A team from Affymetrix Laboratories has been awarded a $10.2m (€7.2m) scale-up grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) as part of the expanded ENcyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) project. The grant is part of a multinational project that involves 16 research centres at a cost of over $80m.
"A comprehensive map and characterisation of both protein-coding and non-coding transcripts for the human genome will be an important and valuable resource for both basic and applied research for the scientific community," said Dr Thomas Gingeras, vice president for biological science at Affymetrix.
"The data from these studies will provide the skeletal framework upon which many other functional elements will be mapped in the overall ENCODE project. The results should provide novel insights into the organization and regulation of the human genome."
AlphaSniffer has received two grant's totalling $300,000 to aid in the continuing development of its Surface Plasmon Resonance common path interferometry (SPR-CPI) -based biosensor .
The US National Institute of Health (NIH) has awarded the company $200,000 through an SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) Phase I grant to develop its compact, label free, sensitive and real-time platform that is capable of multiplex detection of biomarkers and pathogens using glycan microarrays.
In addition, the US National Science Foundation (NSF) has given the company $100,000 to develop the platform for use as a cardiac diagnostic instrument.
"AlphaSniffer is very excited to receive these SBIR Phase I grants from NSF and NIH. They will help to accelerate our development efforts in two important fields, the first for the point of care rapid detection of impending cardiac attack, where we will simultaneously measure troponin and myoglobin. The second is to develop our glycan array technology to enable the early detection of Bird Flu," said Dr Misha Plam, CEO of AlphaSniffer.
"The SBIR program in the US is highly competitive and this recognition of our talented research group makes me very happy".
Corning Incorporated has licensed MultiCell Technologies' Fa2N-4 immortalised adult human liver cell lines to develop drug discovery and ADME/Tox (absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and toxicology) assay tools.
Corning has paid an undisclosed fee for the worldwide exclusive rights to the cell line and has agreed to purchase certain related inventory and equipment as well as hiring certain scientific personnel.
The deal will not affect any of MultiCells current licensees that include Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Eisai.
In addition, the company will retain the rights to use the cell line to further develop its Sybiol liver assist device, produce therapeutic proteins and identify drug targets.
"We are pleased to partner with Corning in the drug discovery assay tools, ADME/Tox and biomarker segments," said Jerry Newmin, MultiCell's chairman of the board.
"MultiCell's focus is on using our therapeutic antibody and Toll-like receptor technologies to develop new drug candidates, and to advance our lead drug candidate, MCT-125, for the treatment of primary MS-related fatigue."
DNAPrint Genomics and Bioserve have formed a strategic alliance to provide biomedical reseachers with clinical DNA samples that include genetic ancestry data for each sample.
According to the companies, this added dimension of ancestry information will enable researchers to determine whether certain biological markers are artefacts of genetic ancestry or are true markers for a disease or drug response in a disease.
"Our relationship with BioServe is highly synergistic. Both companies believe that any epidemiological program will be more productive with access to high quality validated clinical samples that have been effectively categorised across a validated genetic ancestry platform," said Richard Gabriel, CEO of DNAPrint Genomics.
"By removing the question of ancestry from a clinical sample, researchers can more readily evaluate which medicines will produce side effects within certain ethnic groups, and which medicines will work for the widest spectrum of a population."
Illumina has announced a multi-million dollar agreement with the University of Virginia and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) to process more than 6,500 samples for researchers in the Type I Diabetes Genetics Consortium (T1DGC).
"Illumina's technology meets the University of Virginia's needs in terms of data quality, call rates, and genomic coverage, and we think that provides us with the most potential for discovering variants linked to complex disease, like Type II diabetes," said Dr Stephen Rich, Director, Center for Public Health Genomics at the University of Virginia.
"The ultimate goal of this project is gene identification. Once these genes have been identified, researchers can then use this information to develop better approaches to detecting, treating, and preventing the disease."
Rules-Based Medicine (RBM), which recently acquired Experimentelle and Diagnostische Immunologie (EDI) , has received $25m in private financing as well as winning an SBIR award of $1.1m from the National Cancer Institute.
The private financing will provide growth capital, debt repayment, and funding for acquisitions and investments to discover and validate biomarkers for medical diagnostics.
The SBIR grant will fund the development of 50 new quantitative, multiplexed immunassays for cancer-related proteins that will be added to its Human Multi-Analyte Profile (HumanMAP) platform.
"Detecting cancer at the earliest stage when therapeutic intervention is most effective is the ultimate objective of this collaboration with NCI," said T. Craig Benson, CEO of RBM.
"To accurately measure cancer-related proteins in a reliable and cost-effective way is vital to NCI's research initiatives. We are pleased and honoured to have been selected as NCI's partner in this important project for advancing cancer research."
