Drug Discovery & Technology News articles from September 2001

Drug Discovery & Technology News archives from September 2001

TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE Too Much Money, Too Few Drugs.(IBA USA Drug Discovery Technology Conference)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... The Drug Discovery Technology Conference hosted by IBC USA in Boston, Massachusetts, was BIG: More than 4000 attendees, more than 300 exhibitors, more than 100 posters, and more than 80 product launches. Tons of free food were provided for...

Impact of Genomics on Pharma R&D.(from Drug Discovery Technology 2001)(Brief Article)(Panel Discussion)
September 1, 2001... A panel discussion was held for members of the press on the impact of genomics on pharmaceutical research, at the recent Drug Discovery Technology 2001 conference held in Boston and organized by IBC USA. The panel members agreed, that despite...

BASIC SCIENCE: GBV-C Virus Interferes with AIDS.(research report from New England Journal of Medicine)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Infection with an apparently harmless virus, GBV-C, inhibits HIV replication and decreases mortality in AIDS patients, according to two reports in the September 6 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. GBV-C virus is often called...

Tumors Lay Down Tracks.(molecular cues to melanoma cells)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... University of Iowa researchers, led by Mary J.C. Hendrix, and their collaborators have shown that highly aggressive melanoma cells interact with the extracellular matrix differently from less aggressive melanoma cells. These differences may...

Nanowire Nanosensors Analyze Molecules.(Nanosys Inc. research)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Nanosys, Inc. (Cambridge, MA) cofounders and Harvard professors Charles Lieber and Hongkun Park have published a paper in the August 17 issue of Science entitled "Nanowire Nanosensors for Detection of Biological and Chemical Species." In the...

Pheromones Change Brain Activity.(MIICRO Inc. research)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... MIICRO, Inc. (1021 West Adams St., Chicago, IL 60607) claims to have the first Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scans of a pheromone affecting the human brain. The study, done in collaboration with the University of Chicago, was conducted...

DRUG TARGETS: How Staph A Resists Methicillin.(drug resistance in staphylococcus aureus)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Researchers at The Rockefeller University have established a new model to explain how the infectious "staph" bacterium evades several widely used antibiotics. They show that a protein previously thought to play no role in drug resistance in...

RATIONAL DRUG DESIGN: Structure of Protease Drug Target Solved.(matriptase, transmembrane serine protease)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Scientists from Corvas International, Inc. (3030 Science Park Rd., San Diego, CA 92121; Tel: 619/455-9800, Fax: 619/455-7895; Website: www.corvas.com) and collaborators at the Max-Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried, Germany, have...

DIAGNOSTICS: Cantilever Measures Antigen Concentration.(prostate-specific antigen assayed by microcantilever)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... A technique for detecting proteins by inducing them to stick to and bend a microscopic cantilever is sensitive enough to serve as a diagnostic assay for the prostate-specific antigen (PSA), a protein marker characteristic of prostate cancer...

Proteins Used as Chemical Sensors.(research at Duke University Medical Center)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Biochemists from Duke University Medical Center, led by Homme Hellinga, have developed a technology that will enable proteins to be engineered as sensitive, specific "bioelectronic" sensors for a vast array of chemicals. These engineered...

Fusion Gene Diagnostic of Childhood Cancer.(megakaryoblastic leukemia)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... The discovery of the abnormal fusion of two gene segments will help scientists readily diagnose megakaryoblastic leukemia, a rare childhood cancer that is approximately 75% fatal. Stephan Morris and Zhigui Ma of St. Jude Children's...

DRUG DELIVERY: Polymeric Micelles for Drug Transport.(speech to American Chemical Society by Kathryn E. Uhrich)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Kathryn E. Uhrich, Rutgers associate professor of chemistry presented a paper titled "Designing Polymeric Micelles for Drug Transport" at the 222nd national meeting of the American Chemical Society held in Chicago. The report summarizes...

INFORMATICS: Celera to Aid in SNP Linkage Map.(Celera Genomics Group)(SNP Consortium)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... The SNP Consortium has contracted with Celera Genomics (761 Main Ave., Norwalk, CT 06859; Tel: 203/762-1000, Fax: 203/762-6000) and Applied Biosystems (850 Lincoln Centre Dr., Foster City, CA, 94404; Tel: 650/638-5800, Fax: 650/638-5884;...

Harnessing Unused Processing Cycles.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Tired of all those PCs sitting idle, while your employees engage in superfluous activities, like seeing their families once in a while? Entropia, Inc.(10145 Pacific Heights Blvd., Suite 800, San Diego, CA 92121; Tel: 858/623-2840; Website:...

Supercomputers for Biological Modeling.(biological systems research)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Physiome Sciences (307 College Rd. East, Princeton, NJ 08540; Tel: 609/987-1199, Fax: 609/987-9393; Email: info@physiome.com, Website: www.physiome.com) will use IBM's next-generation supercomputing technology for research on biological...

Electrostatic Models for Microtubules.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... A method for studying the electrical landscape of large biological molecules was developed by Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) researchers led by J. Andrew McCammon at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). The technique was...

COMBINATORIAL CHEMISTRY Bar Codes for Chemicals.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Purdue University chemists have developed a way to "bar code" individual chemical compounds, making it quick, easy, and economical to identify the most biologically active ones among thousands of candidates in the drug-screening process. "The...

On Bead Screening and Identification.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Evotec OAI, a subsidiary of Evotec BioSystems AG (Schnackenburgallee 114, 22525 Hamburg, Germany; Tel: 40-56081-0, Fax: 40-56081-222), has entered into a license and technology agreement with Novartis Pharma AG. Within the scope of this...

INDUSTRY NEWS: Statin Drugs Defended.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... At the XXIII Congress of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), members of the International Lipid Information Bureau (ILIB) reaffirmed the role of statins in clinical practice, in the wake of Bayer's (Werk Leverkusen, 51368 Leverkusen,...

Bayer Fights Sea of Troubles.(Bayer AG)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Bayer AG (Werk Leverkusen, 51368 Leverkusen, Germany; Tel: +49- 214-30-589992, Fax: +49-214-307-1985; Website: www.bayer-ag.de) has withdrawn Baycol from the market August 8 after over 50 deaths were attributed to the drug. The decision has...

Half of Pharmaceutical Licensing Deals Fail.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... PharmaVentures' (Madgalen Centre, Oxford Science Park, Oxford OX4 4GA, U.K.; Tel: +44 1865 784177, Fax: +44 1865 784178; Website: www.pharmaventures.com) latest survey into pharmaceutical licensing activities included the key discovery that...

Transmission of Drug- Resistant HIV Rare.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2001... The number of drug-resistant HIV cases has already reached epidemic proportions in San Francisco, but transmission of drug- resistant strains is not to blame, according to a UCLA/UCSF study in the September issue of Nature Medicine. "The...

CALENDAR.
September 1, 2001... September 24-25, 2001. Microarray Technologies Summit & Exposition, Princeton, NJ, Strategic Research Institute; Tel: 212/967-0095, ext. 233; Email: edrilon@srinstitute October 15-16, 2001. Chemical Technologies Accelerating Drug...