Medical History in FredCoBio

I attended a networking event at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine last night hosted by the Fort Detrick Alliance.  Something George Lewis said in his introductory remarks made me think about the links to this museum, Frederick City & Fort Detrick in general and Biotechnology in Frederick County.  As they state on their web site “knowledge that Civil War medicine connects us not only to our past, but is the scientific and historical link to our present and our future.”

So many of the modern medical practices arose from the necessities of the injured and dying soldiers during the Civil War.  And also Veterinary care for the injured and dying Horses and pack animals, that by some estimates sustained nearly twice the casualties that humans did during the civil war.  And for Frederick specifically, the proximity to some of the bloodiest battles in the conflict, namely Gettysburg and Antietam,

"The Harvest of Death": Union dead on the battlefield at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, photographed July 5 or July 6, 1863, by Timothy H. O'Sullivan.

converting the town into one massive hospital where many of these new medical remedies were tried for the first time.

Now we have Ft. Detrick, home to the Army’s Medical Research groups (in general terms).  And home now to the new Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine , at least U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC) side of the Institute.

Just my thought of the day.  If you haven’t been there the museum is a quick tour and well worth the price of admission.

“You do what? Sorry, we don’t want Your business…..”

Couple weeks ago I went to a Frederick County Chamber of Commerce lunch networking event at the Red Horse.  It’s like a speed dating networking event:  you sit with 4 other people, give them your elevator talk, pass out cards, move to next table every 5 minutes.  As a small business owner with no real “retail” or consumer services to offer (although I have toyed around with the idea of handing out “coupons” for free placental perfusion or “Recycle your placenta” bumper stickers), the sales people at these events like to pitch their wares:  Web design, Accounting services, graphic arts, office supplies, computer stuff, etc.

So I had a couple follow-up calls and made appointments to chat with a few people since I really need to start “branding” the Hemacell Perfusion (and man, does the web site need some work).  Here’s where it gets bizarre.

I get an email back from one of my appointments stating “we really think the work you are doing is great, but we’re not going to be able to business with you because of potential conflict of interest with existing clients.”  That’s a first for me.

And on another rant, there was a great little opt ed piece in the Baltimore Sun last week written by Dr’s Curt Civin (best known as the person who discovered CD34) and E. Albert Reece.  In the piece he make allusion to the belief that Obama will overturn the Bush “Stem Cell Legislation”.  As I have said before (HERE and HERE), this piece of legislation is really not the problem and as the Opt-ed piece states:

Lifting the ban is an important first step – but it is mostly symbolic. Unless it leads to a significant increase in funding for rebuilding the infrastructure this field needs to mature, it is likely to have little tangible effect. This would be very unfortunate, because the field of regenerative medicine – which utilizes stem cells, among other tools, to understand disease processes and to repair damaged organs – is ripe for development.

I also have been meaning to ask you all to oppose HR 801 “Fair Copyright in Research Works Act” which seeks to overturn the order that all NIH funded research be made available to the public at no charge.  Most critically, H.R. 801 would reverse the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy, prohibit American taxpayers from accessing the results of the crucial biomedical research funded by their taxpayer dollars, and stifle critical advancements in life-saving research and scientific discovery.  Please write your Senator, House member, and local officials and state your opposition to HR 801.  I’ve already sent an e-mail to Roscoe Bartlett and a few others.  You can go to the web site for more information.

More Positive ImQuest Results

In a PR Newswire release, ImQuest is coming forth with more data on their original anti-HIV microbicide and a new topical cream.  The data on their lead candidate, IQP-0410, lead to the safe daily dosing of the compound.  From the release:

The highly attractive safety profile, ability of the compound to positively interact in combination with other HIV drugs, and the high intrinsic genetic barrier to resistance of the clinical candidate, was emphasized in these presentations. ImQuest, in collaboration with their drug development partner Samjin Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd of Seoul, Korea, have recently engaged in an effort to develop more active pyrimidinediones possessing this higher genetic barrier to resistance. It is believed that these compounds will prolong the therapeutic utility of the pyrimidinediones by preventing HIV from easily evading the action of the drug and will allow ImQuest to develop even more potent HIV inhibitors following the entry of IQP-0410 to Phase 1 human clinical trials in early 2009.

General 2, 4 (1H,3H)-Pyrimidinedione Structure

Interestingly, the mechanism of action of these compounds seems to be both an inhibition of viral reverse transcriptase and inhibition of viral attachment by binding some cell surface “conformational marker”, as shown in THIS POSTER (warning PDF).

This is also the first time I recall reading about their topical cream, IQP-0528.  This is a vaginally applied topical used “as both a gel and an intravaginal ring product in combination with other highly active microbicide products” to block transmission of HIV.

Great work, guys!

Gahaga Acquired by Hemacell Perfusion

I am sure you all read the news in the FNP Business section today that Gahaga Biosciences (my company) was acquired by Hemacell Perfusion.  Since they were good enough to cover the story, I didn’t want to scoop them.  I just wish they had another picture on file for me.  In that one, I am pretending like I am doing Biodiesel testing.  Funny, but Stem Cells don’t have a Total Acid Number.  Not the viable ones, at least.

I also learned today through a confidential source that Marligen has significantly scaled back operations.  I won’t divulge more than that, but suffice to say that there were a lot of people I had worked with before at Marligen and I am sorry to hear bad news.

And while we’re spreading rumors,  I got a call from a colleague at Lonza-Walkersville who is now looking for work.  I am not sure if this was a wide-spread action or not, but seems like quite a few companies are taking a very close look at their bottom lines.  Except the government, of course.

Has it occurred to anyone how demoralizing it is for the people over at USAMRIID that are “locked out” of their labs during this period of “Inventory Reconciliation”?  A few have confidentially expressed their disgust.  Everyone knows that USAMRIID was like any other Academic institution up until 9/11 and the Anthrax mailing.  Security was lax, but now they expect to be able to recover every single microbe produced there since the 1960’s.  Silly waste of our time and they have hundreds of people sitting around doing nothing until they get the “all clear” from the higher ups.  Talk about a Stimulus Bill.  And I am not talking about Bill Clinton’s nickname….

Riid teams with NCSU in novel Anthrax Vaccine

There is a recent story popping up on a number of my news feeds.  I’ll just trace it back to the original North Carolina State Press release.

L. acidophilus bacteria near vaginal squamous epithelial cells, courtesy wikipedia

Researchers at North Carolina State University have discovered that the good bacteria found in dairy products and linked to positive health benefits in the human body might also be an effective vehicle for an oral vaccine that can provide immunity to anthrax exposure. The approach could possibly be used to deliver any number of specific vaccines that could block other types of viruses and pathogens.

The oral vaccine riding inside the good bacteria makes its way through the stomach and into the small intestine, an important immunological organ, where it easily and efficiently binds to cells that trigger an immune response – in this case, protection against anthrax in mice.

The finding, published the week of Feb. 16 in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that an oral vaccine can be as effective as one given by needle, a potentially huge advance in drug delivery. Most vaccines are proteins, and as such normally won’t maintain their effectiveness after being digested in the stomach.

The good bacteria – Lactobacillus acidophilus, a lactic acid bacteria – are naturally found in dairy products like milk and cheese, and are added by manufacturers to foods like yogurt. They are used in food fermentations, are safe for consumption and some are considered as probiotics that contribute to our general health and well-being.

Dendritic cells are the first line of immune cells outside the small intestine. In a paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Todd Klaenhammer and colleagues developed an oral vaccine that protected mice from anthrax exposure. The vaccine targeted dendritic cells to trigger the mucosal immune system to respond to and elicit protection against anthrax. Via NCSU web site

This is a very interesting approach and I wonder why it hasn’t been tried before? Perhaps it has, but I wouldn’t mind having that anthrax vaccine in my yogurt.

I almost forgot to mention the local relevance.  The work was also conducted at USAMRIID under the guidence of S.J. Sandwick and T. Hoover.  Pretty sure that would’ve been done at Ft Detrick,.

More Biobeer Pictures

Thanks to Bruce & Kathy at Frugalbee, I’ve added a few more pictures to the BioBeers photo album.

Take a look:

FMH amongst Nations Best

Insomuch as Medical care is an integral part of Biotechnology, according the Forbes.com Frederick Memorial Hospital is ranked as one of America’s Safest Hospitals.  According to the article,  FMH is ranked in the top 5% of the country as a Distinguished Hospital for Clinical Excellence by HealthGrades, a hospital rating company based in Golden, Colorado.

I think this is good news for FredCoBio and the fine people at FMH.

You can find the full list HERE.

BioBeers ‘09 Report

I have to say that i was a bit overwhelmed with the turn out for BioBeers yesterday.  Overwhelmed and delighted!  The official Cup Count was 117 people, which is fantastic.  Honestly, I stopped counting the RSVP’s after about 90 were sent to me, so i was expecting to break 100 for the first time ever.

I had a great time catching up to old people and making new connections.  I was even called a hero for setting this event up and want to express my sincere thanks to the original BioBeers group in Colorado for giving me the inspiration to start the East Coast chapter.

And also many thanks to James Matan and the Matan Group for sponsoring this event.  I spoke to at least two other companies that want to sponsor future events, which is wonderful.  The plan for ‘09 is to move from quarterly events to bi-monthly (every other month), so next event will be in April.

I’ll leave you with a link to the photo album I posted in Picasa.  I don’t know why, but WordPress won’t let you embed slide shows into a blog post.  If there are any IT geniouses who know how to do it, please drop me a note.
CLICK ON THE PICTURE or HERE to see THE SLIDE SHOW)

PS: On a separate note, I did learn from a source that shall remain nameless that there is more to the story a RIID regarding the “Shut down for inventory” published in the FNP this week.

This Week

I hope some of you had the chance to go downtown for First Staturday this weekend.  With the weather and the people, it was fabulous!

And speaking of fabulous, I have nearly 90 RSVP’s for BioBeers this Thursday.  It is gong to be a fabulous time so be there or be square, you nerd.

In other news of interest, I saw a press release just an hour ago from ImQuest in the PR Newswire.  Looks like their HIV pyrimidinedione inhibitor, IQP-0410, has a “highly positive” saftey profile, suitable for use in pregnant women.

“The data presented today indicate that IQP-0410 may represent a next generation HIV drug with a highly unique mechanism of action and an excellent safety profile,” said Dr. Buckheit, Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer.

Since they will be at BioBeers again, make sure you stop and ask thme about it and congratulate them on what could be a blockbuster drug (fingers crossed).

Also of note, International Stem Cells, parent of Walkersville-based LifeLine Cell Technology, had a Press Release last week stating they are planning pre-clinical trials aimed at applying its laboratory-grown human corneal epithelial cells to improve photorefractive keratectomy (PRK), a form of corrective laser eye surgery.

All kinds of good stuff going on this week.  Anyone else have news to share?

February Events

Sorry, I’ve been negligent posting this week.  I am moving my lab & office from FITCI @Monocacy to @ Hood and haven’t been spending enough time on-line.  Not to mention, now that I am at Hood, I have enlisted a couple of undergrad interns and I am spending time teaching them the basics of cell culture (without the benefit of actual cells or a lab to work in, yet).

I really, really want to thank all of the people who have RSVP’d and offered to bring some munchies for BioBeers next Thursday 12 Feb.  The response has been overwhelming, with over 65 confirmed RSVP’s, I think we’re going to have close to 80 people this time around!

I want this event to continue to be a informal networking occasion, without name tags and strict agendas.  At the same time I want people to be able to have their 10 minutes of fame and present their data, studies, research or to simply pitch their wares.  This time, we’re going to let James Matan of the Matan Group give a brief presentation (the least I could do since he insisted on sponsoring the entire event, thank you James).  I am also please to announce that Mark Powers Director of R&D Cell Systems Division at Life Technologies Corp is going to present some information about their AlgiMatrix 3D cell culture products.

There was a press release yesterday that shows Life Tech is putting their money where their mouth is.  They announced that they donated more than $500,000 in funding to a dozen programs through its Life Technologies^TM Foundation (formerly the Invitrogen Foundation) in 2008.  According to the press release, a portion of those funds went to Hood College’s Summer Science Research Institute.  Now that I am “on campus” (for the first time since 1988!), I’ll try to keep my ear to the ground for interesting events here at Hood.

I hope to some day be able to lure someone out of SAIC or NCI to present.  I also want to make sure everyone out there is aware of a tremendous opportunity in the NCI-Frederick Lecture series, that I have highlighted in the February Events page.  I am attaching it again below, but the page will stay up through the month.  There seminars are FREE and open to the public.  I swear the armed guards at the Gate won’t bite.  If there isn’t anything on this month’s list to pique your interest, then maybe you’re in the wrong field!

Wednesday, February 04, 2009
12:00 PM	Steve Anderson	Bldg 549 Auditorium
	Endogenous Anti-Sense Transcripts Regulate the Human KIR Gene Cluster	Details Series
Thursday, February 05, 2009
10:00 AM	Various Speakers	Bldg 426 Conf. Rm
	Genes to Proteins Brown Bag Lunch Seminar	Details
12:30 PM	Dr. Dan Gincel, Director of Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund	FITCI@ Monocacy
	Free informational lunchtime seminar about the Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund.	RSVP
Friday, February 06, 2009
10:00 AM	Dr. George John	Bldg 549 Auditorium
	Self-Assembled Molecular Gels: An Enzymatically Triggered Drug-Delivery Platform	Details Series
12:00 PM	Dr. Bin Gao	Bldg 426 Conf. Rm
	STAT3, Inflammation, and Liver Disease	Details Series
Monday, February 09, 2009
12:00 PM	Dr. Rosalyn Lang-Walker	Bldg 549 Auditorium
	Developing ELISA Standards for Deamidated COMP: A Biomarker for the Assessment of Osteoarthritis Progression	Details
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
8:00 AM	Ola Langdon, MD, PhD	Bldg 549 Conf. Rm B
	Hematologic Malignancies and Their Precursors: An Area of Progression	Details Series
11:00 AM	SIP Students	Bldg 549 Lobby
	Werner H. Kirsten Student Intern Program (SIP) Winter Poster Day	Details
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
12:00 PM	Marc Nicklaus	Bldg 549 Auditorium
	New Chemistry Resources Used in the Quest for HIV-1 Integrase Inhibitors	Details Series
Thursday, February 12, 2009
12:00 PM	Dr. Philipp Oberdoerffer	Bldg 549 Auditorium
	A Mechanistic Link Between DNA Damage, Chromatin and Aging	Details
4:30 PM	BioBeers East ‘09	Flying Dog Brewery
	Connecting and Promoting Biotech in Frederick County	Details
Friday, February 13, 2009
12:00 PM	Dr. Lee Helman	Bldg 549 Auditorium
	Targeting the IGF Pathway in Pediatric Sarcomas-Lessons Learned and Questions Raised	Details Series
2:00 PM	Dr. Kylie Walters	Bldg 549 Auditorium
	Signaling for Degradation by the Proteasome	Details
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
8:00 AM	Titia de Lange, PhD	Bldg 549 Conf. Rm B
	How Shelterin Protects Telomeres	Details Series
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
12:00 PM	Jairaj Acharya	Bldg 549 Auditorium
	Sphingolipids: CERT’n Differences Between Insects and Mammals	Details Series
Friday, February 20, 2009
12:00 PM	Dr. Ulrich Siebenlist	Bldg 549 Auditorium
	New Frontiers for NF-KappaB Transcription Factors	Details Series
1:30PM	Dr. Chrysi Kanellopoulou	Bldg 549 Auditorium
	DICEcting RNAi Function in Embryonic Stem Cells and Mice	Details
Monday, February 23, 2009
3:00 PM	Napoleone Ferrara, MD	Bldg 10 Lipsett
	Novel Insights on the Regulation of Angiogenesis by VEGF-A and other Mediators	Details Series
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
8:00 AM	Jonathan Vogel, MD	Bldg 549 Conf. Rm B
	The Identification and Characterization of Tumor-Initiating Cells in Human Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Skin	Details Series
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
12:00 PM	Denise Whitby	Bldg 549 Auditorium
	Viruses, MicroRNA and Cancer	Details Series
Friday, February 27, 2009
12:00 PM	Dr. Jenny Ting	Bldg 549 Auditorium
	Genomic Discovery of New Innate and Adaptive Immune Genes	Details Series