Rochester Med Center, J&J in Funding Collaboration

The University of Rochester Medical Center and the pharma company Johnson & Johnson yesterday announced the creation of a partnership to provide funding opportunities for junior scientists in life-sciences research in the center. Grants provided through this collaboration will range from $50,000 to $100,000, according to news articles. While the size of the fund was not disclosed, it wil be administered jointly by the two entities and J&J will have rights of first refusal to license technology developed. The medical center will own any intellectual property rights developed, news articles said.

GeneThera, a Wheat Ridge, Col.-based life-sciences company, yesterday announced that it has granted Beckman Coulter rights of first refusal to license an in-development diagnostic blood test for live animals. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed but the company said that the announcement was a part of a larger agreement that allows the two to share data pertaining to the validation of the diagnostic tests, which are based on a genetic expression assay, GEA, a protocol designed to function on an automated Fluorogenic PCR platform.

Currently, the technology is being developed to test for chronic wasting disease, E.Coli 0157:H7, and Johne's Disease, diseases affecting cattle worldwide. Future plans include all infectious disease potentially affecting domesticated livestock as well wildlife intended for human consumption, particular priority being given to mad cow and hoof and mouth diseases in cattle, the company said in a statement.

In the UK, the Guardian newspaper today published an article discussing the funding of two new centers in systems biology, which next year, will start accepting the first of three classes of 10 new PhD students. The article gives a rough description of systems biology (concentrating a bit too much, we think, on the central role that computing will play in this field), but, for a broad non-scientific audience, gives a useful insight into the new arena in biology.

The online publication pf the magazine Expansion Management yesterday published an article with a short description of New York City's efforts to create a bioscience R&D campus in the city, as well as other efforts in the surrounding area. Interesting for New Biology Economy since it seems that every region in the country is looking to this type of activity for economic development. Certainly, New York City, with its high cost of real estate, presents a challenge for development, but the proximity to the pharma companies headquartered here, and in the surrounding tri-state area, as well as the world-class medical institutions in the area and the information-technology industry, offers great promise.

The online publication of the magazine Z has published an examination of the Bush administration's scientific policy. The article looks at the political battles that are ongoing and may well influence the future of scientific investigation in this country and concludes:

Based on an examination of documented actions by the Bush administration, reports from groups critical of its policies, and conversations with scientists affected by them, government-funded science is being subjected to tremendous, maybe unprecedented political pressure.