NCBiotech News

Amber Shirley is on a mission to help North Carolina farms and farmers thrive.

This week the Ph.D. research scientist joined the North Carolina Biotechnology Center in the newly created position of Biotechnology Crops Development Director.

She reports to Gwyn Riddick, M.B.A., vice president of agricultural biotechnology.

There's not a dry eye in the house for the folks at Durham-based Inspire Pharmaceuticals since they finally got some good news about one of their dry-eye treatments.

Inspire and Osaka, Japan-based Santen Pharmaceutical Co. have issued a joint announcement saying Japanese health officials have approved the marketing of an Inspire-developed therapy, diquafosol tetrasodium ophthalmic solution.

Fayetteville State University is throwing a seriously scientific party for one of its prized scientists this Friday.

Valeria Fleming, Ph.D., who has served FSU as a biology and biotechnology professor for 50 years, is to be honored with a free public science colloquium, Biology/Biotechnology: Linking the Past to the Future for our Students. It's at 2 p.m. in the campus' Seabrook Auditorium.

More than 1,200 people gathered at the Raleigh Convention Center to chart out of future of biotechnology jobs in North Carolina.

What economic crisis?

Syngenta Biotechnology Inc. is proof you don't need to develop a swell swine flu vaccine or a cancer drug to be a biotech powerhouse.

In fact, even as it celebrated 25 years of biotech breakthroughs at its Research Triangle Park research headquarters Friday, SBI is hiring workers, buying land and launching products.

Durham-based Quintiles, the world's largest clinical research organization, has added another major global pharmaceutical company to its expanding list of services.

Just days after announcing a new agreement with Japan's Eisai to shepherd six Eisai cancer drugs to the marketplace, Quintiles unveiled an "industry-leading alliance" with AstraZeneca.

Research Triangle Park-based Talecris Biotherapeutics continues to notch news-making successes, with a new marketing approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a more potent formulation of its PROLASTIN emphysema therapy.

Honeybees, whose pollination activities are crucial for agriculture in North Carolina and globally, have been dwindling. Scientists have been struggling to understand why it's happening and what can be done about it.

But a $75,000 grant from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center is creating a healthy new buzz in research labs at two Piedmont Triad universities.

Nearly 200 scientists who specialize in RNA research are getting a treat this afternoon - a keynote presentation from the woman who just won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her work in this discipline.

Robert Schotzinger, M.D., Ph.D., president and CEO of Viamet Pharmaceuticals, has replaced Eric Ward of CropSolution as chairman of the NCBIO Board of Directors.

NCBIO is the trade association for North Carolina's bioscience industry. It has more than 150 members doing business in human and animal therapeutics, diagnostics, medical devices and agricultural and industrial biotechnology.

Sajith Wickramasekara, a student at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics in Durham, is one of two Southeastern regional finalists in an international competition of high school biotechnology research projects, held in Atlanta on Monday.

Wickramasekara and the other regional finalist, Johnny Fells III of Georgia, were competing in the Sanofi-Aventis International BioGENEius Challenge, conducted by the Arlington, Va.-based Biotechnology Institute.

Durham startup 410 Medical has received FDA 510(k) Clearance for its LifeFlow PLUS Blood and Fluid Infuser (LifeFlow PLUS). 

Morrisville-based Locus Biosciences, a developer of precision antibacterial therapies, will conduct the world’s first clinical trial of a recombinant bacteriophage therapy, a major milestone for the field, the company announced.

Pfizer announced today that it will invest an additional $500 million and add 300 more jobs to increase its newly completed gene therapy manufacturing capabilities at its 230-acre campus in Sanford, North Carolina.

Morrisville-based Locus Biosciences, a developer of precision antibacterial therapies, has signed an exclusive collaboration and license agreement with Janssen Pharmaceuticals that could be worth up to $818 million.