Of the eleven scientists just announced as winners of the new Life Sciences Breakthrough Prize, four of them have their labs within a block or two of each other in Manhattan: two at Rockefeller University, one at Weill Cornell Medical College, and one at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. The prize, given to recognize past achievement in research aimed at curing disease and extending human life, comes with $3M to allow each of those researchers the freedom and flexibility to pursue even more groundbreaking work in the future. The founding sponsors of the prize are tech entrepreneurs Sergey Brin (Google) and Anne Wojcicki, Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) and Priscilla Chan, Art Levinson (Apple), and Yuri Milner (venture capitalist). The 11 winners this year will serve on the board to choose 5 winners each in subsequent years.
Tags: 2014, Rockefeller University, 2013, Northeast, cancer research, women in science, New York, Weill Cornell, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, RockU, BioResearch Product Faire Event, NY, New York City, Cancer Center, Rockefeller
The Brain Activity Map project could be the next big federal life science research endeavor, with no less a goal than the mapping of the entire living brain and all its neuronal activity. Like the Human Genome Project of the 90's, the not insignificant financial outlay is being presented as an investment that will net even bigger returns, both in terms of new technology and a vastly increased understanding of the mind. President Obama is expected to include the multi-billion dollar, decade-long funding in his upcoming budget proposal, and neuroscience research was a topic he addressed specifically in his recent State of the Union address.
Tags: 2014, CA, University of California San Diego, 2013, Northeast, University of California Berkeley, New York, Columbia University, Southwest, California, University of California, Berkeley, Neuroscience, San Diego, SDVS, Columbia, BioResearch Product Faire Event, Funding, UCSD, NY, NIH, Columbia University Medical Center, Biotechnology Vendor Showcase, Berkeley Labs, UCBerk
The National Eye Institute, an NIH agency dedicated to vision research, recently announced the winners of their Challenge to Identify Audacious Goals in Vision Research and Blindness Rehabilitation, or the Audacious Goals Challenge for short. The competition was open to professionals and members of the public and called upon them to think big and bold about vision research goals for the next decades. The prize money was nominal ($3,000) but included an invitation and travel money to attend and present their ideas at the NEI Audacious Goals Development Meeting in Maryland later this month. The real prize, of course, was the opportunity to help set research and funding goals for the next 10-12 years. Of the 500 or so proposals submitted, 10 visionaries were selected as winners.
Tags: University of Michigan, 2014, CA, Harvard University, Midwest, 2013, Northeast, university of utah, Washington University, Missouri, WashU, UUtah, St. Louis Bioresearch Product Faire Event, Oregon Health and Science University, Northwest, crowdsourcing, Vision Sciences Research, National Eye Institute (NEI), Blindness Rehabilitation, Southwest, University of Alabama, Southern, UT, Ann Arbor, Boston, BioResearch Product Faire Event, Funding, MI, MA, NIH, Harvard, OR, Salt Lake City, Birmingham, AL, UCSB, Santa Barbara, OHSU, Portland, UMich, UC Santa Barbara, Rehabilitation
Long considered one of the inferior senses, anyone who has lost their ability to taste as a result of age or cancer treatment will tell you life's luster is considerably dimmed in the absence of this sensory experience. Fortunately, research into taste and smell is going strong in Philadelphia at the Monell Chemical Senses Center, which is the only non-profit scientific basic research institute in the world dedicated entirely to understanding these intertwined senses. Once an entity within the University of Pennsylvania, the Center branched out on its own several decades ago, with labs a few blocks from the Penn campus on Market Street. Researchers at Monell work interdisciplinarily and many have joint appointments with Penn. Other research projects are carried out in conjunction with scientists at Thomas Jefferson University, also in Philly, and indeed with university and private lab investigators around the world.
Tags: 2014, 2013, Pennsylvania, Northeast, University of Pennsylvania, UPenn, Thomas Jefferson University, Stem cell research, taste buds, Monell Chemical Senses Center, Philadelphia, BioResearch Product Faire Event, PA, ThomJeff, taste
Longwood Medical Area is known as one of the most prestigious educational, medical and research areas in the United States. Located along Longwood Avenue in Boston, Massachusetts, Longwood Medical Area (LMA) is made up of teaching hospitals, medical facilities, and non-medical facilities; as well as some top educational institutes, such as Harvard Medical School.
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In order for HIV to proliferate and infect new cells in the body, a number of proteins need to interact with each other in just the right way. If they don't, the virus is not able to multiply and spread, and HIV infection cannot develop into full-blown Auto Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). It's a case of finding a weak link and exploiting its potential to disrupt an entire supply chain. In the University of Pittsburgh microbiology lab of Dr. Thomas Smithgall, this protein sabotage approach has successfully allowed them to identify a helper molecule that, if compromised, could form the basis of an effective new HIV/AIDS treatment therapy. The paper documenting their research appeared in the January 24 issue of Chemistry & Biology.
Tags: 2014, 2013, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Northeast, AIDS Research, Microbiology, UPITT, BioResearch Product Faire Event, PA, Pittsburgh
With this winter's epic flu invasion maxing out emergency room space and leaving pharmacies without enough flu vaccine, influenza research is a hot topic in the news. Inquiring minds want to know: when will we have the tools to put this mutating foe out of commission once and for all? One very interesting approach to the problem of outsmarting the flu virus involves disrupting its timing by altering a critical protein it needs to exit the cell. At Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, microbiologist and virologist Benjamin R. tenOever recently published an article on his lab research into the molecular basis of virus pathogenicity in the journal Cell Reports. He was also interviewed by NPR just last week for their shots health news program, where he described the carefully-orchestrated maneuvering of the flu virus both into and out of the host cell by likening it to a bank robbery. If one part of the plan doesn't go off like clockwork, the gig is up.
Tags: 2014, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, 2013, Northeast, Virology, influenza research, New York, MSSM, BioResearch Product Faire Event, NY, New York City, Life Science Technology, lab supplier, Mt. Sinai
The Parkinson's Disease Biomarkers Program (PDBP) is a recently-formed NIH initiative to advance research into biomarkers for the disease in order to better understand its progress and develop treatments. Some funded projects will focus on statistical analysis tools and data sharing among researchers. Others will examine early clinical manifestations of PD in patients. Still more will involve lab studies, including identification of genetic biomarkers as well as antibodies in the blood and changes in body chemistry. All projects "must inform the etiology, pathogenesis or treatment of PD," according to grant program guidelines. Research supported by the PDBP is being carried out at the 11 Morris K. Udall Centers of Excellence in Parkinson's Disease Research (logo right), directed by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) within the NIH.
Tags: 2014, 2013, Pennsylvania, Northeast, University of Pennsylvania, UPenn, Thomas Jefferson University, Parkinson's Disease Research, Biomarkers, Philadelphia, BioResearch Product Faire Event, Funding, Genomics, Neurology, NIH, Northeast Region, ThomJeff
Dr. Gary Michelson is a retired Los Angeles surgeon who made a lot of money ($1.35B) from a spinal surgical invention in 2005. Since then he's devoted himself and his considerable resources to philanthropy. One of his most passionate causes is reducing the rate of euthanasia for unwanted pets by promoting spaying and neutering, along with shelter adoption, training, and good vet care through the Los Angeles group Found Animals. Not content with the usual invasive practice of sterilizing pets, he also created the Michelson Prize and Grants to challenge research scientists to come up with a cheap, safe, and effective one-dose pill for cats and dogs to induce permanent infertility. The winner of the Michelson Prize in Reproductive Biology will take home $25M and the satisfaction of knowing that fewer pets will be put down because of overpopulation.
Tags: 2014, CA, 2013, University of Arizona, Northeast, University of Pennsylvania, UPenn, University of Southern California, vet care, veterinary research challenge, Northwest, crowdsourcing, Southwest, USC, Los Angeles, National Jewish Health, animal science, AZ, LAVS, Philadelphia, UAZ, BioResearch Product Faire Event, Denver, Front Line event, PA, CO, Biotechnology Vendor Showcase, Tucson, Irvine, UCI, UC Irvine, Dr. Gary Michelso, pets, spaying and neutering, NJH, UC Los Angeles
Neurobiology research has a long and storied history at Columbia University and its Medical School in New York, dating back to the groundbreaking work of American neurologist Harry Grundfest 60 years ago. 30 years ago Columbia became one of the first universities to bring together diverse, cross-disciplinary researchers in neighboring labs to study behavior at the cellular, molecular, and systems level. By 2004, when Columbia celebrated its 250th anniversary, university president Lee Bollinger (right) announced the formation of a Mind Brain Behavior Initiative to more productively bring scientists into an even more integrated research effort across not only the two existing New York City campuses, but with an anchor (and crossroads) at the new CU Manhattanville campus then in the active planning stages.
Tags: 2014, 2013, Northeast, New York, Columbia University, brain research, Neuroscience, Columbia, BioResearch Product Faire Event, Funding, Neurology, NY, New York City, Northeast Region, charitable giving