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Q1 Biotechnology News

Hamner Receives Grant For Respiratory Research
The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences has announced that Dr. Yin Chen, an assistant investigator in the Division of Translational Biology at The Hamner Institute for Life Sciences, has been awarded a $2.1-million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases/National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIH five-year grant will allow Dr. Chen and his team to study mucous cell development. The goal of the research is to advance the understanding of mucus production in order to better treat asthma, a chronic lung disease.
Dr. Chen’s research focuses on the causes of excessive mucus production, a major contributing factor to airway obstruction, in chronic lung diseases, such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and cystic fibrosis. He holds a U.S. Patent for “Compositions and Methods for the Analysis of Mucin Gene Expression and Identification of Drugs Having the Ability to Inhibit Mucin Gene Expression.” Prior to joining The Hamner, he was an assistant biologist at the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care, Department of Internal Medicine, University of California School of Medicine at Davis, Calif. Dr. Chen maintains memberships in the American Society for Virology, the American Thoracic Society and the American Physiological Society. He received a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Nanjing University in China and a doctorate in genetics from the University of California at Davis.


NCSU receives grant to study nanoparticles
In order to help people better understand emerging research on the safety of the tiny substances called nanoparticles, the National Science Foundation has awarded NCSU’s Dr. David Berube a $1.4-million grant to determine how the public absorbs scientific information on emerging technology and other technical issues.
Berube says that this four-year grant will focus on how the public interprets information about the potential health risks of nanotechnology. Berube notes that the study of how people understand such risks can be tricky because “a lot of this information is about life and death, and most people have trouble understanding the difference between a risk of 1 in 1 billion and a risk of 1 in 1,000.”
As the emerging science of nanotechnology continues to expand, Berube says that it is becoming increasingly important to determine the best way of getting accurate information out to the public and to state and federal regulators – so that they can make informed decisions about what is and is not safe.
Berube will be using the grant to hold a two-day conference titled, “Communicating Risk in the 21st Century,” in Raleigh this summer, and will also provide opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students at NCSU to become involved in the research effort.


Duke finds cost of placebo makes a difference
A 10-cent pill doesn’t kill pain as well as a $2.50 pill, even when they are identical placebos, according to a study by Dan Ariely, a behavioral economist at Duke University.
Ariely and a team of collaborators at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) used a standard protocol for administering light electric shock to participants’ wrists to measure their subjective rating of pain. The 82 study subjects were tested before getting the placebo and after. Half the participants were given a brochure describing the pill as a newly-approved pain-killer that cost $2.50 per dose and half were given a brochure describing it as marked down to 10 cents, without saying why.
In the full-price group, 85 percent of subjects experienced a reduction in pain after taking the placebo. In the low-price group, 61 percent said the pain was less.
The finding points to a host of larger questions, Ariely says.
The results fit with existing data about how people perceive quality and how they anticipate therapeutic effects, he says. But what’s interesting is the combination of the price-sensitive consumer expectation with the well-known placebo effect of being told a pill works. “The placebo effect is one of the most fascinating, least harnessed forces in the universe,” Ariely says. “How do we give people cheaper medication, or a generic, without them thinking it won’t work?” he asks.
The study was funded by MIT.


Metabolon announces new platform
Metabolon, Inc., a Durham-based diagnostics and services company, launched a third-generation metabolomics platform that powers its mVision global biochemical profiling service and its diagnostic product development.

Adherex gets orphan drug designation
Adherex Technologies of Durham, which specializes in cancer treatments, received the FDA’s orphan drug designation for ADH-1, a drug used for malignant melanoma. Adherex will add two centers to the ongoing Phase IIb trial.

Precision Biosciences receives grant
Precision BioSciences, Inc. received a Phase I SBIR grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. The award will enable the company to initiate pre-clinical research into a cystic fibrosis therapeutic using the firm’s Directed Nuclease Editor technology.

Parata offers customized packaging
Parata Systems launched the onePAC prescription package system that seals medicines in arthritic-friendly clear plastic packets custom-printed with the person’s name; day and time of dose; medication names, strengths and descriptions.

Addrenex files first new drug application
Durham-based Addrenex Pharmaceuticals, Inc., filed a new drug application for CloniBID to treat hypertension. Once approved by the Food and Drug Administration, Addrenex and its licensing partner Sciele Pharma, Inc. will launch the drug in the first half of 2009.

Biomarck cleared for Phase 2 trial
BioMarck Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical company that targets respiratory disease, will move on to Phase 2 clinical trials of its inhalation solution for chronic respiratory disease. This comes on the heels of securing $4M in venture funding. 

Vaccine prevents prostate cancer in mice A prostate cancer vaccine prevented the development of cancer in 90 percent of mice genetically predestined to develop the disease, according to an article in Cancer Research co-authored by researchers from AlphaVax, Inc. and the University of So. Calif.

Salix Partners to develop generic drug
Raleigh-based Salix has agreed to work with California-based Watson Pharma to offer a generic version of its drug Colazal, which treats mildly to moderately active ulcerative colitis. Salix is looking to increase its market share by offering this generic version.

GSK files with FDA for new drug
GlaxoSmithKline has submitted a new blood disorder drug, Promacta, for approval by the FDA. The treatment is delivered orally and triggers blood platelet growth and helps reduce or prevent bleeding in patients with chronic idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura.