Genes
do what they do in conjunction with
other genes and proteins. The study
of their interaction -- systems
biology -- is one of the hot spots
in life sciences and a strength
of the Richmond, Va., biotech
sector.
by
Peter Galuszka
Dr. Gregory A. Buck, a convert to "systems
biology," a holistic approach to
studying how living
organisms work at a chemical level, uses a
metaphor to convey the thinking behind the
discipline.
Take the
Bible, cut up the words on
every page and drop them in a bag. Shake
them up, and then dump out the
words. Shorn of context, would the text
make any sense? Could you learn what happened to
Jonah in the whale or to Christ on the
cross?
Of
course not. But if you somehow managed to restring the words in
sequential sentences, you would have the
Bible again, both in its physical form
and as an understandable, readable
entity, if not the Word of God. The meaning of the words,
explains Buck, is an
"emergent property," dependent
upon the way they are strung together in
sentences, paragraphs and chapters.
Dr.
Gregory Buck
The
challenge of systems biology is
similar, says
Buck, who is director of the Center for
the Study of Biological Complexity and a professor of
Microbiology and Immunology at Virginia
Commonwealth University in Richmond. For
the Bible, substitute the human genome. For
words, substitute genes. Then toss in proteins and enzymes,
which help decide how the genes
work together.
Systems biology
considers an
organism as a living whole rather than
a mere sum of its parts. If the genomes are chopped up
piecemeal, they can be understood in
only a limited way, Buck says. Once
the pieces fit together, scientists
can examine how the subunits of
a living organism such as a human being work together as a beneficial
whole. Life is the emergent property of
the interactions of the genes and
proteins of a cell.
With such an omniscient template,
an entirely new day for pharmaceuticals,
medical treatments or biotechnology
could be at hand. Getting
to that day faster is the goal of researchers at VCU, the
Virginia Biotechnology Research Park and
several Richmond-area companies, small and
large, including Philip Morris USA. The
Greater Richmond area moved the clock forward in late March when VCU and the
Research Park sponsored a three-day
“Summit on Systems Biology” that
brought some of the leading names in the
field.
Eli
Lilly veteran Spencer Williamson takes the
helm at Intelliject, tasked with
commercializing the firm's revolutionary
auto-injector.
Intelliject
LLC has announced the appointment of T.
Spencer Williamson IV to the position of
President and CEO at the Virginia
BioTechnology Research Park.
Williamson
joins the company after 15 years with
Guidant Corporation, where he most recently
served as director of sales for the western
U.S. In this position he was
responsible for Guidant’s cardiac rhythm
management business. Williamson started his
career in the medical device and diagnostics
division of Eli Lilly, which spun off from
Lilly in 1994
to become Guidant Corporation. Guidant was
recently acquired by Boston Scientific.
Spencer
Williamson
IV
Intelliject,
a medical device company headquartered at
the Virginia BioTechnology Research Park,
has developed an innovative and compact
auto-injector platform which can be
utilized for the production of several
therapeutic delivery devices. Their
flagship product, the EpiCard, is a
credit-card sized auto-injector used to
deliver a dose of epinephrine, which is
necessary to stabilize anyone having a
severe allergic reaction. The innovative
aspect of this product involves its credit
card size and development around “human
factor engineering.”
“This
product was designed with the end user in
mind,” said Evan Edwards, vice president
of product development at Intelliject, who
has suffered from severe allergies since
childhood. “Seventy percent of people
who suffer from life-threatening allergies
do not carry the necessary dose of
epinephrine due to the bulky and
unmanageable size of the delivery device.
Our product will help to significantly
reduce that number and ultimately save
lives.” (April 18, 2006) More.
“Ge
m·u·t lich” inRichmond
Richmond
gives a “warm, friendly” welcome
to Hamburg-based m·u·t GmbH.
The
Virginia BioTechnology Research Park
recently welcomed its newest tenant,
m·u·t America, Inc., the U.S.
subsidiary of parent company, m·u·t
GmbH based in Hamburg, Germany.
m·u·t,
which stands for “market-driven
understanding of technology,”
creates products in the field of
spectroscopy, laboratory automation,
aviation technology and early fire
detection. “Photonics,” the
combination of optics and
electronics, is the company’s core
technology.
The
Richmond office will help m·u·t
serve its existing customers more
efficiently and capitalize on new
business opportunities. According to
Heino Pruess, CEO of m·u·t, the
parent company’s business model
will be transferred to the States
with adaptations for the needs of
the U.S. market. The U.S. office
will focus on the local market but
also support the global presence and
marketing strategy of m·u·t.(Feb.
26, 2006)More.
Good
for Romance,
Great
for the Heart
Levitra
may help your love life, but a VCU
researcher finds that it also can save your
life life.
The
widely used erectile dysfunction drug
Levitra is now the second drug in its class
found to protect the heart against tissue
damage following acute heart attack,
according to a new study by Virginia
Commonwealth University researchers.
“Our
findings further support the concept that
the novel class of phosphodiesterase-5
inhibitors, or PDE-5 inhibitors, including
Levitra and Viagra, may have a new utility
in cardiac protection, in addition to their
well-known use for the management of
erectile dysfunction in men,” said Rakesh
C. Kukreja, Ph.D., professor of medicine,
physiology, biochemistry and emergency
medicine at VCU. Kukreja is lead author of
the study. (Feb. 14, 2006)More.
News
Business
Insmed
Raises $46 Million. Insmed
Incorporated, a developer of drugs for the
treatment of metabolic diseases and
endocrine disorders, has netted $46
million in a public offering. The company
will use the proceeds for working capital
and the commercial launch and manufacturing of
IPLEX, a drug that treats children with
insufficient quantities of insulin-like
growth factor-I. (May 12, 2006)More.
Vital
Sensors Secures $1 Million. Vital
Sensors, Inc., a medical device company
located in the Virginia Biotechnology
Research Park, has completed a $1 million
seed financing round. The company will use
the bridge money to continue developing a
sensor device that, when implanted,
measures intra-cardiac pressure. (Jan. 23, 2006)More.
Ceres
Contracts with Misonix. Ceres
Biotechnologies, LLC, a tenant of the
Virginia Biotechnology Research Park, will
assist Misonix, Inc., a medical device
company in Farmingdale, N.Y., bring to
market its ultrasonic medical devices for
people with severe hearing impairment. (Jan. 23, 2006)More.
CBI
Partners with Genomics Center.
Commonwealth Biotechnologies, Inc., has
signed an agreement with the Center for
Functional Genomics, affiliated with the
State University of New York, to co-market
their respective services to the life
sciences industry. (Feb. 22, 2006)More.
CBI
Licenses Peptide Technologies.
Commonwealth Biotechnologies, Inc., has
agreed to license its helix-based peptide
technologies to Prism Pharmaceuticals,
Inc., of King of Prussia, Pa., for
development, manufacture and
commercialization. The compounds are under
investigation for the treatment of acute
care cardiovascular indications. (Jan.
5, 2006)More.
Bostwick
Offers New Prostate Test. Bostwick
Laboratories, a diagnostic lab
specializing in urological diseases, has
introduced Selenium- Health, a test that
allows men to test for prostate cancer
risk by submitting toenail clippings for
analysis. (April 12, 2006)More.
Bostwick
Introduces Genetic Test. Bostwick
Laboratories, Inc., a diagnostic lab
specializing in urological diseases, has
made available PCA3Plus, a urine-based
genetic test for prostate cancer risk,
exclusively through Bostwick. (May
4, 2006)More.
Research
Kukreja
Wins $4 Million Grant. Rakesh C.
Kukreja, a VCU radiology professor who has
been studying how male impotence drugs can
help protect or minimize muscle damage
following a heart attack, has received a
MERIT award from The National Institutes
of Health’s National Heart, Lung and
Blood Institute totaling nearly $4
million. (March 21, 2006)More.
VCU
Docs Implant Artificial Heart. A
cardiac surgery team at Virginia
Commonwealth University’s Pauley Heart
Center has performed the first artificial
heart implant on the East Coast. The
CardioWest temporary Total Artificial
Heart pumps up to 9.5 liters of blood per
minute through both ventricles, helping to
rejuvenate vital organs that have
atrophied due to a failing heart.
(April 4, 2006)More.
VCU
Patents Blood Oxygen Barometer. VCU
researchers have developed and patented a
new means of measuring blood oxygen levels
in tissue – a key barometer of how well
the body is functioning, especially during
a trauma as inadequate oxygenation can
lead to organ failure and death. The new
technology uses a low-energy laser light
that is shone under the tongue to measure
how well the tissues are receiving and
using oxygen. (March 2, 2006) More.
VCU
Prof to Improve DNA forensics. Tracey
Dawson Cruz, a VCU forensics professor, has
won a $225,000 grant from the National
Institute of Justice to improve techniques
for evaluating low-level traces of DNA. (Jan. 25,
2006) More.
Insmed
Completes Clinical Trial. Insmed
Incorporated has completed a 24-month
clinical trial of its IPLEX drug,
demonstrating that treatment of children
with severe deficiencies of the
insulin-like growth factor-1 resulted in
an increase in growth rate and a favorable
safety profile. (May 1, 2006) More.
Honors
AdvanceTEC Honored. AdvanceTEC, LLC, has won the 2006 Controlled
Environments Experts’ Choice Award from Controlled Environmental Magazine, for work performed on the Naval Research Laboratory Institute for
Nano science. More.
