WEEKLY E-NEWS FROM THE NORTH CAROLINA BIOTECHNOLOGY CENTER

IN FOCUS FEATURE

Duke’s Receptor Wizard to Receive National Medal of Science

FROM OUR WEB SITE

• Center Loans $347K to Start-ups
• CMC Team Logs Dystrophy Hope
• WFU Incubator Expands

In Focus

Duke’s Receptor Wizard to Receive National Medal of Science

Robert Lefkowitz, a professor of biochemistry, immunology and medicine at Duke University, basic research cardiologist at the Duke Heart Center and a Howard Hughes Institute Investigator at Duke University Medical Center, will accept the National Medal of Science on September 29. The award will be given by President George W. Bush at the White House in Washington, D.C.

Only two of these awards are given each year in the biological sciences. The work by Lefkowitz and approximately 200 young scientists he has mentored during his three decades at Duke has contributed to the development of a wide array of drugs to treat disorders including heart disease, high blood pressure, asthma and pain.

Read more about Lefkowitz and the National Medal of Science in this week’s In Focus.

From Our Web Site

Center Loans $347K to Start-ups
The North Carolina Biotechnology Center is supporting the war on illness by providing $347,000 in loans to four companies. Awards went to NanoVector, Arbovax, Countervail Corporation and EntoGenetics.

CMC Team Logs Dystrophy Hope
Scientists at Charlotte’s Carolinas Medical Center report intriguing new possibilities for using gene manipulation therapy against Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

WFU Incubator Expands
Wake Forest University is opening a new low-cost, multi-user wet lab facility that will accomodate as many as a half dozen early state start-ups. The first tenants are already making use of the space.

News from Other Sites

Keep N.C. Innovating
Caroline Joiner, vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Intellectual Property Center, discusses North Carolina’s economy and the contribution of the biotechnology sector.
From the (Raleigh) News & Observer

Matchmakers: RTI, Two International Groups Team up to Bolster Tech Transfer, Business
Through the program, universities, federal labs and private businesses can link to potential partners in 40 countries.
From Local Tech Wire

New CEO Shepherding Startup's Ambitious Plan
TransEnterix, a tiny medical device startup in Durham, has recruited Todd Pope as its CEO. Pope is the former head of Cordis, a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary that generated more than $3 billion in sales last year.
From the (Raleigh) News & Observer

Park Wet Lab Grows: Two Startups First to Join Babcock Demon Incubator
Wake Forest University’s Incubator program has added wet lab space in the Piedmont Triad Research Park.
From the Winston-Salem Journal

Community Watch

• Oriel Therapeutics of Research Triangle Park has named former GlaxoSmithKline executive Richard Fuller as its chief executive officer. Oriel is developing inhaler treatments for respiratory diseases. It is a spin-out from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and received a $150,000 loan from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center in 2002. More

• Research Triangle Park-based Talecris Biotherapeutics has joined with Boston’s Jeffrey Modell Foundation in donating $150,000 to Children’s Hospital Boston to expand clinical care and outreach for children with primary immunodeficiency. Talecris manufacturers Gamunex, a therapy that contains antibodies purified from the donated blood plasma of thousands of people to treat this condition. More

• Research Triangle Park-based Teleflex Medical has launched an eight-city infection-protection speaker program featuring Faisal Masud, M.D., medical director of the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit of Methodist DeBakey Heart Center, and Victoria Nahum, whose family experience with hospital-acquired infections grew into a national crusade to save lives. The tour includes speeches in Philadelphia, New York City, Orlando, Chicago, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Seattle, San Francisco and Nashville. More

• Morrisville-based Phase Bioscience has retained Washington, D.C., intellectual property attorney Dr. Michael Tuscan as its lead IP counsel. Tuscan, a member of the firm of Cooley Godward Kronish, is an expert in protein engineering IP.

Please send Community Watch items to Jim Shamp.

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This newsletter was sent Thursday, September 25, 2008. For the latest headlines from North Carolina’s biotechnology industry, please visit the news section of our Web site.

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