October 2014 Volume 10, Issue 10
Volume 10, Issue 10 | October 2014
October 2014
In this Issue
Q&A

Q&A: ‘Making cancer history’
DDNews speaks with Dr. Philip Lorenzi about how MD Anderson Cancer Center guides drug discovery and development via enhanced targets and biomarkersFeature

A Capitol affair
Society for Neuroscience stays in its own backyard for this year’s annual meeting, looking to host more than 30,000 attendeesEditor's Focus

The business of reducing obesity
The effort to reduce obesity (and to profit from that effort) isn’t anything new, but based on my email inbox recently, perhaps we’re about to enter into an era of blockbuster weight-management medications. For the moment, however, we’re at the early stages of any such race, and it looks like Novo Nordisk and Orexigen are fighting for the strong start out of the gate.Commentary

Peer review and the life sciences
In an era of "publish or perish," combined with "fund or perish," we may be moving toward an era in which peer review is no longer up to the task, and we end up with too many journals and too little rigor
Guest Commentary: Factors impacting genome editing success and failure--A focus on cell lines
The ability to create isogenic cell lines in which the genome editing event is the sole differentiator between the phenotypes of two cells is a powerful tool. Despite all the recent developments and improvements in targeting platforms, certain challenges remain, and the role played by the choice of cell line in order to achieve success cannot be overstated.Business & Government Policy

Sitting pretty for $17 billion?
Merck KGaA acquiring Sigma-Aldrich to enhance position in increasingly attractive life-sciences market
Delving into duvelisib
Infinity, AbbVie link up to develop Infinity’s PI3K-delta/gamma inhibitor in oncology
Lysosomal storage disease could be an attractive market
According to Thomson Reuters, there is economic power in ultra-orphan disease therapies
Attaching the umbilical cord
Novartis invests $35M in Gamida Cell with eye on stem cell therapies
On the cutting edge
A roundup of instrumentation, software and other tools and technology newsClinical Trials

Cognitive computing in the clinic
Mayo Clinic and IBM to apply Watson to clinical trial enrollment
Nymox’s prostate cancer candidate progressing apace
NX-1207 continues to show an encouraging safety profile in prostate cancer and BPH
A new way to go after breast cancer
Spanish lab finds promise in fighting breast cancer with experimental drug nintedanib
Two is better than one
Bristol-Myers Squibb, Celgene deliver one-two punch to beat breast cancer
Looking good
Clinical trial shows potential for Auxilium’s CCH for treating celluliteDiscovery

Carving out new cancer territory
Blueprint Medicines announces discovery of novel oncology drug targets
Brain cells from skin
Researcher awarded £900,000 to develop an innovative new way to screen potential new treatments for diseases such as Alzheimer’s
New agreement with Schrödinger a ‘game-changer’
Schrödinger and Tri-I TDI launch a joint agreement to boost early-stage research by young researchers
Welcome to Discovery Park
New facilities will house drug discovery and bioscience centers
Aphios scores grant for green drug discovery technology
SBIR grant will fund development of prototype tech to unearth potential therapeutic chemicals in biomassDiagnostics

CGI diagnostics added to online test database
Genetic Testing Registry now contains 40 of Cancer Genetics’ proprietary tests
PDI enters molecular diagnostics market
Acquires thyroid and pancreatic cancer tests as first step toward creation of a molecular diagnostics force in Interpace Diagnostics
Collaboration to combat cancer
Team develops molecular diagnostic tests in tandem with targeted therapeutics
Moving to a multiplayer game
Illumina strikes several partnerships to advance oncology diagnostics to panel-based assaysPreclinical

Reaching for results
Seattle Genetics and Genmab create new ADC collaboration, adding to Genmab’s preclinical pipeline
Wiping out C. difficile
Synthetic Biologics soon to initiate clinical trials of SYN-004 for deadly C. diff. infections
Sage presents new preclinical data on antiepileptic drug
Data highlighted at Eilat Conference underscore potential of SAGE-217 to address acute and chronic forms of epilepsy and other seizure disorders
A printable model for liver disease
Organovo designs and creates functional, 3D human tissues for medical research and therapeutic applicationsResearch & Development

Neighbor helping neighbor
Janssen, J&J Innovation serve as catalysts for neuroscience research with University of Toronto on Alzheimer’s disease study
Enter the zebrafish
CQDM and OCE co-fund neuroscience research collaboration
Two against endometriosis
SRI International and Nobelpharma partner on endometriosis drug development
Getting social to report adverse drug reactions
U.K. agency leads EU project on the use of smartphones and social media for drug safety information
Lucigen and Thermo Fisher team up on next-gen sequencing
Lucigen Corp. and Thermo Fisher Scientific announced in late August that they would partner to release new mate pair library technology for Ion Torrent sequencing

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