ImQuest in Mississippi

I just found it funny that this PR Newswire press release was picked up by the SunHerald, covering Southern Mississippi. It’s a nice write-up, but not sure I’d like to go all of the way to Delhi to have to present it!

ImQuest Scientists Present Important HIV Microbicide Development Results at Microbicides 2008 in Delhi, India

By ImQuest Life Sciences

FREDERICK, Md., April 8, 2008 –

ImQuest scientists Robert W. Buckheit, Jr., Ph.D. and Karen M. Watson, M.S. presented the results of studies performed with products licensed by ImQuest Life Sciences, Inc. at the recent Microbicides 2008, an international conference held in New Delhi, India and attended by microbicide scientists, developers, and care givers from around the world. Dr. Buckheit was invited to speak by the Conference organizers, presenting the results of ImQuest’s current research on the pyrimidinedione series of microbicide candidates in a special symposium entitled “New Approaches to Microbicide Candidates”. ImQuest is currently developing the highly unique, dual acting pyrimidinediones as potential microbicide candidates based on their significantly high potency against HIV-1, their unique mechanism of action, and their ability to potently suppress the sexual transmission of wild type and drug resistant viruses.

According to Dr. Buckheit (Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of ImQuest Life Sciences, Inc., and President of its subsidiary, ImQuest BioSciences, Inc.), “It was highly gratifying to speak on our novel pyrimidinedione products at this Conference and to have them recognized as a new approach to HIV prevention by the thousands of dedicated people leading these efforts around the world.” ImQuest has obtained funding from the National Institutes of Health and The International Partnership for Microbicides to further develop these products.

At the conference, Ms. Watson (Manager, Topical Microbicide Research and Development) presented three papers, including additional data on the pyrimidinedione IQP-0528, newly emerging data on the microbicide candidate ISIS 5320 (IQP-0831), and results from laboratory studies performed using ImQuest’s recently developed Microbicide Transmission and Sterilization Assay which quantifies the ability of microbicide products to completely suppress the sexual transmission of HIV.

ImQuest Life Sciences, a privately held U.S. company located in Frederick, Maryland specializes in the preclinical and clinical development of novel compounds for the treatment of infectious disease and cancer. ImQuest BioSciences, also located in Frederick, Maryland, is a leading provider of anti-infective and anti-cancer drug and vaccine development services to the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry. Both companies are highly involved in efforts to develop an effective anti-HIV topical microbicide.

Updates from Ft Detrick

It’s Sunday morning, watching Meet the Press, so I guess it is a good time to update a few things going on at the Fort.

First, I will make a disclosure that much of my information is coming through my affiliation with the Frederick Chapter of AFCEA International. I have blogged this before, but wanted you to take a look at the updated and improved web site. Of particular note is the AFCEA Golf Outing at Whiskey Creek May 13th. Since we all like to golf and MdBio is no longer sponsoring their tournament in Frederick (which was always one of the best BioTech social events of the year IMHO), we’re going to try ad carry on the tradition. There are still sponsorships available and you can bet I’ll be harassing my friends at MedImmune, Lonza and other big Bio’s to get involved.

The presentation last month was by David W. Williams, US Army Medical Research & Material Command. You can get a copy of his presentation HERE. The USAMRMC and Mr Williams command a huge purchasing budget for all things related to Medical Materials and Medical-directed Research. The emphasis of this presentation were updates regarding the construction of the consolidated Logistics facility, the Defense Medical Logistics Center.

Also at the Fort this month, I wanted to highlight the excellent Seminar series, which is open to the public. I put the whole schedule on the Calendar page. A couple of highlights (for me) are
Dr. Valeri Vasioukhin, PhD, Cell Polarity in Self-Renewal and Differentiation of Stem/Progenitor Cells on April 7th and on April 18th Stem Cells and Early Lineage Development given by Janet Rossant, PhD. from the Hospital for Sick Children of Toronto.

There is also a very interesting looking retreat to Gettysburg on April 10th & 11th called the Cancer And Inflammation Program Workshop. Looks like a very comprehensive and interesting agenda, but not sure if I’ll be able to sneak out for two days.

AFCEA Frederick Luncheon Tomorrow

For those of you not in the know, tomorrow (the 3rd Tuesday of every month) is the monthly AFCEA luncheon at Dutch’s Daughter.  The featured speaker tomorrow is David W. Williams, of HQ US Army Medical Research & Material Command.  If you need to sell something to the Fort (in other words, if have have some goods or service to peddle), then he’s a good guy to know.

The web site has a new face and more content to come soon.   Hopefully, they’ll get some of the previous presentations posted, which were very informative.

AFCEA is the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association.  AFCEA is a non-profit international association, which serves as a bridge between government requirements and industry capabilities. The association and its members are dedicated to supporting global security by providing an ethical environment that encourages a close cooperative relationship among civil government agencies, the military and industry worldwide. Since so much of what happens at our Fort is related to Homeland Security and Biological devices, the Frederick Chapter is focused on the Biotech sector and how it can most effectively interact with the various Unihts in Ft. Detrick.

Come on out tomorrow.  Space has been filling up quickly.