Science Market Update

The NIH has just announced that the Electronic Medical Records and Genomics (eMERGE) consortium of seven US medical research institutions has received an additional $25M in funding for Phase II of a series of projects to study how genetic information in patients' medical records can be used to improve their care.  As genome sequencing becomes increasingly affordable and more widely done, translational research is needed to show physicians how they might respond to indicators of genetic predisposition to disease in their treatment programs.  The eMERGE network was formed in 2007 "to develop, disseminate, and apply approaches to research that combine DNA biorepositories with electronic medical record (EMR) systems for large-scale, high-throughput genetic research," according to the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) branch of the NIH.

 The Center of Bioengineering Innovation & Design at Johns Hopkins University has recently received the honor to boast the first place winner of the 2011 ASME IShow: a competition inspiring students to invest in their own innovation and entrepreneurialism to develop a sustainable business model of a medical, technological, or robotic nature.

When Merck bought Sirna in 2006, the pharmaceutical giant took over Sirna's San Francisco Mission Bay research space at 1700 Owens St. and became the first major life science company to move into the up-and-coming biotech hub.  Except, of course, for biomedical research megastar University of California, San Francisco, which opened the first building of its Mission Bay Campus in 2003 and currently houses its Biochemistry & Biophysics Departments in Genentech Hall, Byers Hall and Rock Hall.  Also on the bayside campus are the William J Rutter Conference Center, Smith Cardiovascular Research Building, UCSF Housing, a child care center, the Helen Diller Family Cancer Research Building, the Orthpaedic Institute, and retail shops.  UCSF's real estate holdings at Mission Bay total 57 acres, and the University currently employs over 2000 people at the MB campus alone (before the opening of the future medical center complex and the new Neurosciences Laboratory and Clinical Research Building).

If you're in a modern building with an HVAC system, you probably think of it as a controlled environment: air, relatively clean, either warm or cold depending on the setting, is pumped in for your respiratory benefit.  Yet hospitals and schools are some of the worst places to go if you don't want to get sick, even if you never touch a single surface.  That's because the air is full of trillions of microbes, and buildings (any buildings) host their own complex ecosystems which we're just now starting to study.  Researchers in this relatively new field include biologists as well as architects who are working together to understand the "built environment microbiome."  The University of Oregon's BIOBE Center (Biology and the Built Environment) is a hub for this research into what makes a building good for human health, or not. 

Recently, Harvard scientists took on the challenge of expanding the catheter's capabilities to address specific requirements of open heart surgery while simultaneously offering a significantly less invasive approach to complex cardiac procedures.

Some call it the Golden Number, some the divine proportion, and even the most irrational number. Whatever name it goes by, scientists and mathematicians all agree that the number "phi", or 1.618..., in relation to 1 is one of the most intriguing anomalies in the natural and mathematic world.

The NSF has just announced funding for a new program to establish four Engineering Research Centers (ERCs) with over $70M in grants.  One of the four universities chosen to participate in the program is the University of Washington, which will receive $18.5M over the next five years for its ERC for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering (ERC/SNE).  Researchers will be designing and testing devices to restore or augment the body's capabilities for sensation and movement.  UW's Neurobotics Lab will take a lead in the ERC/SNE, along with biologists and scientists focused on human health.

In 2010, the vendor show on campus at UC Irvine attracted researchers from multiple departments around campus.  The most active attendee participation included researchers from the following departments:

The $62.5 million Linus Pauling Science Center on the corner of 29th and Campus Way in Corvallis, Oregon, is having its grand opening on Friday, October 14, 2011.  The new 105,000-square-foot building will house the Linus Pauling Institute, chemists from the College of Science, and contain classroom and laboratory space for students and researchers studying chemistry, biology, and the life sciences.  It is the largest donor-supported building project in the history of Oregon State University.  In addition to providing building funds, some 2,600 other donors have made gifts totaling more than $21 million to support the educational and research programs that will be housed in the building.

According to Richard Resnick, CEO of GenomeQuest: "The world has completely changed and none of you know about it." 

No more coolers for hearts on their way from donor to recipient.  UCLA Medical has recently successfully transplanted a warm, beating heart into 61-year-old man with cardiomyopathy.  The surgery was part of a clinical trial program that UCLA and other research hospitals in the United States are enrolled in to study the benefits of a new transport system for warm organs from Massachusetts company TransMedics.  The warm box technology is known as their Organ Care System (OCS), and it keeps the heart beating and operational throughout transport, rather than freezing it.  Specifically, the TransMedics system has these key functions, according to company specs:

San Antonio is about to celebrate the opening of a major new science research building: the STRF, or South Texas Research Facility on the campus of the University of Texas Health Science Center.  The 190,000sf state-of-the-art research facility is stretched over only three floors, so the building is low and long: 1000 feet long.  If you tipped over the Eiffel Tower...well, you get the idea.  UTHSCSA started planning the new lab and office space three years ago when it became clear that their research faculty was growing at a healthy rate, but their facilities were not keeping up.  When it is fully occupied, the STRF will house 350 faculty and staff members. Plans are to fill 60% of the building with current faculty and their research teams and to use the remaining space for new recruits, specifically 15 to 20 top scientists and their associates to be brought on board.

(Photo of Dr. Kim courtesy of UC Davis)

Pulling material from technical science publications that is directly applicable to the business of science marketplace is sometimes a challenge, however, here is a thought provoking publication by Greirson et al. that addresses something most of us rarely think about.

"Plants are fundamental to all life on Earth. They provide us with food, fuel, fiber, industrial feed stocks, and medicines. They render our atmosphere breathable. They buffer us against extremes of weather and provide food and shelter for much of the life on our planet. However, we take plants and the benefits they confer for granted."

Of the one hundred or so plant research questions posted, the critical 10 appear to revolve around human societies need for survival.
Including:

This story not only amazed us but brought home how important the work of researchers and medical equipment technology developers is in real time, right now, for saving the lives of actual people.  Read the update below, too. -- 12/23/2011

When the information superhighway bypassed the local library and newsstand to bring electronic content directly to our laptops, we were told it was a great day for the environment.  Think of all those trees that would no longer need to be cut down for paper!  What we didn't think about (right away, at least, in all the giddiness of the moment), was that those massive computer servers had to exist somewhere in real space, and boy were they ever going to use a lot of energy.  And all those computers downloading information were going to be a drain on some city's power supply too.

Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, have discovered a new stem cell that assists in repairing lung airways.  The discovery is significant because the airways are vital in protecting the body from airborne toxins. The airways contain glands that defend the body by producing and then removing mucus, a process which cleanses the lungs of infectious agents and environmental toxins. The study's findings have major potential for advancement in the field of lung regeneration.

Emory University continues to expand its capacity for medical research and care as it begins construction on a new building dedicated primarily to pediatric care. The new facility is envisioned as a partnership between Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and Emory as well as other Atlanta-area institutions such as the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Morehouse College School of Medicine.

Recognizing a strong opportunity for productive public-private partnership in bioscience research to benefit public health, NIH has awarded a 5-year, $5.2M grant to Boulder, Colorado-based diagnostics firm MBio to produce a reasonably-priced, no-lab-required assay system for accurate identification of the influenza virus.  Their winning project proposal includes this description:

We're very pleased to announce the newest addition to the Biotechnology Calendar, Inc. Front Line Event Calendar: on November 2 of this year (2011) we will hold our 1st Annual BioResearch Product Faire show on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin (UTA).  Front Line events have been extremely popular since we introduced them in 2010 as an alternative to our larger expositions, typically for a special request venue or a more targeted audience.  In the case of UT Austin we're venturing onto a campus without a medical school (yet), though that hasn't prevented the University from being a huge recipient of federal research grants.