Frontiers launches new open-access journal in Bioengineering and Biotechnology – EurekAlert (press release)
By Dr. Matthew Watson
Frontiers launches new open-access journal in Bioengineering and Biotechnology EurekAlert (press release) Frontiers, one of the world's largest and fastest growing open-access publishers, announces the launch of a new journal, Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology. A broad scope journal covering all specialties, Frontiers in Bioengineering and ... |
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May 26th, 2013
Generex Biotechnology Corporation (OTCMKTS:GNBT) down by 14.51%, Excel … – GSPInsider
By Dr. Matthew Watson
Generex Biotechnology Corporation (OTCMKTS:GNBT) down by 14.51%, Excel ... GSPInsider Miami, FL 05/24/2013 (GDPInsider) – Generex Biotechnology Corporation (OTCMKTS:GNBT) is trading down by about 14.51% to trade at $0.0330, with a volume of about 10.34 million shares. The introductory price for the stock for the day is $0.04 as ... Active Morning Movers - Northumberland Resources Inc (OTCMKTS:NHUR ...SBWire (press release) Nano Cap Stocks In Focus – Venaxis Inc(NASDAQ:APPY), Generex ...Techsonian (press release) |
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May 26th, 2013
Biotechnology ETF Investing 101 – ETF News And Commentary – NASDAQ
By Dr. Matthew Watson
Biotechnology ETF Investing 101 - ETF News And Commentary NASDAQ With ever-increasing health care spending and insatiable demand for new drugs, the biotechnology sector looks poised for good growth going forward. Furthermore, the U.S. biotech sector represents an attractive investment opportunity thanks to increased ... |
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May 26th, 2013
Sanford Research Team Discovers Promising Batten Disease Therapy – PR Web (press release)
By Dr. Matthew Watson
Sanford Research Team Discovers Promising Batten Disease Therapy PR Web (press release) A team from Sanford Research has discovered a potentially promising therapy for reducing the degenerative effects of Batten disease, according to a recent study published by Human Molecular Genetics. Sanford Research's Jake Miller, Chun-Hung Chan, ... |
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May 26th, 2013
Microbiologist at Walker Rotary meeting – Walker Pilot Independent
By Dr. Matthew Watson
Microbiologist at Walker Rotary meeting Walker Pilot Independent He has done research in food and agricultural biotechnology with Molecular Genetics Inc., Pillsbury-Green Giant and Northrup King-Novartis. Bill has co-authored two patents, authored or co-authored 14 publications in scientific books and peer-reviewed ... |
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May 26th, 2013
Common Food Supplement Fights Degenerative Brain Disorders, Study Suggests – Science Daily (press release)
By Dr. Matthew Watson
 Times of India | Common Food Supplement Fights Degenerative Brain Disorders, Study Suggests Science Daily (press release) Gil Ast and Dr. Ron Bochner of Tel Aviv University's Department of Human Molecular Genetics has discovered that the same supplement improves the functioning of genes involved in degenerative brain disorders, including Parkinson's disease and Familial ... Phosphatidylserine Supplement Could Combat Degenerative Brain DisordersMedical Daily |
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May 26th, 2013
[Development of an adenovirus vector containing a hepatitis C virus expression cassette and its application].
By Dr. Matthew Watson
Authors: Yoshida T, Kondoh M, Mizuguchi H, Yagi K
Abstract
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a hepatotropic member of the Flaviviridae family and contains a 9.6 kb positive-sense RNA genome. Approximately 170-million people are infected with HCV worldwide. These people face increased risks of chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma compared with the general population. Transduction of the HCV genome into hepatocytes is essential for understanding the mode of action of HCV infection, and for preparing HCV, evaluating HCV replication, and screening anti-HCV drugs. Although electroporation of in vitro-synthesized HCV genome and transduction of plasmid vectors containing the HCV genome are widely used in HCV research, a more convenient system with higher transduction efficie...
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May 26th, 2013
Multimillion Dollar Carrots for Stem Cell Research in California
By Dr. Matthew Watson
Directors of the California stem cell
agency approved an $80 million business-friendly plan that will
dangle multimillion dollar carrots before biotech firms in an effort
to push therapies into the marketplace.
CIRM to take part in early stage clinical trials at no risk and could
generate a list of achievements that will be useful in creating
support for fresh funding after CIRM's money runs out in 2017.
CIRM that involves no upfront payments. Instead, recipients will have
to meet agreed-upon criteria to receive either grants or loans.
“The major development milestone and
success criteria will be mutually agreed upon between CIRM and the
applicant at the beginning of the project(s) and at a minimum will
require completion of a clinical trial that shows some level of
biological activity/clinical efficacy and safety. The advantage to
CIRM of this...is that CIRM funds will only be applied to projects
that are successful.”
agency calls its strategic partnership plan, which also has a more
conventional aspect, providing loans and grants in advance.
also today approved a $6.4 million award to Sangamo BioSciences of
Richmond, Ca., to help develop a therapy for
beta-thalassemia. The firm will have to match the amount of the
award.
Source:Stem Cell Therapy
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May 26th, 2013
California Stem Cell Agency: 5 Percent Budget Increase for Coming Fiscal Year
By Dr. Matthew Watson
Directors of the California stem cell
agency today approved a $17.4 million operating budget for the fiscal
year beginning July 1, an increase of 5.1 percent over spending for
the current year.
its budget as a decrease in spending. Directors were told that it
represented a 3 percent decline from the current year. However, the
comparison is not made to actual spending for this year. Instead, the
staff compares the 2013-14 budget to budget figures proposed last
May, which are now no more than time-worn ephemera.
and benefits ($12.2 million ) with outside contracting running next
($2 million). (See here for details.) The budget projects 59 employees for next year
compared to 57 currently. CIRM staff said the number of employees is expected to remain about
the same until 2017 or so when its workload is projected to diminish.
money for new grants in 2017, but it is working on a plan to develop
a combination of private and public funding to continue its work.
overseeing about $1.8 billion in nearly 600 grants and loans plus
developing new research proposals that are likely to be funded in the
next few years. The operational budget is capped by law at 6 percent
of the amount of funds the agency distributes over its lifetime.
Source:Stem Cell Therapy
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May 26th, 2013
$36 Million Recruitment: Names of Researchers Being Lured to California
By Dr. Matthew Watson
Here are the names of the researchers being recruited to California by the California stem cell agency with $36 million in awards. The sixth asked not to be revealed since he/she has yet to tell the current institution and are in
negotiations with their new institution
Nakauchi of the University of Tokyo, who would be moving to Stanford
University
R. Stripp of Duke moving to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Gregory of Harvard and Children’s Hospital, Boston moving to UC
Santa Cruz
Ahrens of Carnegie Mellon moving to UC San Diego
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/uqpFc/~3/Kbc3TScH6ds/36-million-recruitment-names-of.html
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May 26th, 2013
Stem Cell Agency Approves $36 million to Recruit Six Scientists to California
By Dr. Matthew Watson
The California stem cell agency today
awarded $36 million to six scientists to lure them to the Golden
State, in what was the agency's largest-ever recruiting round.
of CIRM has spent on recruitment. Until today, the agency had awarded
only $23.2 million for four awards.
to $4.8 million. The agency did not immediately identify the recipients. However, testimony at the meeting indicated that two of the institutions involved were UC San Francisco and the Gladstone Institute (the $7.5 million award) and UC Santa Cruz (a $5.4 million award). (The agency later released the list, which can be found here. Here is a link to the CIRM press release.)
The differences in the size of the awards had to do with the overhead charges that are levied by the institutions at which the scientists would work, CIRM staff said. The "direct costs" of the research for each grant was $4.5 million.
latest round, including one that was scored at 75 that was rejected by grant reviewers. However, CIRM staff recommended that application, which involved UC San Francisco and Gladstone, be funded. (See here and here.)
The Parkinson's Institute; Andrew McMahon, USC, and Peter Coffey, UC
Santa Barbara.
Source:Stem Cell Therapy
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May 26th, 2013
California Stem Cell Agency to Court Patient Groups This Summer
By Dr. Matthew Watson
Jonathan Thomas, chairman of the California stem cell agency, said this morning that he and a team from the agency will begin a round of meetings this summer with patient advocate groups throughout the state.
He said the effort is aimed at keeping the groups up to speed on developments at CIRM. While Thomas did not mention it to the agency's governing board, it is also critical that the agency have strong support from patient advocate groups as it tries to develop new sources of funding, either public or private.
The agency will run out of cash for new grants in 2017 and hopes to have a plan for the future before the board later this year. Its initial assumptions include as much as $200 million in onetime public funding with more cash coming from the private sector.
Currently the agency is funded by state bonds at a cost of about $6 billion, including interest. It spends roughly $300 million a year on grants and loans for research.
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/uqpFc/~3/lra474LHezU/california-stem-cell-agency-to-court.html
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May 26th, 2013
Nature Reports on Lee Hood Conflict Case
By Dr. Matthew Watson
The journal Nature and genomeweb.com
today picked up the story from the California Stem Cell Report about
the conflict of interest case at the California stem cell agency involving renown scientist Lee Hood of
Seattle, Wash.
Internet also relayed various versions of the story. The facts were
first reported on this blog yesterday. The matter involved a $24
million application for a genome project involving Irv Weissman of
Stanford. Hood was one of the reviewers in the round. Hood and
Weissman are longtime friends and own property together in Montana.
They have also have a number of professional relationships.
additionally referred to ongoing conflict of interest issues at the agency,
including the findings of an Institute of Medicine study. Harold Shapiro, head of the study, said the agency directors make "proposals to themselves, essentially, regarding what should be funded. They cannot exert independent oversight."
did not mention the IOM study.
Source:Grant Reviewer Conflict in $40 Million Round at California Stem Cell Agency
By Dr. Matthew Watson
Internationally renown scientist Lee
Hood, winner of a National Medal of Science, violated the conflict of
interest policies of the California stem cell agency earlier this
year when he was involved in reviewing applications in a $40 million round to create genomics centers in California.
 |
| Lee Hood Institute of Systems Biology photo |
February violation in letters dated April 2 to the leadership of the
California Legislature. The letter (full text below)
said that Hood “agreed that there was a conflict of interest that
he had overlooked.”
million application that included participation by another eminent
scientist, Irv Weissman of Stanford University, and funding for facilities at
Stanford.
Weissman in Montana. In 2008, San Francisco Magazine, in a well-reported piece on the ballot measure that created the stem cell
agency, described the property as a ranch and Hood as Weissman's
“good buddy.” Hood has co-authored research papers with
Weissman. Both are on the scientific advisory board of Cellerant
Therapeutics, Inc., of San Carlos, Ca., a firm co-founded by
Weissman. Hood's nonprofit firm, Institute for Systems Biology in
Seattle, lists Stanford as a partner in the genetics of aging in humans. At Stanford, Weissman is director of the Institute
for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, whose research
involves aging. Weissman also serves on the Hood's institute's scientific advisory board.
yesterday by the California Stem Cell Report for his perspective on
the conflict of interest matter.
agency during the review. It was raised by another reviewer at the
end of the review, which, for the first time in CIRM history, failed
to conclude with a decision supporting any of the proposals.
Reviewers' comments have been sent back to applicants with another
review scheduled for November. The agency said Hood will not take
part in that session.
today that Hood's conflict was “clearly a case of a new reviewer
making an innocent error.” McCormack said it was not a violation of
the state's conflict of interest law. The agency's conflict policies
go beyond economic issues and deal with personal and professional
conflicts.
“Dr. Hood had not previously
participated in a meeting of the GWG(grant review group), and as a
result, he was not familiar with CIRM’s conflict of interest
policy, particularly the policy’s inclusion of 'personal' conflicts of interest. Thus, when he completed the conflict of
interest form for the Genomics Awards review, he inadvertently
neglected to indicate that he had a personal relationship with an
investigator who was involved in one component of a joint application
submitted by two institutions. Dr. Hood and the investigator are
close personal friends and their families own vacation property
together. Because of his personal relationship with the
investigator, Dr. Hood had a conflict of interest with respect to the
joint application under CIRM’s conflict of interest policies.”
been a guest at the Montana ranch, and whether he recruited Hood as a
reviewer. Last year, Trounson excused himself from participating in
public discussion of another application involving Weissman.
“Alan helps recruit many reviewers,
including in this case Dr. Hood, but he is not involved in assigning
reviewers to individual applications.”
was easily detectable in routine searches on the Internet, including
a Google search on the search term “lee hood irv weissman.” The first
two entries in that search yesterday turned up serious red flags.
sort of serious examination” of the confidential statements of
interests filed by reviewers prior to review sessions, McCormack said,
“Yes, we do a serious examination of
statements of interest from all our reviewers. However, this conflict
was not identified by the reviewer either in the financial disclosure
statement or identified in the conflict of interest list. Normally we
do not check Google for all possible combinations of 15 GWG reviewers
times about 200 individuals listed in these applications. That would
be about 3000 independent Google searches to identify a possible
conflict.”
that it plans to “amend its regulations to add greater clarity in
an effort to prevent future conflicts from arising and to augment its
efforts to educate reviewers, particularly new reviewers.”
questionable activities involving the stem cell agency, which is
trying to come up with a plan to sustain itself after its state
funding runs out in 2017(see here, here and here). The agency is
giving more-than-serious consideration to an effort to raise funds
from the private sector, which can lead to new and more difficult
ethical considerations than a state-funded agency would normally face.
demonstrate is that the $3 billion agency needs to give much more
thought, to put it mildly, to its policies ranging from conflicts of
interest to incompatible employee/director activities to the conduct
of top management in providing special treatment for donors.
interests of reviewers are not examined closely for their accuracy by
CIRM staff and attorneys. McCormack's remarks clearly indicate that
the agency does not think it has time to be sure that no conflicts
exist among its plethora of reviewers. That is precisely the reason
reviewers' statements of interests – economic, professional and
personal – should be made public rather than kept under wraps
by CIRM. Then, interested parties, presumably mainly applicants, can
check a panel of reviewers, if they wish, for conflicts in a
particular round. Obviously, the agency can and should withhold the
names of reviewers examining a specific application – the release
of the names on the panel in a given review session is sufficient.
evaluation subcommittee meets privately to discuss Alan Trounson's
performance. It appears to be the second part of an evaluation
process that began last October. Trounson's involvement with Weissman
and Hood -- and his actions in connection with a $21,630 gift from a member of the public, albeit a not-so-ordinary member of the public
-- should also be on the evaluation subcommittee agenda.
Source:Stem Cell Therapy
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May 26th, 2013
Text of CIRM Comments on Lee Hood Questions
By Dr. Matthew Watson
Here is the full text of the statement
today by Kevin McCormack, senior director for public communications
at the California stem cell agency, in connection with the conflict
of interest issue involving Lee Hood, president of Institute for
Systems Biology of Seattle, Wash. See here for a story on the matter.
to the following questions from the California Stem Cell Report.
“Did (CIRM President Alan) Trounson
recruit Hood to serve on the grants working group?
“Does CIRM perform any sort of
serious examination of the statements of interests of its scientific
reviewers prior to specific review sessions. The conflict involving
Weissman and Hood was easily detected by a Google search. The first
two entries on the search term "lee hood irv weissman"
raise serious red flags. Additionally, I imagine it is more than
common knowledge among many in the scientific community that
these two scientists are longtime friends.”
“Alan helps recruit many reviewers,
including in this case Dr. Hood, but he is not involved in assigning
reviewers to individual applications. Furthermore he expects all
reviewers to declare whatever conflicts they have.
“Yes, we do a serious examination of
statements of interest from all our reviewers. However, this conflict
was not identified by the reviewer either in the financial disclosure
statement or identified in the conflict of interest list. Normally we
do not check Google for all possible combinations of 15 GWG reviewers
times about 200 individuals listed in these applications. That would
be about 3000 independent Google searches to identify a possible
conflict. While this relationship may be known to some it certainly
was not known to the CIRM staff who checked the conflicts. If it had
been they would have raised it before the meeting.“It's also important to point out
that Dr. Hood was a new member of this review panel and was not
familiar with our conflict of interest rules. This was clearly a case
of a new reviewer making an innocent error.“Finally, CIRM’s rules are stricter
than state law, and this would not have been a conflict under
California conflict of interest law.”
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/uqpFc/~3/1ndmVIt2OlQ/text-of-cirm-comments-on-lee-hood.html
Compound In Mediterranean Diet Makes Cancer Cells ‘Mortal’ – South Asia Mail
By Dr. Matthew Watson
Compound In Mediterranean Diet Makes Cancer Cells 'Mortal' South Asia Mail "We know we need to eat healthfully, but in most cases we don't know the actual mechanistic reasons for why we need to do that," said Andrea Doseff, associate professor of internal medicine and molecular genetics at Ohio State and a co-lead author of ... |
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May 26th, 2013
Argentine residents protest against biotechnology company "Monsanto" – Xinhua
By Dr. Matthew Watson
 Xinhua | Argentine residents protest against biotechnology company "Monsanto" Xinhua Residents attend a protest in front of the headquarters of the company "Monsanto", specialized on biotechnology, in the city of Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina, May 25, 2013. On Saturday, Argentine residents joined the international "World March ... |
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May 25th, 2013
Anti-Monsanto crowd takes to the streets in Rockland to protest genetically … – Bangor Daily News
By Dr. Matthew Watson
Anti-Monsanto crowd takes to the streets in Rockland to protest genetically ... Bangor Daily News But Benildo de los Reyes, a University of Maine molecular genetics professor, said that it is frustrating that many people have such negative views about science that they don't fully understand. “A very powerful tool is being wasted because of ... |
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May 25th, 2013
Stem Cell Therapy Worldwide – Video
By daniellenierenberg
Stem Cell Therapy Worldwide
http://www.placidway.com/ - Looking for best and affordable stem cell therapy? Placidway offers best and most affordable stem cell therapy with the top docto...
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May 24th, 2013
LaViv stem cell therapy for acne scars – Video
By LizaAVILA
LaViv stem cell therapy for acne scars
Dermatologist and cosmetic surgeon Dr. Melanie Palm of http://www.artofskinmd.com discusses and demonstrates the use of LaVIV, the first available personalized stem...
By: melaniepalm
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LaViv stem cell therapy for acne scars - Video
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May 22nd, 2013