The MIND (Mental Illness and Neuroscience Discovery) Institute and the National Center for Genome Resources (NCGR) announced today the establishment of a pioneering research partnership to identify the genetic basis of schizophrenia. The Schizophrenia Genome Project (SGP) will combine resources and expertise from these leading research centers to identify schizophrenia predisposition and protection genes. The risk of developing schizophrenia is widely considered to be directly related to those genes. Investigators at MIND and NCGR will identify common schizophrenia genes by sequencing and analyzing the entire genetic code (three billion base pairs of DNA) of affected individuals to discover all mutation candidates. Schizophrenia genes will be confirmed by comparing these candidate mutations in both affected and normal individuals. Website: www.ncgr.org.
Sequenom Inc. today announced commitments by ComVest Investment Partners II LLC, Pequot Private Equity Fund IV, L.P., and L BI Group, Inc. (an affiliate of Lehman Brothers), for $30 million. Under the terms of the transaction, subject to shareholder approval and other closing conditions, the Company will issue to the investors 54,545,454 shares of common stock as well as 32,727,272 common stock purchase warrants exercisable at $0.70 per share. The transaction is expected to close by May 31, 2006. Net proceeds from the transaction will be used for general working capital needs. Read the press release.
Elsevier MDL and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have linked databases to make it easier and quicker for academic, government, pharmaceutical and other researchers to obtain more comprehensive information, improve decision-making and support discovery breakthroughs. The NIH's freely available PubChem database of small molecule data, designed to support links to outside chemical information resources, is now cross-indexed with the Compound Index hosted on Elsevier MDL's DiscoveryGate platform. Read the press release.
Genizon BioSciences announced it has closed a $12.4 million first tranche of a secured convertible debenture financing. Investors include venture capital companies HBM Bioventures, Biofund Management, MVI Finance and Carnegie, as well as Genizon management, Board members and employees, private investors and Illumina, Inc., a leading developer of tools for the large-scale analysis of genetic variation and function. Read the press release.
Dynavax Technologies Corporation announced its plan to acquire biopharmaceutical and vaccine manufacturer Rhein Biotech GmbH in a cash transaction of approximately $12 million. Rhein Biotech GmbH is part of Rhein Biotech NV, a company 93%-owned by Berna Biotech AG. Through this acquisition, Dynavax gains ownership of a European Union (EU) GMP-certified vaccine manufacturing facility, control over the production of hepatitis B surface antigen and potentially other antigens to support clinical and commercial programs, management and personnel with proven expertise in biopharmaceutical product development and production, and a complementary pipeline of vaccine and antiviral products. The transaction enables Crucell to continue to focus on core competencies by divesting a non-strategic asset. Read the press release.
Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) has enriched its databases with a record-breaking quantity of properties data and other substance and document information, building upon its reputation as a major information resource for chemistry and related research. Nearly 1.1 billion predicted and experimental properties, tags that refer to additional data, and spectra have been added to CAS Registry records for 19 million substances. CAS demonstrated its new database content and search enhancements at the American Chemical Society national meeting held this week in Atlanta. Read the press release.