Catching Up

I’ve been busy in the lab the past couple days and haven’t had a chance to update an number of interesting stories I’ve stumbled across.  First things first.  you all need to be reprimanded for being Web 2.0 phobic.  Thus far, only 6 people have signed up on the FredCoBio Google Group.  Shame on you.  What are you waiting for, Christmas? Sign up here by selecting the “Join This Group” mouse over in the right column.  In all fairness, this is partially my fault since I didn’t have things set up correctly in the first announcement.

Now on to some interesting news.  As reported in the Frederick News Post, in the Gazette and then picked up by a number of other News feeds, Life Technologies won a $250,000 from the Governator and will be adding at least another 50 jobs in Frederick.  this at a time when Osiris is paring back in Columbia and other non-bio groups are laying off in Frederick.  I am so glad to see Life Tech is getting everything back on track.

In a very significant report I was reading this morning, Qiagen (HQ in the EU with facilities in MoCo) has come out with a $5 HPV test that will likely save millions of lives in the developing world. This effort was funded, in part, by the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation.  I know this is directly FredCoBio, but only the most dedicated reader will recall that the first generation of this HPV test is what brought yours truly to the Free State.  The Old Molecular Diagnostics Division of Life Technologies chaperoned the HPV test through FDA approval and I am proud to have participated in the effort.  unfortunately, this was in 1989 and it’s taken nearly 20 years for this test to find a significant market for growth and the good science to back it up.  There are even some who believe this was the first DNA diagnostic test approved by the FDA and most of it was done by Frederick Countians.  We knew 20 years ago this test would eventually replace the Pap smear and this may finally be the straw that breaks the Pap smears speculum.

In other interesting news, the NCI has announced Priorities for Stimulus money spending over the next couple of years.  It is not specifically stated in the article, but these priorities are certain to shape the way the new NCI-Frederick at Riverside Park is going to be deployed and I can’t wait to see the results.

And finally, an interesting publication from NCI-Frederick in the April 7th issue of the journal Cancer Cell.  NCI-Frederick researchers, working with a team from the university of Maryland show that expression of RNF6 was increased in human prostate cancer tissues that do not respond to androgen ablation and is required for prostate tumor growth under androgen depleted conditions.  In plain English, this may result in a significant breakthrough i the treatment of advanced prostate cancer.