Students interested in assisting professors and researchers with biomedical research at the Collaborative Research Center will now have a greater opportunity to do so. Over the next ten years, the CRC will receive $3 million from the John S. Dunn Research Foundation. The money will be used to fund grants for medical research done by Rice researchers working in collaboration with other institutions, Charles Hall, president of the John S. Dunn Research Foundation, said. Although this money will not go directly to students, Provost Eugene Levy said the grant money would benefit students by giving them the opportunity to participate in more research projects.

Hall said the money would be used to fund seed grants for open-ended projects, allowing researchers to have as much free rein as possible in biological research.

The CRC, which began construction in 2006 and is expected to be completed in 2009, is designed to enhance biosciences and biotechnology research collaboration between Rice and Texas Medical Center. TMC institutions contributing to the CRC include Baylor College of Medicine, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, the Methodist Hospital Research Institute, Texas Children's Hospital and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

The John S. Dunn Foundation will donate $300,000 each year to the CRC. This annual fund will be divided into six to ten grants for research primarily focused on biomedical sciences and technology, Levy said. Faculty members and researchers will be able to apply for a grant each year, and the specific number and size of the grants will be determined by a selection committee.
Hall said the John S. Dunn Research Foundation chose to donate to the CRC because it supports collaborative rather than competitive efforts among research institutions.

Marchesini to Open Doors at new Siena Plant

The new 6,000 square metre site, which will be run by Marchesini’s local Corima subsidiary, will produce machines for the pharmaceutical sterile and liquids sectors, including both stand-alone and complete-line technologies.

A main focus of the plant will be on machines for sterile injectables production and those for associated safety devices.

The Siena plant, which doubles Corima’s manufacturing workforce, will produce a variety of platforms ranging from filling machines and sterilising tunnels to ampoule, vial and syringe labelling units.

The demand for sterile manufacturing capacity in the pharmaceutical industry is set to continue increasing and added that this will become a major part of the firm’s business over the next few years.

Acquires Labelling Specialist Neri

In related news, Marchesini has acquired labelling specialist Neri. The new purchase, which is headquartered in Barberingo del Mugello, produces a wide range of machines for the application of self-adhesive labels.

Van Andel Institute in Grand Rapids, Mich., Tops Off $170 Million Phase II Expansion

Van Andel Institute in Grand Rapids, Mich., marked the installation of the final beam in its $170 million, 240,000 Phase II building expansion.

The facility, set to open in late 2009, will more than double the institute’s lab space, and create capacity for another 500 biotech jobs. The expansion will also allow VAI to broaden its research focus from cancer to include neurological disorders, specifically through a new lab dedicated to Parkinson disease research.

Phase II, designed by architect Rafael Viñoly, completes the physical facility first planned in 1996. Though approved for a $20.5 million grant from California’s stem-cell agency to start building a new 65,708-square-foot facility, a private research institution in the state is blaming the troubled US credit markets for its failure to raise the balance of capital it needs to develop the $41 million project.

Funding for Projects at Buck Institute and Stanford University; USC; and UC’s San Francisco, Los Angeles, Davis, and Irvine Campuses

The Buck Institute for Age Research in Novato, Calif., emerged last week as the first of the 12 major facility grant recipients named in May by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to disclose difficulty in financing its project.

On the other end of the spectrum, six California schools among the 12 CIRM grant recipients have begun constructing their facilities, while another three said they plan to do so by next spring.

CIRM announced on May 7 that it would dole out $271 million to help 12 institutions build out their labs, a move that reflects up to half the cost of the 800,000 square feet of stem-cell facility projects.

In return for the money, the 12 agreed to speed their construction schedules to ensure their facilities would open within two years with researchers and equipment in place.

CIRM spokesman Don Gibbons told BRN on Oct. 3 it was too early for CIRM and its 29-member Independent Citizens Oversight Commission to assess whether the two-year deadline should be extended because of the credit squeeze.

In June, Buck Institute President and COO James Kovach told BRN that the institute planned to break ground on the four-story building in September and complete it in July 2010. The project would be an addition to Buck’s existing 185,000-square-foot research facility.

In Buck’s application for grant funding from CIRM, the institute assured the stem cell agency it could complete the project within two years: “The proposed project will be completed within two years of notice of grant award with beneficial occupancy of one floor of the proposed project within 20 months of issuance of a notice of grant award.

“The proposed facility is part of an approved and entitled master plan. The construction of the project can begin as soon as the local jurisdictions can complete plan checking and issue permits for construction,” Buck added.

In its application, Buck sought a grant of $25 million, saying an award that high “is likely to be a catalyst for development of” the final two buildings in its master plan, both of 60,000 square feet. That, in turn, would bring on-site enough researchers and others to justify construction of 128 units of affordable housing also planned by the institute, it told CIRM.

The institute still hopes to build the stem-cell facility, which is designed to house up to 25 faculty members, including 12 new principal investigators, along with a cell banking facility, a cafeteria, and fitness center. When completed, the building will rise on the institute’s Novato, Calif., campus and be Buck’s second research facility. Buck’s project is the only one of the dozen CIRM-funded facilities not being developed by an academic institution.

As of Oct. 6, three California academic centers have either begun building or are in the pre-construction phase of their own stem-cell facilities: Stanford University; USC; and UC’s San Francisco, Los Angeles, Davis, and Irvine campuses.

UC Irvine became the latest school to start work on a stem-cell facility when it launched its effort Oct. 6 to build its $66.6 million Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center.

At 100,636 square feet, the new facility will be 10 times the size of the 10,000-square-foot current core stem-cell laboratory, at UC Irvine. UC Irvine plans to break ground on the facility Oct. 24.

UC Irvine also demonstrates one complication for the schools as they translate their stem-cell facility plans into bricks and mortar: rapid escalation of construction costs. Since CIRM approved its grants in May, the agency and UCI have seen those costs grow about 10 percent over the $60.5 million projection the school furnished to the stem-cell agency.

New Life for Older Building at UC Davis

At the Health System campus of UC Davis in Sacramento, a Sept. 26 groundbreaking ceremony was held for its $62 million, 92,000-square-foot UC Davis Institute for Regenerative Cures.

The new facility will occupy most of a 109,000-square-foot building dating back more than a half-century to when the health system campus was the site of the California State Fairgrounds. When the fairgrounds moved out in the late 1960s, and UC Davis took over the 140-acre site, the school used the building as a bulk-mailing site and a warehouse before renovating 17,000 square feet for its Clinical and Translational Science Center, which opened in 2006 through a $24.8 million NIH clinical and translational science award.

The new stem-cell facility would occupy the remainder of the old fairgrounds building.

The facility will benefit UC Davis by allowing it to consolidate separate locations now in use by the more than 100 scientists and researchers who now carry out stem cell research at the school’s Davis and Sacramento campuses.

Another highlight of the stem-cell building will be a 5,500-square-foot good manufacturing practice facility, as well as numerous labs, conference rooms, and support spaces.

UC Davis received $20.1 million from California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). The school also committed itself in return to raising $41.7 million on its own and through donors.

UC San Francisco Opens Lab

UC San Francisco broke ground in early September on its $119 million, 74,832-square-foot facility, to be located on the school’s Parnassus campus. The building will consist of four split-level floors with terraced grass roofs and solar orientation, with open labs that flow into each other, and office/interaction areas on the pedestrian circulation routes between the labs.

UCSF expects to move into the new building, designed by New York architect Rafael Viñoly, by the end of October or early November 2010.

Plans to grow its stem cell research corps to 25 researchers by the time the building opens in 2010, and between five and eight additional principal investigators once the building opens.

UCSF won $34.9 million from CIRM and agreed to raise another $59.7 million from institutional and donor funds. The school’s fundraising effort for the building was jumpstarted in 2006, when Ray and Dagmar Dolby donated $16 million.

USC Breaks Ground on New Center and UCLA Plans Expansion

USC on Sept. 3 broke ground on its $80 million Eli and Edythe Broad CIRM Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research. The building is named for the husband-and-wife benefactors who established a Los Angeles-based national philanthropy focused on advancing entrepreneurship for the public good in education, science, and the arts. The Broads donated $25 million toward the project in 2006.

The 80,000-square-foot center is one of three anchors envisioned in a “research triangle” within the Health Sciences campus, along with the Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute and the Harlyne J. Norris Cancer Research Tower.

USC received $26.97 million from CIRM toward the facility. In return for the CIRM grant, USC committed itself to raising $55.6 million in institutional and donor funds.

USC was the first of three stem-cell facilities partially funded by the Broads. At UCLA, construction is nearly half-completed on the $42.8 million, 21,000-square-foot UCLA CIRM Institute, under the direction and management of UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center Director Owen Witte. UCLA received $20 million last year from the Broads — most of the $22.8 million it had agreed to raise on its own — as well as a $19.9 million CIRM grant toward construction.

UCLA said it plans to double its stem cell faculty to 12 members by the time the facility opens. The facility will feature 15 stem-cell laboratories and access to six core facilities including advanced mouse genetics and microfluidics.

They are now 40-percent complete. Occupancy will occur May 2010.

Stanford Institutes of Medicine Breaks Ground for new Facility

Close to breaking ground is Stanford, which has begun excavating the site of its planned $200 million, 130,000-square-foot stem-cell building on the south side of the university’s medical school. The work is in advance of a grand opening planned for Oct. 27.

The four-story stem-cell building, to be called Stanford Institutes of Medicine 1, will include a microfluidics facility, allowing researchers to narrow their analysis to a few hundred cells, rather than the millions typically needed.

Stanford’s new building is designed to house, under one roof, some 25 faculty members working with adult, embryonic, cancer and reprogrammed stem cells. The faculty members — 12 of them current, the rest to arrive by the time the facility opens — are now scattered between several on-campus buildings and an off-campus satellite lab.

Also in the new facility will be about 60 benches reserved for collaborating scientists from Stanford or neighboring institutions. Those visiting scholars will be mentored by two faculty members, a basic scientist and a clinical researcher. The building is being constructed using a $43.58 million grant the university’s School of Medicine received from CIRM — the largest of its 12 stem-cell facility grants.

Stanford has also promised to raise $156.4 million of the project cost through donor donations and institutional funds. On Oct. 6, Stanford announced a $75 million donation toward the facility from Lorry Lokey.

Stanford is one of three schools planning to hold formal groundbreaking ceremonies for new stem-cell facilities.

Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine Breaks Ground

San Diego’s newly-renamed Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine plans to break ground early next year on a new $115.2 million, 23,740-square-foot stem cell research venue.

They hope to begin construction during the first quarter of 2009. Completion is set for the summer of 2010.

Lab space in the new four-story facility will accommodate 300 scientists, but won’t be large enough to accommodate all stem cell research in the consortium’s four component institutions. In addition, the institutions have some equipment too large to be moved safely into the new building.

“This is really going to be the hub for the four institutions, but there still will be the spokes of the four,” consortium spokesman Ian Stone said. “The scientists who do occupy the new building can then go and work in colleagues’ labs at any of the four institutions. And those colleagues could come to work at the consortium itself.”

Created in 2005, the consortium combines UC San Diego in a research effort with three institutions — the Burnham Institute for Medical Research, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, and the Scripps Research Institute. The consortium received $43 million from CIRM, and agreed to raise another $72.2 million in institutional and donor funds.

The San Diego consortium took a key step toward raising the latter funding on Sept. 16, when it accepted a $30 million donation from Sioux Falls, SD, philanthropist T. Denny Sanford — $10 million up front, then $2 million over each of the next 10 years. In return for accepting the money, the consortium agreed to rename itself.

The project’s price tag include the $15 million cost of land to be leased back from UCSD under a long-term lease.

UC Merced Plans New Stem Cell Building

Also planning to break ground on a stem cell building in January is UC Merced, which plans to construct a $7.5 million, 5,420-square-foot Stem Cell Instrumentation Foundry focused on the development of stem cell technologies at the university's outpost on the former Castle Air Force Base.

There are currently eight faculty members planning to use the facility, and that number will grow to about 20.

UC Merced was awarded $4.36 million from CIRM, and will raise another $3.1 million on its own for the facility; Shaw could not say how much has been raised to date. It will include two clean rooms, specialized spaces for cell imaging and culture work, and support and office space.

UC Santa Barbara Planning Biological Science Renovations

UC Santa Barbara is in the planning process for its $6.35 million renovation of 10,337 square feet on parts of three floors in the seven-story Biological Sciences 2 building. The project received $3.2 million from CIRM.

“Currently we have about 25 faculty that are engaged in stem cell projects, with 1-2 individuals per lab. Renovation will create space for 3 new Endowed Chair positions, with capacity for 50 new stem cell researchers at the bench,” said Dennis Clegg, professor and chair of the school’s Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology.

“We are adhering to the original proposed schedule, which calls for construction to begin next spring,” Clegg added. “We have raised over $3 million in support of the Stem Cell Center, but this is not earmarked for construction. Additional fundraising is underway that will include the construction project.”

CIRM has also awarded $7.2 million toward the $12.9 million facility to be built on the fourth floor of a planned Biomedical Sciences Building at UC Santa Cruz; and $20.18 million to UC Berkeley, toward the $78 million construction of two floors of stem cell research labs and shared equipment in the planned Li Ka Shing Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences. The Berkeley Building, slated for completion in 2010, has benefited from a $40 million lead gift from Hong Kong philanthropist and entrepreneur Li Ka-Shing.

Sanal Salt Granted GMP Certification

AkzoNobel has been awarded a good manufacturing practice (GMP) certificate for Sanal (sodium chloride) salt manufactured at its plant in Mariager, Denmark.

Sanal is the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) in parenteral and peritoneal solutions and is also a base material for haemodialysis, haemodiafiltration and haemofiltration.

The certification from the European Union follows the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of the site in March 2006.

The Mariager facility is dedicated to the production of Sanal, with two quality grades produced on site. Sanal P NaCl pharmaceutical quality is manufactured for use in drug production and is free from bacterial endotoxins and is compliant with GMP-ICH Q7A.

Both of these traits are also applicable to the other quality grade, Sanal SQ, which also meets the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) requirements for highly pure fine chemicals.

Sanal SQ has a NaCl content of over 99.99 per cent as opposed to 99.96 per cent for the pharmaceutical grade. Both quality grades are available in 25kg bags and a 1000kg Euro pallet sizes, with Sanal P also available loose in silo trucks.

Akzo Nobel Salt is the only company manufacturing salt in Scandinavia, with its Mariager plant producing 600,000 tonnes of salt a year for use by consumers, industry and on roads. The company has a workforce of 68,000 based in more than 80 countries.

In addition to sodium chloride the company produces a range of organometallic reagents, peroxides and initiators with applications in the synthesis of pharmaceuticals.

These are produced at facilities across the Americas, Asia and Europe and are available to customers in quantities ranging from grams to tonnes.

Community College of PA Goes Green Doing Expansions

Community College of Philadelphia broke ground on a $31 million expansion and redesign of its Northeast Regional Center, 12901 Townsend Rd., at 3:30 p.m., Friday, Oct. 3. The multifaceted project is expected to create the first nationally certified, "green" college facility in Philadelphia.

Using cutting-edge, eco-friendly technology and construction methods, the College plans to build a new 58,000-square-foot, three-story building, which will be adjacent to the College's existing 60,000-square-foot Northeast Regional Center. Work on the NERC is expected to be completed in 2010.

The NERC expansion and redesign is the first of two major construction projects the College will launch this fall. The second is a $56 million redevelopment of the College's Main Campus. This project will include a new Pavilion Building and substantial renovation of portions of the College's Mint, Bonnell and West buildings. Work on the Main Campus construction project is scheduled to start in November and be completed in 2011.

All of the new buildings and renovations are designed to enhance the educational experience for the College's 34,000 students.

Both NERC and Main Campus projects will include cutting-edge, green features and are expected to qualify for a silver rating under the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards set by the U.S. Green Building Council for new construction. They are expected to become the first LEED-certified, higher education facilities in the city.

The NERC addition will provide state-of-the-art classrooms and technology that will enhance learning opportunities for students. The additional space will nearly double the NERC potential enrollment capacity to 2,850 full-time students.

Several new programs will be offered at the NERC, including Emergency Medical Technology, Computer Forensics, Health Services Management, Biotechnology: Bioprocessing, and business and industry training.

A key component of the NERC expansion and redesign is a geothermal, heating and cooling system made possible by a $1.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration. The grant also will help support a new Institute for Biotechnology and Advanced Manufacturing, which will offer certificates in bioprocessing (fermentation) and process technology (process control/petrochemical) at both the College's NERC and Main campuses that can lead to an Associate's degree in Applied Science and Engineering Technology. The Institute will also offer skill upgrading for incumbent workers.

A recent report by The Milken Institute -- a publicly supported, nonpartisan, independent think tank -- documented that Philadelphia is among the elite centers of the country for growth and potential in the Life Sciences.

The NERC addition will have a "green roof," and its geothermal heating and cooling system will utilize the difference between the underground and surface temperatures to regulate building temperature. The savings on utilities means the geothermal system will pay for itself in about six years. The building also is designed to harvest the maximum amount of daylight possible, to reduce the need to use lights.

A storm water management system will collect rain water runoff from the green roof and from nearby residential homes for use in flushing systems in the NERC, reducing water consumption and managing storm water runoff from the campus and neighboring residences.

At the College's Main Campus, the new Pavilion Building will include some of the same sustainable features, but will not have a geothermal system. Instead, the building will rely on a high-performance exterior skin to reduce energy use. It also will be fitted with recycled carpeting and linoleum, have a green roof and use daylight harvesting to maximize natural light in learning areas.

The decision to build to LEED standards is expected to place the College at the top of the class among the city's higher education institutions in addressing environmental issues that contribute to global warming.

Combined the two projects will cost a total of approximately $87 million-about half of which will come from the state. The remainder will come from College financing and proceeds from the Community College of Philadelphia Foundation's first capital fundraising campaign.

Community College of Philadelphia enrolls approximately 34,000 students annually at its Main Campus, three Regional Centers and various locations throughout Philadelphia. The College offers day, evening and weekend classes, as well as classes on the Internet.

University of Limerick Uses Nanotechnology in Textiles to Fight Global MRSA Bug

A novel approach of deploying nanotechnology in textiles to reduce MRSA infection rates in hospitals has resulted in an Irish university team winning funding of €5m to carry out the necessary R&D. The University of Limerick (UL) team has partnered with nine other European agencies, as well as National University of Ireland Galway and Irish companies BeoCare and Cook Medical. A significant element of the MRSA problem arises from the use of conventional textiles such as hospital gowns, curtains, beddings and pillow covers. As a result, hospital sterility has been a major concern in countries such as Ireland, Germany and Belgium. They intend to develop nanotechnology-derived textiles that will help hospitals in their fight against MRSA.

Bayer to Build a Bioprocessing’s Facility in Kentucky for Plant-Made Biopharmaceuticals

Bayer Innovation and Kentucky Bioprocessing (KPB) are collaborating to develop a facility at KBP's Owensboro, Kentucky plant. Based on Bayer's magnICON^® technology, the site will produce plant-made pharmaceutical proteins and other products on commercial scale. Construction is scheduled to begin next month. Completion and initial testing of the facilities is planned for spring of 2009.

Under terms of the agreement, KBP will adapt its existing cGMP-compliant facility by installing an automated system for high-throughput transfection of tobacco host plants. The agreement makes KBP the preferred production partner for the application of magnICON, which produces proteins in tobacco plants.

Bayer has internal product development projects based on the magnICON platform, for example, a vaccine for the therapy of non-Hodgkin-lymphoma. Bayer is also in the process of licensing out magnICON to other parties.

Tris Pharma Finishes Expansion

Tris Pharma, a privately-owned, specialty pharmaceutical company, recently announced that the expansion to its state-of-the-art research and manufacturing facility in South Brunswick is complete. This capacity-building initiative is a significant milestone for the company, marking its continued growth and success as a partner and provider of innovative drug delivery technologies.

The expansion provides approximately 15,000 square feet of additional space to the company's premises and current FDA-compliant cGMP facility. It allows for additional commercial-scale equipment and a new, larger warehouse that frees up space for a high-speed packaging area. This continued growth showcases Tris Pharma's momentum, and follows the company's successful clearance of its first FDA pre-approval inspection, which it passed without any deficiencies or 483s. Tris Pharma's recent enhancements mean that now we can provide even more services to the pharmaceutical industry.

Dynavax Technologies Gets NIH Contract

Dynavax Technologies Corporation has been awarded a $17 million contract to develop its advanced immunostimulatory sequences (ISS) technology using Toll-Like Receptor 9 (TLR9) agonists as vaccine adjuvants.

This five-year contract was awarded by the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to develop novel vaccine adjuvant candidates that signal through receptors of the innate immune system. The contract supports adjuvant development for anthrax as well as other disease models. NIAID is funding 100% of the total $17 million cost of Dynavax’s program under Contract

No. HHSN272200800038C.

UMass Lowell Opens New BioManufacturing Pilot Plant

UMas Lowell has opened a fully automated Biomanufacturing Pilot Plant, made possible through equipment and services donated to the University by three main corporate partners: Invensys Process Systems (IPS), Wyeth Biotech, and Dakota Systems. Equipment to be donated by Millipore will be used in an adjoining lab that works in tandem with the pilot plant. Together, the four companies' contributions are worth $600,000.

The new pilot plant and lab will help Massachusetts biomanufacturing companies bring new biopharmaceuticals closer to commercial production.

IPS, a global technology, software and consulting firm, has installed its InFusion Enterprise Control System on a bioreactor donated by Wyeth. Dakota Systems and 12 of its suppliers donated a wide range of services, including fabricating the frame, integrating the control panel, orbital welding all of the piping, installing all electrical devices and instrumentation and completing cGMP functionality testing. The automation element of the plant is exciting, according to Prof. Carl Lawton, director of the Massachusetts BioManufacturing Center at UMass Lowell.

Biotechnology companies that use this plant, and students who train there, will learn about process automation and optimization using the latest technology.

The Massachusetts BioManufacturing Center at UMass Lowell is an interdisciplinary research, development and education center that assists biotechnology companies in developing procedures leading to industry compliant manufacturing processes. Through education, applied research and process development, the center offers solutions that improve productivity, quality and cost of biomanufacturing operations.

Millipore Corporation, a Billerica-based life science company which provides technologies, tools and services for bioscience research and biopharmaceutical manufacturing, will donate up to $200,000 in equipment and services to the adjacent process development lab. The Millipore Corporation Process Development Laboratory will be used for downstream purification and training for students and industrial professionals.

Roche Expands in Penzberg, Germany

Roche announced that it is investing 215 million Swiss francs ($191.7 million) in expanding its research, development, and production operations in Germany for its Applied Science and Professional Diagnostics businesses.

The money will be used to construct a multi-purpose building for Roche Diagnostics in Penzberg, near Munich, the firm said. From around mid-2010, the complex is expected to manufacture products ranging from biotech constituents for immunodiagnostics and life sciences research through complete immunodiagnostic test kits, which are used worldwide on Roche’s Cobas and Elecsys instruments.

Sigma-Aldridge Expands Plant in Jerusalem

Sigma-Aldridge's expansion of its high-potency active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) plant in Jerusalem, Israel, is quite extensive. The company is adding a 50,000-square-foot fermentation production area for both bacterial and fungal fermentation of APIs. A 30,000-square-foot Biosafety Level 2 (BSL-2) laboratory will also be added. BSL-2 labs generally study agents that cannot easily be transmitted by inhalation and are generally transmitted by ingestion or through contact with blood or mucus membranes. Ludan Engineering Company Limited (Beer Sheva, Israel) is the engineering firm for the project. Construction is scheduled to be completed in the first quarter of 2009.

North Carolina Biotechnology Center Awards $347K to Raleigh, Charlotte Firms

The state-funded North Carolina Biotechnology Center has approved a combined $347,000 in loans to four state-based life-sci firms — Raleigh-based Arbovax and NanoVector, and Charlotte-based Countervail Corporation and EntoGenetics.

Arbovax won a Small Business Research Loan for $150,000 to help the company tweak a dengue fever virus it plans to use in developing a vaccine for the deadly disease. The company is seeking to produce a mutant virus incapable of reproducing in a mammalian cell while still producing a robust immune response to protect those who get the vaccine.

NanoVector received a $147,000 Small Business Research Loan to continue development of its nanovirus, developed by North Carolina State University scientists to fight cancer.

Countervail received a $25,000 Business Development Loan to help the firm commercialize a drug for use as an antidote for military nerve gas and pesticide poisoning. The company plans to use the funding to help it prepare a submission to the US Food and Drug Administration for clinical trial approval.

EntoGenetics won a $25,000 Business Development Loan to finalize patents and develop a faster process to produce spider silk for industrial and medical uses.

The awards add to the more than $16 million awarded by the center to more than 100 North Carolina biotechnology companies since 1989.

Pennsylvania’s Alleghany County OKs $500K Bridge Loan for Biotech Firm

Stemnion, a biotechnology firm that is developing a product to help heal burns and scars, has been approved for a bridge loan of up to $500,000 by the Redevelopment Authority of Allegheny County, Pa.

Stemnion will use the funding to begin clinical tests in January. While Stemnion was awarded a grant from the US Department of Defense in January to perform the tests on about 100 human volunteers, the money has not arrived, hence the need for the bridge loan.

Tests now are being conducted on animals, and instead of conducting an initial test phase on about 10 humans, the government wants them to test a higher number starting in January.

Stemnion also needed the loan to hire new personnel and to relocate from a 2,500-square-foot office in the LifeScience Building at Pittsburgh Technology Park in South Oakland, into larger quarters at the Tech Park or elsewhere. The company has opened a clean lab at RiverPark Commons, on the South Side, and expects to double its work force to 24.

Stemnion, formerly Kytaron Technologies, was formed in 2004 by University of Pittsburgh scientists to develop biomedical cell therapies. About half of the company is owned by Lancet Capital, which includes the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, Highmark and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Kansas Bioscience Authority Commits $52 Million to Labs and Biotech Companies

The Kansas Bioscience Authority has committed $52 million to research laboratories and biotechnology companies statewide during the coming year.

Some of the $52 million will maintain existing programs, such as an initiative to recruit more leading scientists to the state. Some funds will create new programs to assist entrepreneurs or boost cancer research. The authority also aims to invest in early-stage companies, and take steps toward creating Heartland BioVentures, a new venture capital fund in the Kansas City region.

Last year, the authority made $29 million in spending commitments, part of an overall $67.6 million in approved spending since it began operating. State leaders created the authority in 2004 with the passage of the Kansas Economic Growth Act. The initiative is expected eventually to generate more than $580 million for the state.

The authority devotes most of its attention, and thus funds, to animal health, drug discovery and delivery, biomaterials, bioenergy and plant biology — life science segments where the state has already developed clusters of companies and academic researchers.

Among likely beneficiaries of this year’s spending:

The Kansas Bioscience Centers of Innovation, which will receive $15 million toward commercializing technologies developed in academic institutions.
Kansas universities, which will be able to seek up to $6.75 million toward packages to recruit scientists.
The University of Kansas Cancer Center, which will receive $5 million toward its effort to win federal designation as a hub for cancer research and care. The alliance will work with the Midwest Cancer Alliance to step up collaborations and research into the disease.
Early-stage companies, and an effort to create an investment fund with a “high” commitment to investing in Kansas businesses, both of which will be funded through a $4 million share of this year’s spending.

The authority has also set three goals for the year 2019:

Increase annual federal bioscience research and development investments to $650 million, compared with $219 million in the 2006 fiscal year.
Increase annual private venture capital investment to $200 million, compared with $61.6 million in 2007.
Increase bioscience companies from to 1,500 from the 981 recorded in 2004; and employment in the field to 23,000, from 14,889 as of 2004.

Purdue Dedicates Biomedical Building

Purdue University formally dedicated the home of its biomedical engineering program as the Martin C. Jischke Hall of Biomedical Engineering on Sept. 30. The celebration also marked the 10th anniversary of the biomedical engineering program at Purdue.

The $25 million facility – the first of its kind in Indiana – opened in the fall of 2006 and enabled Purdue to expand its then department of biomedical engineering into a full-fledged school. In so doing, Purdue created an undergraduate program in biomedical engineering that graduated its inaugural class last year.

A biomedical engineering program officially began at Purdue in 1998 with the formation of a department that built on a legacy that began in 1974 when the Hillenbrand Biomedical Engineering Center was formed by Leslie Geddes, Showalter Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Biomedical Engineering and recent recipient of the National Medal of Technology.

The Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering is now the fastest growing academic unit at Purdue.

Since 2000 the program has expanded from four to 20 core faculty, 23 to 107 graduate students and zero to 168 undergrads.

The accomplishments include the creation of the Purdue Imaging Center in partnership with GE Healthcare and Innervision West; the development of a graduate concentration in biomedical entrepreneurship, supported by the Guidant and C.R. Bard foundations; the establishment of a nanomedicine alliance with the Korean Institute of Science and Technology; and the formation of a collaborative graduate education program with the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez.

Biomedical engineering recently was recognized by U.S. News and World Report as a top-20 graduate program in the nation.

The 91,000-square-foot building houses specialized laboratories and integrated educational facilities. Many projects in the labs involve partnerships with Indiana medical device and biotechnology companies that manufacture orthopedic, cardiovascular and tissue engineering technologies.

Indiana has grown into a globally recognized center for medical devices, including orthopedic and vascular implants, as well as clinical diagnostics, and the industry needs a steady supply of highly skilled and innovative employees.

Purdue worked with architects to create a facility geared specifically for biomedical engineering and incorporate advanced features to enhance teaching and research.

Optics laboratories in the building's basement level are constructed on individual concrete slabs to improve the accuracy of instruments making measurements on the scale of nanometers, or billionths of a meter. The slabs isolate the instruments from vibrations that could affect measurements. In another lab, multiple chemical hoods are separated in alcoves to prevent possible cross-contamination.

The Indianapolis office of BSA LifeStructures Inc., an architecture and engineering firm, designed the building, with Maregatti Interiors providing interior design. The facility's wings extend from a central area - a three-story space that promotes interactions among students, staff and faculty.

One example of adaptability is the "flex lab" for engineering design courses, which uses a "dance floor" approach that easily allows benches and other mobile equipment to be quickly changed for the varied aspects of prototype design and testing.

The building was funded with $13 million from the state, $5 million from the Whitaker Foundation and $7 million from alumni and other private donors. The state also provided $7.5 million for 2003-05 to launch the new undergraduate program and expand the graduate program.

Biomedical engineering researchers have made discoveries that have resulted in more than 100 U.S. patents, the majority of which have been licensed to Indiana companies, and bringing in royalties that exceed those from all other Purdue royalty sources combined.

The work has included research to develop:

Commercially successful, energy efficient cardiac defibrillators.
Synthetic and natural "biomaterials" used in surgery to repair and regenerate diseased or damaged tissues, such as bladders, blood vessels, ligaments, skin and eyes.
Modeling and experimental techniques to design, evaluate and improve artificial joints.
New devices that monitor the vital signs of premature babies.
Materials used to create controlled-release pills and implantable devices designed to automatically deliver therapeutic drugs to the body.
New imaging techniques to detect and help treat cancer.
Systems that monitor subtle seismic waves traveling through bones to detect and prevent fractures and injuries in humans and animals.
Therapies for spinal cord damage that encourage the body to self-heal.

The Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering is the first named school in the history of Purdue engineering. It is named in recognition of a critical $10 million gift from the Weldon family of Evergreen, Colo., and Atlanta, and their longstanding association with biomedical engineering at Purdue.

NYSTAR Awards $3 Million to Establish High Performance Computation Consortium

The New York State Foundation for Science, Technology and Innovation (NYSTAR) has awarded a $3 million, three-year grant from its Center for Advanced Technology Development Program to establish the High Performance Computation Consortium, or HPC2, that the agency has discussed for more than a year.

The consortium consists of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Stony Brook University, the University at Buffalo, and the New York State Education and Research Network, or NYSERNet. Other institutions that will be working with the consortium include Cornell University, Columbia University, New York University, the University at Rochester, the Rochester Institute of Technology, the City University of New York, with other research institutions statewide expected to join as they undertake research based on high-performance computing.

The consortium will make available scientists and engineers to assist users of supercomputers at participating institutions, and guide the users in HPC. The grant will allow computational scientists based in one of three centers to be deployed to any location in the state to assist business and academic users needing HPC for projects involving NYSTAR’s Centers for Advanced Technology — one of which focuses on biotechnology.

Computational scientists deployed by HPC2 will help support existing software applications to run effectively on consortium computers, as well assist in developing new algorithms to facilitate the ability of the centers to use simulation-based engineering and science in their research. In addition, HPC2 will develop, maintain, and host a knowledgebase for HPC/SBES, which will contain application software, project specific information, tutorials and other training materials.

HPC2 will also provide on-site workshops and training for CAT researchers.

Southwest Michigan Life Science Venture Fund Seeks to Raise another $50 Million

The Southwest Michigan Life Science Venture Fund has begun work within the past month to raise a second $50 million.

Founded by local investors who pooled $50 million, the venture fund provides capital for life sciences companies based in southwest Michigan or willing to move to the region. The fund has yet to record an exit, though its investors are seeking long-term gains from companies that grow in the Kalamazoo area following a series of cutbacks at the region’s longtime life-sci employer, Pfizer.

The new round of fund raising for the venture fund began around the same time work started to expand the business incubator Southwest Michigan Innovation Center. The $3.4 million expansion will add 11,000 square feet to the 58,000-square-foot facility, located in Western Michigan University's Business Technology and Research Park, as well as reconfigure another 6,000 square feet of existing space.

Since it opened in July 2003, the Innovation Center has attracted 21 startup companies, nine of which have graduated to their own facilities.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute Wins $1M in Grants for Center for Neuroprosthetics

Researchers at Worcester (Mass.) Polytechnic Institute will receive $1 million in federal and state grants toward their development of new, permanent artificial limbs that could perform most of the movements and functions of natural limbs.

Most of the funding comes through a two-year, $860,000 grant awarded to WPI’s Bioengineering Institute by the US Army's Military Amputee Research Program of the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center. In addition, WPI will receive a $150,000 grant from the John Adams Innovation Institute, the economic development division of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, to undertake market evaluation, strategic planning, and business development activities supporting the growth of the center, and to help stage a national neuroprosthetics conference at WPI in 2009.

The TARTC grant, funded through appropriations supported by Massachusetts US senators Edward Kennedy (D) and John Kerry (D), as well as US Rep. James McGovern (D-Worcester), will cover three areas of prosthetics research at WPI: Control signal processing, nervous system integration, and the tissue-interface between device and body.

Marshall Institute for Interdisciplinary Research Receives First ‘Bucks for Brains’ Gift

Allied Realty, a third-generation family owned real estate business in Huntington, WV, has made the first donation — a $100,000 gift — to the Marshall Institute for Interdisciplinary Research.

The gift is the first Marshall has received for the institute since the state Legislature passed, and Gov. Joe Manchin signed into law, the West Virginia Research Trust Fund Program, commonly called either “Bucks for Brains” or “Bucks for Jobs,” earlier this year. The program allocates $15 million to Marshall and $35 million to West Virginia University, to be matched by contributions from each institution

Principal funds in each endowment would not be touched, but the interest income from each would fund research grants in biotechnology, biometrics, and other high-tech fields. The program’s goal is for the universities to commercialize new technologies developed in their laboratories.

Sequenom Wins $20 Million Economic Package on Promise of Creating 523 Jobs by 2013 in Grand Rapids, MI

San Diego-based Sequenom has chosen Grand Rapids, Mich., as the site of a new $20.25 million research site for its prenatal diagnostic testing technology that the company has promised will create 523 new jobs by 2013.

The company will buy existing lab space, with plans to expand in Grand Rapids by constructing its own labs, the Michigan Economic Development Corp. said in announcing the expansion.

Sequenom is a genetics and molecular diagnostic company providing genetic analysis products and services as well as diagnostic tests addressing prenatal genetic disorders, oncology, and infectious diseases.

In return for its promise of job creation, the company was awarded a $20 million, 12-year package of tax incentives by the Michigan Economic Development Corp.; the city of Grand Rapids; and the Right Place, a nonprofit economic development group serving the greater Grand Rapids region. An MEDC analysis concluded the project would also generate 618 spin-off jobs.

Max Planck Society Plans November Hire of Chief Scientist; Early 2009 Opening for Jupiter, FL Institute

The Max Planck Society hopes to hire by next month a chief scientist for its Jupiter, FL, institute, and base a group of scientists in its temporary new facility when it opens on the MacArthur campus of Florida Atlantic University early next year.

Claudia Hillinger, the society's representative in Florida, offered projections for accomplishing both during a meeting of BioFlorida's Southeast Florida chapter at FAU, the Palm Beach Post reported. She said Max Planck scientists will work on the FAU Jupiter campus, at the Scripps Florida site set to open us in late February, pending construction of its own permanent facility.

"We see a fruitful collaboration with Scripps in the next few years," Hillinger said at the meeting, according to the Post. "We will focus on the diagnostic side while Scripps focuses on the therapeutic side."

Max Planck plans to create about 180 jobs at its 100,000-square-foot institute at FAU. Of the 180 jobs, 135 will be Max Planck staffers, and the rest from organizations it partners with.

The science giant based in Munich, Germany, has received approval for $86.9 million in incentives from the Palm Beach County Commission, in addition to a $94 million package of incentives from the state of Florida.

Hillinger said Max Planck hopes to achieve at least the same success in commercializing technologies developed in Florida as it has in its native Germany, where it has spun off more than 80 startup companies.

Genzyme Marks Grand Opening of $125 Million Research Center in Framingham, MA

Genzyme has marked the grand opening of a new, $125 million, 180,000-square-foot Science Center in Framingham, MA. The research site designed to house some 350 investigators and other staffers carrying out early stages of work on new treatments for Parkinson's disease, cancer, heart disease, and other ailments.

The Science Center’s design has offices and labs surrounding the building's six-story central atrium, connected by open meeting spaces in a design intended to foster collaboration.

ARC/Architectural Resources Cambridge served as project architect for the Science Center. The project engineer was Bard, Rao & Athanas Consulting Engineers; while Bovis Lend Lease LMB served as contractor.

Genzyme said the Science Center has received a Gold certification under the US Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, Green Building Rating System. It is one of only 10 laboratories to achieve this high rating.

Genzyme's core R&D operations are located in Framingham, though the company maintains an additional R&D site in Waltham, Mass., for polymer and small-molecule research; and a facility in Cambridge, UK, focused on monoclonal antibody research.

The Science Center is one component of an ongoing global expansion of the company's R&D and manufacturing infrastructure. Among projects is construction in Framingham of a new $250 million cell culture manufacturing facility. The 230,000-square-foot site is expected to be completed in 2011 and create approximately 300 new jobs.

In Allston, Mass., a $150 million expansion of the company's flagship cell-culture manufacturing facility began last year. The project, focused on adding space for manufacturing support functions, is expected to be completed in 2009 and create about 90 new jobs.

Also recently, Genzyme has laid a ceremonial foundation stone laying at the site of a new manufacturing plant in Lyon, France, for the production of thymoglobulin, a treatment used in transplantation.

Boston Biomedical Lands $9 Million NIH Grant for Center Focused on Muscular Dystrophy

The National Institutes of Health will fund biomarker studies for facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy through a $9 million grant to the Boston Biomedical Research Institute.

The funding will launch the Senator Wellstone Muscular Dystrophy Cooperative Research Center, named for the deceased Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota. The center will be headquartered at BBRI’s Watertown offices, and be co-directed by BBRI President Charles Emerson and Louis Kunkel, professor of genetics and pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and director of the genomics program at Children’s Hospital Boston.

The Wellstone Center will work with BBRI, the FSH Society, and industry partners Acceleron Pharmaa and Genzyme to identify molecular markers for use in monitoring the effectiveness of therapeutics during clinical trials, and to start a repository of FSHD-diseased and normal muscle stem cells for use in developing drug and cell-based therapeutics.

One goal of the research is to develop biomarkers that can be used to help determine the safety and effectiveness of a new class of drugs that could enhance muscle strength and mass for those suffering FSHD. The aim is that these drugs can be used to help maintain muscle strength and physical function in FSHD patients.

Other collaborators include researchers at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, the University of Sao Paolo in Brazil, the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

Two Cambridge biotech companies, Acceleron Pharma and Genzyme, will use the center to develop new drugs.

BRM Subsidiary Eyes 25 Jobs in Move to Baltimore’s UMB BioPark

Biomere, a subsidiary of Worcester, Mass.-based Biomedical Research Models, has signed a lease for 14,000 square feet to create a new corporate headquarters at the University of Maryland, Baltimore BioPark.

The company, formed to expand the vaccine platform developed at BRM, will move into its new space at Building Two, 801 West Baltimore St., in early 2009. Biomere plans to initially hire up to 25 employees, the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development said in a press release announcing the deal.

BRM develops and uses specialty animal models for testing drugs designed to combat ailments that include arthritis, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes.

Dennis Guberski, founder and CEO of BRM and Biomere’s chairman, cited “the close proximity to the University of Maryland, multiple government agencies and installations such as NIH and Fort Detrick, plus the concentration of more than 350 biotech companies” as reasons for expanding in Maryland, as well as state programs to assist life-sci companies.

BioPark is a $128 million campus that has created 200 jobs. The campus consists of 360,000 square feet in two multi-tenant buildings and a 638-space parking garage. Its buildings have been developed by Baltimore-based Wexford Science + Technology.

UT-Southwestern Biotech Park to Support Tech Development, Industry-Academia Pacts

Owners of a new biotechnology park currently under construction near the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas are betting it will spur technology commercialization and economic growth in the region by providing lab access and incubator space for startup and established companies, and by facilitating academic-industry collaboration and entrepreneurial training and resources.

UT-Southwestern said it bought the 13-acre site on which the park will be developed primarily with profits it received over the past several years from its technology-licensing program. It will also use some of these profits to finance part of the facility’s development over the next few years.

The park, to be called BioCenter at Southwestern Medical District, next year plans to open the first of four buildings that will ultimately provide up to 500,000 square feet of laboratory and office space.

Though BioCenter is being designed particularly to help nurture technologies developed in UT-Southwestern’s research labs, it will also provide commercial space for existing life-science startups from around the state and for established companies wishing to forge a collaborative bond with the school, Dennis Stone, vice president for technology development at UT-Southwestern.

The BioCenter will help fledgling university biomedical companies gain a foothold by providing them with what the university calls “high-quality” laboratory space and other important business services.

The BioCenter will be designed to provide support “across the spectrum of technology commercialization from concept, through R&D, and even small-scale manufacturing; [and] will provide the capability to advance commercial-quality technologies from the earliest stage as they emerge from academic laboratories through full commercial development in mature biomedical companies.

Those “mature” companies may also end up being located at the BioCenter if UT-Southwestern has its druthers. The BioCenter is designed to be a fully capable industrial venue for biomedical companies of any size, and there is no requirement that the companies arise from UT-Southwestern technology or have pre-existing university ties.

Besides having access to brand new office space and wet labs, tenants will be able to interact with resident UT-Southwestern bioengineering faculty; will be co-located with the university’s IP-management offices; and can associate with local venture-capital networks such as Richardson-based STARTech Early Ventures.

Furthermore, the research park’s location 10 minutes from Dallas’ Love Field airport and within the Southwestern Medical District, which is associated with Children’s Medical Center, Parkland Health Systems, and UT Southwestern University Hospital, could provide opportunities for tenant companies to form research collaborations and other relationships with academic and medical entities.

Perhaps most important, especially for young companies, will be that they will have preferred access to a number of research core facilities at UT-Southwestern, including but not limited to cores in protein chemistry and sequencing; mass spectrometry; peptide synthesis; microscopy; biochemical kinetics; DNA microarrays; mouse laboratories; flow cytometry; analytical ultracentrifugation; X-ray crystallography; synthetic chemistry and chemical synthesis; DNA sequencing; and concierge services and assistance for all aspects of clinical and translational research.

Startup companies will be offered “price advantages” as compared with more established biotech entities, which will lease space at market rates. Negotiations are underway with several undisclosed biomedical companies about leasing space in the first BioCenter building.

Texas Instruments “has a major strategic program” on emerging medical applications for semiconductors, while AT&T is providing BioCenter $750,000 over five years to help tenants support training in entrepreneurship. The contribution will help establish an entrepreneurial center within the BioCenter devoted to providing researchers with business training.

The site for BioCenter was purchased with profits the school has received over the past several years from technology transfer. Since 1984, more than 550 researchers from UT-Southwestern have been named inventors on more than 1,200 invention disclosures that together have yielded more than 360 issued US patents.

In addition, some 300 licensing agreements involving those patents have generated more than $110 million for the school since 1984, with more than $40 million generated in the last four years, according to UT-Southwestern.

Building construction is being funded through standard commercial financing mechanisms.

SC Research Authority, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston Unveil Plans for Innovation Center

The South Carolina Research Authority, Medical University of South Carolina, and the city of Charleston unveiled a preliminary building design last week for an “innovation center” for life-sci and other startup companies at 645 Meeting St. in Charleston, on the site of a long-vacant former mattress factory. The center, to be located just north of the Ravenel Bridge, will include wet lab and equipment space, primarily in concert with MUSC researchers.

In addition, this space will provide a community meeting room and a police department substation, Charleston Mayor Joe Riley said in the release, adding: “The jobs created through the center demonstrate opportunity for the community to participate in the 21st century economy.”

Mahoney said the city provided the site for the innovation center, which it views as a “technology-based cornerstone for the upper Meeting Street area that will complement nearby retail and residential developments.”

SCRA has provided funding and support for 83 new knowledge-based start-ups in South Carolina since its inception in April, 2006 through its SC Launch program. According to a recent survey by The University of South Carolina Moore School of Business, jobs facilitated by SCRA and SC Launch! provided per capita annual wages between $55,000 and $77,000 in 2007.

UC-San Diego Leases 48,300 Sq. ft. Former Schering Plough Building in Torrey Pines

The University of California-San Diego has agreed to lease a 48,200-square-foot biotech research building in the city. UCSD will use the two-story building for several research divisions.

Located in the city's Torrey Pines submarket, the property was completed in 1991 and formerly occupied by Schering Plough. Grubb and Ellis|BRE Commercial represented both UCSD and building owner Del Mar Partnership, in the 10-year lease.

RainDance Dedicates New Headquarters, Manufacturing Facility in Lexington, MA

RainDance Technologies, a provider of droplet-based microfluidic solutions for human health and disease research, last week dedicated its new headquarters and operations building and unveiled its new RDT 1000 instrument.

"RainDance technology has the potential to accelerate breakthroughs in genomic research and fulfill the promise of personalized medicine," said Sir Richard Roberts, 2003 Nobel Prize winner for physiology and medicine and founder and chief scientific officer of New England Biolabs. Roberts keynoted the Sept. 26 dedication by RainDance of its new HQ and operations building.

Chris McNary, RainDance president and CEO, cited the $1 billion, 10-year Life Sciences Initiative signed into law in June by Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick as a key reason his company relocated the company’s operations from Connecticut: "We liked what we saw in Massachusetts. Its access to life science talent, state research grants, and the customer base of the greater Boston-Cambridge area were important requirements for our growing company."

During the ceremony, the company unveiled a rendering of the RDT 1000 instrument, the centerpiece of its new Sequence Enrichment solution for the targeted genomic sequencing market. The technology will be introduced to market during the fourth quarter, with commercial launch of the RDT 1000 scheduled for the first quarter of 2009.

Nycomed Optimizes its European Manufacturing Network

Swiss drugmaker Nycomed says it will focus its European production operations at five dedicated centres of competence located in Oranienburg and Singen in Germany; Lyszkowice, Poland; Linz, Austria; and Asker, Norway.

The move, which will also see Nycomed transfer production operations at two plants in Denmark and one in Finland to other sites, will affect approximately 250 employees as they are implemented over the next few years.

In March 2008, Nycomed announced that it will move its chemical production of APIs from Singen in Germany and Linz in Austria to the joint venture company Zydus Nycomed in India and the joint venture partner plants in India.

Analytical Bio-Chemistry Laboratories' New Contract Facility

U.S.-based Analytical Bio-Chemistry Laboratories (ABC) has opened its new, 90,000-square-foot pharmaceutical development facility at the University of Missouri's Discovery Ridge Research Park. The new unit more than doubles the company's previous contract production capacity

In July, the FDA completed a pre-approval and general quality systems audit of the facility, which resulted in no 483 regulatory deviations.

John Bucksath, senior vice president and general manager of ABC's Pharmaceutical Division said that all laboratory systems are "validated, and scientific teams are quickly settling into their new home."

The company added that while it will continue operating its chemical services and synthesis operations at its original campus located about five miles east of Columbia, the Discovery Ridge expansion frees up space for business to grow as well.

Tris Pharma Completes Plant Expansion

Tris Pharma has expanded its research and manufacturing facility in South Brunswick, New Jersey. The firm said that the new 15,000 square feet of space at the company’s FDA-compliant current good manufacturing practice (cGMP) facility will enable it to install extra commercial scale production equipment.

Teva Kowa JV to Target Japanese Generics Market with New Manufacturing Unit

Teva and Kowa have set their sights on Japan’s $4.6billion (€3.1bn) generics market with their development and manufacturing joint venture Teva-Kowa Pharma.

The new unit, which is expected to become fully operational next year, will leverage its parents’ marketing, R&D, production and distribution capabilities in the provision of non-branded products for the country’s drug sector, which is the world’s second largest.

At present, generics make up only 17 per cent of the $80bn a year drug market, according to data from IMS Health. However, this situation looks set to change following the Japanese finance ministry's 2007 announcement of plans to double the utilisation of non-branded pharmaceuticals by 2012.

Still on the Acquisition Trail despite Barr Delays?

The launch of Teva-Kowa is likely to be a welcome distraction for Teva from ongoing delays to its $8bn acquisition of US generics firm Barr Pharmaceuticals.

While the companies have agreed the transaction, the US Federal Trade commission has requested additional information, extending the Hart-Scott-Rodino antitrust waiting period.

Despite this, Teva and Barr still anticipate that the deal will go through before the end of the year. If so, Teva would have a 24 per cent share of the US generics market, further strengthening its position as the global leader in non-branded pharmaceuticals.

More recently on the acquisition front, Teva denied that it would make a bid for German generics group Stada following several months of industry speculation.

MannKind Dedicates New Manufacturing Facility

MannKind, a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development, and commercialization of therapeutic products for diseases such as diabetes and cancer, celebrated the completion and dedication of their newest manufacturing facility in Danbury, CT. The 263,900 sq. ft. production facility was designed by KlingStubbins and CRB; Torcon served as construction manager. The facility is intended to handle the manufacturing from receipt of raw materials, including active pharmaceutical ingredients, through formulation, freezing, freeze drying, powder filling and primary packaging in blisters or pouches.

New York Labs to Teach Cell Biology to Students and Teachers

A new genomics and biology lab was unveiled this week in New York City that will be used to teach teachers and students about DNA research and cell biology research.

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, which partnered with Howard Hughes Medical Institute on the project, said this week that the Harlem DNA Lab will be used by students and teachers from all over the New York City Public School system as a learning tool.

Over the next five years, CSHL said, more than 800 middle and high school science teachers will take professional development courses at the DNA Lab in East Harlem, and around 4,000 students will visit on learning tours.

The lab was funded in part by contributions from the Dana Foundation, the Jerome L. Greene Foundation, the Goldman Sachs Foundation, and the William Townsend Porter Foundation.

Middle school and high school students will visit the lab on half-day fieldtrips in which they will participate in lab activities that complement their science courses.

The National Institutes of Health’s Genes, Environment, and Health Initiative has Awarded an Estimated $5.5 Million in Grants to Six New Studies

Projects receiving the two-year grants are genome-wide association studies aimed at uncovering the genetic factors behind conditions such as stroke, glaucoma, high blood pressure, prostate cancer, and other conditions. All of the 27 institutes and centers within NIH contributed funding for the studies.

NIH kicked off the Genes, Environment, and Health Initiative, or GEI, in 2006 and granted its first awards under the program in 2007.

GEI projects already underway include six genome-wide association studies under the National Human Genome Research Institute, two studies that are being managed by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, and a study on wearable sensors and technology for measuring exposure to environmental agents that is being done under the auspices of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

“This initiative will yield valuable information about the biological pathways that lead to health and disease and about how genetic variants, environmental factors, and behavioral choices interact to influence disease risk,” Alan Guttmacher, acting director of the NHGRI, said in a statement. “Such information is vital to our efforts to develop more personalized approached to health care.”

The newest awardees are:

Johns Hopkins University researcher Kathleen Barnes, $1.2 million for fiscal years 2008 and 2009, GWAS on environmental interactions in lung health;
University of Texas researcher Myriam Ford, $1.1 million, GWAS of longitudinal blood pressure profiles between young adulthood and middle-age;
University of Southern California researcher Christopher Haiman, $210,000, multi-ethnic, genome-wide prostate cancer scan;
John Heit, at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, $1.1 million, GWAS on blood clots in veins;
University of Maryland researcher Braxton Mitchell, $1.1 million, study on genetic stroke risk in smokers and non-smokers in two ethnic groups; and
Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary/Harvard Medical School researcher Louis Pasquale, $850,000, genes and environment study on glaucoma.

Clean Modules Completes Cord Blood Center for the Anthony Nolan Trust

Clean Modules Ltd has completed the purpose-designed Anthony Nolan Trust Cord Blood Centre, which includes a Processing Facility and a Cryogenic Storage facility at the grounds of Nottingham Trent University. The new £1.4 million pounds center at Nottingham Trent University's Clifton campus is the first combined blood bank and research center in the United Kingdom and it is the first of its kind to be run outside of London. It will provide stem cell donations from umbilical cords and placentas for people with cancer and life-threatening bone marrow conditions. The trust aims to store 50,000 cord blood samples by 2013. Of these, 20,000 would be suitable for transplantation, and 30,000 for research.

The fully validated facility complies with the latest European Union’s Good Manufacturing Practice (EU G.M.P.) regulation and Good Laboratory Practice (G.L.P.) requirements. It houses a 50m_² Grade D Cryogenic storage area with three Liquid Nitrogen storage vessels with racking systems for the storage of the blood samples, a 25m_² Grade D distribution area with a Class II Laminar Air Flow cabinet for the testing of the blood samples, and a 25m_² Grade C processing area for preparing the storage of the blood samples. Additionally, there are 70m_² of support areas including technical administration, an archive, a meeting room, and a utility area.

To meet with the G.L.P. requirements covering blood storage, Clean Modules Ltd installed a complete Facility Monitoring System (F.M.S.) validated to GAMP4 and CFR21 Part 11. This sophisticated computer controlled data acquisition and monitoring system continuously checks particle levels, room pressures, temperature, and humidity in the cleanrooms.

Additionally, the facility has also been fitted with a Trend Building Management System (B.M.S) to control the Air Handling system, an oxygen monitoring system, and a temperature control monitoring system for the Liquid Nitrogen storage vessels and freezers to ensure conditions are optimized for blood preservation. These three monitoring systems have been linked in with the F.M.S. system that is covered by an alarm system in case of any variation outside the set parameters.

The facility was opened with a Grand Opening event, which included a virtual tour of the facility before the Secretary of State for Health unveiled a plaque and officially opened the Cord Blood Bank.

Secretary of State for Health, Alan Johnson, said, "The Anthony Nolan Trust is already acclaimed worldwide, and the impact of the events here today, will be felt globally. The complex will help provide a lifeline for thousands complementing the 12 years experience of the NHS Cord Blood Bank; and reinforce the UK's role as a research centre of excellence."

Falcon Plastics Opens 60,000 sq. ft. Plant with Cleanroom

Falcon Plastics Inc. held the grand opening of a new 60,000-square-foot production facility. The building, situated on 14 acres of land at 3300 Prince Drive, is the fourth production facility for Falcon Plastics, which owns other operations in Lexington, Tenn., Madison and Brookings.

Falcon Plastics is a custom molder specializing in injection molding, blow molding, assembly, tooling and automation and is headquartered in Brookings. The company, established in 1975 by the Bender family, produces components and assemblies for other manufacturers and entrepreneurs throughout the region and the world.

The business has invested more than $5 million in the project so far, and it's a sign of the company's growth since opening more than 30 years ago.

The new building is designed to handle larger molded parts and equipment and larger-volume orders; it has room for future expansion, if needed. It's also equipped with a cleanroom for medical molding.

Twenty-three injection-molding machines operate in the new facility, with plans to add up to 14 more in the near future.

Falcon Plastic's other local operation is a 30,000-square-foot building located at 1313 Western Ave. That serves as the company's corporate headquarters and is also home to Premier Source. That division of Falcon Plastics handles precision machining, building of automation and low volume molding. Bender said the new facility houses about 120 employees, and the other Brookings location includes about another 30.

A little more than $3 million has been invested in the building at 3300 Prince Drive, and nearly $2 million has been spent on equipment and new presses. The structure also houses some equipment moved from Western Avenue, and the company will invest even more money into the facility, with the total likely surpassing $6 million.

Opening the new plant has been a two-year project. Construction started in fall 2006. Mills Construction finished the structure in one year, and then Falcon Plastics began installing infrastructure and moving machines in. The first shipment left the facility in October 2007. Employees have progressively made the transition to the building.

Falcon Plastics was named to the Inc. 5000 list of the nation's best and fastest-developing private enterprises last year, and even though the economy is taking a downward turn, the business is seeing even higher sales in 2008.

There’s space to double the size of the current building if needed in the future, and the 14 acres were it sits has room for more buildings as well.

McIlvaine Company,

Northfield, IL 60093-2743

Tel: 847-784-0012; Fax: 847-784-0061;

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