The National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), announced that it will provide $33.3 million for 20 High-End Instrumentation (HEI) grants to fund the latest generation of advanced research equipment. Awarded to research institutions nationwide, these one-time grants, which support the purchase of sophisticated research equipment costing more than $750,000, offer extraordinary potential to impact a wide variety of biomedical research in many disease areas. Read the press release.
Genzyme Corp. and PTC Therapeutics announced an exclusive global collaboration to develop and commercialize PTC124, PTC's novel oral therapy in late-stage development for the treatment of genetic disorders due to nonsense mutations. Under the terms of the agreement, PTC will commercialize PTC124 in the United States and Canada, and Genzyme will commercialize the treatment in all other countries. Genzyme will make an up-front payment of $100 million to PTC, plus potential milestone and royalty payments. PTC will be financially responsible for one ongoing and three additional clinical trials of PTC124, which is potentially applicable to hundreds of genetic diseases. Read the press release.
Caliper Life Sciences introduced two microfluidics-based separations products, the LabChip GX and LabChip GXII benchtop systems, for fast, automated, 1-D electrophoretic separations of protein, DNA, and RNA samples. The LabChip GX represents a low price entry system targeted at genomics applications, while the GXII combines both genomics and protein research applications. The LabChip GX series of instruments will be marketed by Caliper and is designed to provide scientists novel benefits including extended walk away time, higher throughput and economical plate processing ability. Read the press release.
Chicago futures trader William Eckhardt has donated $20 million to boost scientific research at the University of Chicago, school officials announced. The donation will go toward several ongoing efforts, particularly those focused on the physical sciences. U. of C. plans include a new Center for Physical and Computational Sciences, with construction set to begin in fall 2010, and expanded programs in genomics and the neurosciences. Faculty members also have proposed establishing a new molecular engineering institute. Read more in the Chicago Tribune.
Genomatix Software Inc., the U.S. branch of Munich (Germany) based Genomatix Software GmbH, announced that it has reached an agreement with Pfizer Pharmaceuticals to provide Genomatix software and data content to Pfizer sites across the globe. The Genomatix tools licensed by Pfizer are designed to show how genes are regulated at a molecular level, and Pfizer scientists will use the software and data content to help understand the molecular basis of how their potential drug targets may be co-regulated with other important targets, producing potential desirable or unwanted side-effects. Read the press release.
Bio-Rad Laboratories launched a new siLentMer siRNA search tool that offers a way to review Bio-Rad’s library of validated siRNA gene targets by searching for a siRNA (by gene symbol, NCBI accession number or Bio-Rad catalog number) or browsing either the research panels they are categorized into or an alphabetical listing of the target gene symbols. Bio-Rad’s siLentMer siRNA duplexes are based on the novel Dicer-substrate siRNA technology, which contributes to their high potency and ability to use very low siRNA concentrations per experiment. Additionally, Bio-Rad validates each siRNA sequence to ensure its effectiveness in knocking down at least 85 percent of the target mRNA expression level.