Institute (350 Community Dr., Manhasset, NY 11030; Tel: 516/562-1001, Fax: 516/562-1022) has received a $1.6 million contract from the U.S. Department of Defense to research ways to control the...

Burrill Opens Shop on BioStreet.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Burrill & Co. (120 Montgomery St., San Francisco, CA; Tel: 415/399-4360), a life sciences merchant bank has acquired BioStreet, an online marketplace for biopharmaceutical deal making, to its strategic partnering and spin-out services....

Cardiome Acquires Paralex, Heart Drug.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Cardiome Pharma Corp. (3650 Westbrook Mall, Vancouver, B.C., Canada v6S 2L2; Tel: 604/222-5577, Fax: 604/222-6617; Website: www.cardiome.com) has entered into an agreement to acquire Paralex, Inc., a privately held New York-based company...

First Licensing of Aptamers.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Archemix Corp. (20 Hampden St., Boston, MA 02119; Tel: 781/736- 2424; Website: www.archemix.com) has granted a worldwide, exclusive sublicense to a portion of its aptamer technology portfolio to Noxxon Pharma AG (Berlin, Germany; Tel: 49 30...

COLLABORATIONS: Trans-Pacific Arthritis Deal.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Pharmacopeia, Inc. (Box 350, Princeton, NJ 08543-5350; Tel: 609/452-3600, Fax: 609/452-3672; Website: www.pcop.com ) and Locomogene, Inc. (Tokyo, Japan; Tel: 03-5766-4166, Fax: 03-5766- 4167; Email:f7lep@flamenco.plala.or.jp, Website:...

Profiling Deal for HIV Infection.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Lynx Therapeutics, Inc. (25861 Industrial Blvd., Hayward, CA 94545; Tel: 510/ 670-9300, Fax: 510/670-9302; Website: www.lynxgen.com) has initiated a research collaboration with Wayne A. Marasco of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) to...

CALENDAR.
January 1, 2002... January 28-31, 2002. Bioinformatics Technology Conference, Tucson, AZ. Contact: A. Calvo; Tel: 707/829-0515, ext. 441; Email: andrews@oreilly.com, Website: www.conferences.oreilly.com/biocon/cfp.html January 29-30, 2002. Biotech Finance...