Newslets

The Siemens Medical Solutions and Sequenom alliance announced in late 2004 will operate in Europe at Bioscientia, a reference laboratory in Ingelheim, Germany. The alliance is investigating the applications of mass spectrometry for molecular diagnostic testing. The first area of investigation will be deep vein thombosis and HIV, the companies said in a statement today. The initial project is a benchmarking study evaluating the analytical data quality and current workflow of Sequenom's MassArray System in clinical reference laboratories. The study is expected to be completed by the fourth quarter 2005.

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals is granting Ambion a non-exclusive license to its patents on RNA interference for commercialization in the research market. Alnylam has issued licenses to this patent portfolio to 10 companies overall, and five in the research products area.

CONFERENCE CALL – The Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University will sponsor a conference on new business opportunities in the Baby Boomer marketplace (consumers over 50) on June 21. The morning sessions will have speakers and panels providing data and information on the emerging baby boomer market and the afternoon willb e devoted to pitch sessions and a panel of journalists who cover the baby boomer market (who knew there was such a beat?). New Biology Economy Take: The Baby Boomer generation is seen as one of the largest drivers in the healthcare industry with this demographic bulge requiring new services and products as it ages.

Rene Bernards, co-founder of Agendia, has been named one of the winners of the (Euro) 1.5 million Spinoza prize awarded by the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research. Agendia is based on Bernards research on using DNA microarrays to measure patterns of gene activity to predict whether a breast cancer patient will develop metastases. The company is commercializing MammaPrint, a prognostic test for breast cancer patients.

The National Institutes of Health today announced that it will fund five-year grants to five research centers to investigate the safety, effectiveness, and mechanisms of action of botanical products. The plants to be investigated include: soy, kudzu, black cohosh, red clover, Russian tarragon, Shilianhua, grapesee, echinacea, astralgus, turmeric, maitake, flaxsee, echium, and borage. The investigational centers are: Age-Related Disease (Purdue, Alabama-Birmingham, and Rutgers); Women's Health (University of Illinois at Chicago) Metabolic Syndrome (Louisiana State University-Baton Rouge, Rutgers); Botanical Immunomodulators (Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, The Rockefeller University, and the Institute of Chinese Medicine at the Chinese University of Hong Kong); Botanical Lipids (Wake Forest and Harvard University).