About $36 million was awarded to local researchers by the state’s stem cell program on Wednesday.
The grants to the region’s large biomedical industry made up more than half the $67.7 million awarded by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. This batch of grants were awarded to advance basic research into patient care:
– Inder Verma of the Salk Institute received $6.64 million to develop treatments for incurable blood and immune system diseases. One of those is X-linked Severe Combined Immunodeficiency, or “bubble boy disease”.
– Jeanne Loring of The Scripps Research Institute got $6.29 million to produce safety measures for stem cells being considered for human therapy.
– Martin Friedlander of The Scripps Research Institute got $5.95 million for treatment of macular degeneration.
– Justine Cunningham of Novocell, Inc.got $5.4 million for methods of eliminating tumor-producing cells from human embryonic stem cells.
– Yang Xu of UC San Diego got $5.17 million to develop a mouse with a human immune system, to study problems in transplanting stem cells into patients.
– Evan Snyder of the Burnham Institute got $3.56 million for treatment of Parkinson’s disease.
– Darryl D’Lima of The Scripps Research Institute got $3.12 million for cartilage replacement and treating osteoarthritis.
Archive for April, 2009
$36M To San Diego Stem Cell Researchers
By: Bradley Fikes — April 29th, 2009Fast Food Poisoning Tests From Life Technologies
By: Bradley Fikes — April 29th, 2009New rapid tests for detecting food poisoning bacteria have been announced by the Applied Biosystems unit of Life Technologies.
The tests and data analysis software for salmonella and listeria monocytogenes bacteria can detect the pathogens within hours, instead of days with standard tests, the company said.
The products include MicroSEQ Pathogen Detection kits, PrepSEQ sample preparation kits and the data analysis software. It’s intended to trace and stop outbreaks such as the illnesses caused by the salmonella-tainted peanut butter.
More information is available in Life Technologies’ press release.
Glimmer of hope in slowing declines
By: Zach Fox — April 28th, 2009For those data geeks interested in the slowing rate of declines, here are a couple of interesting points from today’s Case-Shiller Home Price Index.
An interesting tidbit I didn’t fit into Wednesday’s story: San Diego was actually No. 1 in slowing rate of decline. That is, the improvement in the year-over-year decline from January to February was greatest in San Diego. (click to enlarge)
For more data, click the tag…
Pessimism amid hope
By: Zach Fox — April 22nd, 2009Possible support for an argument that the severity of the financial crisis might be ebbing, a step on the way to recovery: 1) surprisingly positive earnings for Bank of America and Citigroup and 2) booming home sales numbers.
But there’s plenty of reason for skepticism.
First, Andrew Ross Sorkin of the New York Times rips apart those earnings reports here.
David Leonhardt, also of the New York Times, says housing prices nationally still have a ways to fall. That is a national assessment. If you look at the price vs. income chart and find San Diego, you can see price-to-income ratios around the county are at 1979 levels. So we might be closer than Leonhardt suggests. Nonetheless, the declines have not come close to stopping in the monthly Case-Shiller reports; a new iteration is due out next Tuesday.
Finally, the great minds at The Economist heap a whole ton of reasoned doubt in two aptly titled articles: Buckle down, and The audacity of hope.
Salk Institute Gets $5.5M from Helmsley Trust
By: Bradley Fikes — April 21st, 2009LA JOLLA —- The Salk Institute has received $5.5 million from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, the institute said Tuesday.
The charitable donation will fund the new Salk Center for Nutritional Genomics. The center will use molecular biology and genetics to study how nutrition and metabolism affects the immune system, diseases such as cancer and diabetes, and influences life span.
“Given the fact that metabolism has clearly established itself as a common denominator in many research fields, I am very pleased that our scientists will have the opportunity to collaborate further and delve even deeper into this vitally important area of biological science,” Salk President William R. Brody said in a statement.
Obesity is one of the most important targets of metabolic research, the institute said. Obesity is linked with metabolic disorders such as glucose intolerance, insulin resistance, high cholesterol and high blood pressure. These are risk factors for cardiovascular disease and Type II diabetes.
Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center Files for Chapt. 11
By: Bradley Fikes — April 17th, 2009A prominent biotech institution became another victim of the worsening recession Friday, when the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.
Located in the San Diego’s biotech heartland of Torrey Pines Mesa, the center was established in 1990 to hasten the transfer of biotechnology discoveries to clinical uses to help cancer patients. Several local biotech companies were spun off by the center to commercialize research it had advanced.
Many of San Diego’s biotechnology elite had participated in the center’s founding and development, among them venture capitalist Ivor Royston, one of the area’s biotech pioneers.
The center filed its bankruptcy petition in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Souther District of California, it said in a press release sent Friday afternoon.
“The filing will provide a legal framework and opportunity for the independent cancer research center to be purchased by another entity; ideally another non-profit research institute with a compatible mission,” the press release stated.
Sidney Kimmel officials could not be reached for comment.
Sidney Kimmel’s board of trustees had determined the center could no longer survive as an independent institute, due to “the larger economic circumstances that all non-profit institutions are currently facing,” the press release said.
Burnham Institute for Medical Research, another nearby non-profit institute, is considering acquiring some of the cancer center’s assets.
Burnham spokeswoman Andrea Moser confirmed Burnham is looking into purchasing the assets.
Under the Chapter 11 bankruptcy, potential buyers will have the opportunity to bid for the cancer center’s assets under a court-approved process.
We’re No. 1
By: Zach Fox — April 13th, 2009San Diego is forecasted to have the strongest market in the nation in 2009 for retail properties (i.e. malls, restaurants) in an annual report by Marcus & Millichap, a commercial real estate brokerage. The county leaped five spots from No. 6 a year ago.
Then again, it might be a bit like being named the nation’s most solvent bank — there’s not much competition. San Diego jumped because the firm predicted that its economy would suffer less employment losses (not employment gains, our job losses are just less than those of other metros). And even with the top spot, the firm projects retail sales in the county to drop by almost 10 percent in 2009. That’s a big drop from the 4 percent decline in local cities’ taxable retail sales in 2008.
Links
By: Zach Fox — April 13th, 2009A few interesting articles from the weekend:
Voice of San Diego exposed some overpriced condos in Escondido in this investigative piece by Kelly Bennett and Will Carless.
The New York Times ran a feature showing that squatting in foreclosures has become an organized effort.
And the Los Angeles Times has an investigation of a HUD program that sold foreclosures to local governments for $1 apiece with the understanding that the cities would resell them to low-income families who would help rebuild the neighborhood. Instead, the properties ended up getting flipped by investors and builders.
Amylin’s Green Resigns From Board
By: Bradley Fikes — April 10th, 2009Howard “Ted” Greene has resigned from the board of Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Greene resigned effectively immediately after Amylin’s board decided not to include him on the company’s list of directors nominated for election at its 2009 shareholder meeting. Green was on the board’s finance committee.
Amylin disclosed the departure in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. With stock valued at more than $1.3 billion, Amylin is one of the biggest biotech companies in San Diego County.
Dissatisfaction among shareholders has erupted into a proxy fight for control of the company. Carl Icahn, the famous shareholder activist, this week joined a lawsuit against Amylin, The lawsuit seeks to remove a provision discouraging a change in control of the company.
Amylin’s flagship diabetes drug, Byetta, is sold by Amylin in partnership with Indianapolis-based drug giant Eli Lilly & Co. But Byetta sales have been threatened by increasing competition.
In his resignation letter, Greene said he didn’t have confidence in the board chairman, Joseph C. Cook, Jr., and would not vote his shares to re-elect Cook. From now on, Greene, wrote, his role would be that of a “proactive outside shareholder with an important equity position.”
In its filing, Amylin said it “regrets Mr. Greene’s decision to resign as director but appreciates his longtime service to Amylin”.
Temecula-made stents show promise
By: Chris Bagley — April 8th, 2009A rare glimmer of hope for Southwest Riverside County’s job market came Sunday, when Abbott Laboratories reported that patients using its key drug-coated stent, the Xience V, had fewer complications than patients using its main competitor, a stent made by Boston Scientific. The results were reported here by Reuters news agency and analyzed in this post on SeekingAlpha.com.
It’s positive for Riverside County because the largest U.S. factory making Xience V is in Temecula. The company opened two buildings totaling 300,000 square feet last year, joining a longstanding 500,000-square-foot factory just across Ynez Road. The facililities employ about 4,000 people, making Abbott the largest employer in Temecula and the second-largest in Southwest Riverside County.
Stents are tiny mesh wire tubes that keep blood vessels from clogging or collapsing.