Internal Medicine

NEWTON, Mass.—Securing what it termed the largest Advanced Technology Program (ATP) grant for the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST), Clinical Data and IO Informatics recently announced an agreement to partner on the final two years of a project that is designed to develop software and technology to interpret disparate data for researchers taking a systems biology approach to drug discovery.

CARRBORO, N.C.—BioMachines Inc. a biotech automation company announced last month that Clearview Limited acquired a majority stake in the company and with it the hiring two new executive leaders for the company.

As you no doubt will have read and heard many times, the world suffered a great loss recently when long-time stem cell advocate Dana Reeve, wife of Christopher Reeve, succumbed to lung cancer.

Eidogen-Sertanty Inc., a computational drug discovery solutions provider, in mid-December announced a collaboration with fellow San Diego-based company, Kalypsys Inc., that is focused on the discovery of novel small molecules for anti-inflammatory indications.

More than 900 new medicines are in development to treat the diseases of aging, according to a report released late last year by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA).

I’m a big fan of chaos theory. I think it can be traced to when I was fairly young and thought about the specific consequences, as it related to me, of my parents meeting. The epiphany for the primary school boy I was back then was the realization that had my parents not met, I simply would not have existed. As I further deconstructed the what-ifs and the number of things, had anything changed, that would have made me a non-entity, I was stunned by the very real notion that my existence was mostly the result of happenstance. So it is this understanding of the interdependence of actions and reactions that make me a fan of chaos theory,

It is often said that strength comes from within, that all you need to get along and be successful is a little faith in yourself. In times of crisis, this faith can require something of a gut check, where you look to see if you’re being true to yourself and your supporters. As it is with individuals, so it is with companies. The last year or so has seen a number of companies facing some really big decisions, if not outright crises, that reflect to the outside world how much faith these companies have in their abilities. And each one of these companies has approached the challenge in its own way, reflecting its unique corporate culture and its view of future markets.

Sage-N Research Inc., the maker of the Sorcerer analysis appliance and the SEQUEST Sorcerer system marketed by Thermo Electron Corp., plans to establish a research and development center in the New Science Park in Shanghai, China. “The field has been prolific in developing new proteomics data analysis algorithms, but the challenge is to deliver them promptly to the researchers who need them, in a form that is easy to use, even for large data sets,” says David Chiang, CEO and chairman of Sage-N. “The new Sage-N Shanghai Center will extend the company’s previous successes in doing this.”

The patients may not be real, but the results are—and so is the U.S. patent No. 6,983,237 recently issued to Entelos Inc. and titled “Method and Apparatus for Conducting Linked Simulation Operations Utilizing a Computer-Based System Model.” Making that mouthful a bit simpler, Entelos has successfully patented its invention of a key technology to effectively develop and use virtual patients—in silico representations of actual patient subpopulations—to rapidly assess the safety and efficacy of drugs in humans.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University may have discovered the next generation of drug and cell therapy delivery devices—dust-sized, porous, metallic 3-D microcontainers that have the potential to carry everything from pain medication to cell therapy. The findings of the team were published in the December issue of the journal Biomedical Microdevices.