Research Areas

Chromos Molecular Systems Inc. in late May entered into a nonexclusive commercial license agreement with Pfizer Inc. Pfizer may now employ Chromos’s ACE (Artificial Chromosome Expression) System in its own labs to develop cell lines that express proteins. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

Elixir Pharmaceuticals recently secured an exclusive license to intellectual property from the regents of the University of California (UC) relating to work done by Dr. Eric Verdin and his research group at the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology with SirT1, a member of the sirtuin class of enzymes, and the HIV transcriptional transactivation protein.

Sweden

After the acquisition of TekCel, Magellan Biosciences indirectly continues to expand its automation instrument empire as TekCel announces its acquisition of ultra-low-temperature sample-management specialist Biophile, Inc., based in Charlottesville, Virginia. Biophile's systems are used for temperature-sensitive work involving DNA, tissue, and tumor storage, and complement the automation systems already in play at TekCel and Magellan Bioscience.

At the 65th Annual American Diabetes Association Meeting, Entelos presented data from their collaboration with the ADA in two poster sessions. One poster described a comprehensive analysis on the time-dependent effects of treatment in a mouse model for human type 1 diabetes. The other presentation described the company's Type 1 Diabetes PhysioLab modeling platform, which offers large-scale mathematical simulations of disease pathology and therapeutic intervention in the model mice.

Corixa announced that the waiting period imposed by Hart-Scott-Rodino Act for their proposed sale to GSK Biologicals has expired. Corixa stockholders will attend a special meeting on July 12, 2005 at Corixa's corporate headquarters to consider the adoption of the agreement. The two companies expect to complete the agreement quickly thereafter and when all conditions to the transaction are satisfied or waived.

Neurologix, Inc. has licensed the humanin gene from Keio University in Tokyo, an agreement providing Neuro-logix exclusive worldwide rights (excluding Japan) to develop and commercialize therapeutics to treat brain and other central nervous system (CNS) disorders (excluding amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) using the technology. The humanin gene will be used in combination with Neurologix’s proprietary gene transfer technology and is expected to be the company’s lead compound for a novel and promising approach to Alzheimer’s disease.

The Ohio State University College of Medicine and BioImagene, a bio-image analysis products company based here, have signed an agreement to engage in numerous collaborative activities, including joint research proposals at the state and national levels, joint projects with profit potential, and other mutually beneficial activities.

Integrative analytical technology specialist InforSense announced in May the licensing of its workflow-based informatics platforms by the Windber Research Institute (WRI), a biomedical research center looking for cures to genetic and metabolic diseases. The two organizations will work together to develop a production-quality, generic informatics framework for translational medicine to be used by WRI and its clinical collaborators.

GeneEd and Zenosis, two companies focused on delivering e-learning curricula for the pharmaceutical industry, announced in early May they will work together to provide a single, end-to-end educational service for life science companies. The combination of services will provide courses in everything from basic life science skills all the way to clearing regulatory hurdles for drug approval.