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Anyone out there follow GNSC on a regular basis? eom.
Anyone out there follow this company besides me???
There was another article where Tony specifically mentioned easing up on some of their existing projects like Retinome HA. Perhaps I just imagined it but this article you posted is complementary to what I remember.
that's what makes a market, easy. Right or wrong, if everyone agreed with your point of view you wouldn't make any money.
Don't have a link but I remember it was in a (Herald Tribune?) article in which Tony Frudakis was talking about gearing up for the Biofrontera acquisition. He mentioned that DNAP had been focused on developing the forensic side of their business and that for the next year DNAP would be shifting focus to pharmacogenomics.
DNAP has to pick and choose where to spend their resources. They don't have the cash to go full speed ahead on all their projects simultaneously.
Per Frudakis, Retinome HA and some of their other projects were temporarily put on hold after Retinome was completed so they could focus more pharmacogenomics. I don't believe they ever said that hair color and eye color would come out at the same time.
Don't know. Last I heard (about 7 months ago) they had signed a letter of intent to lease from USF Research Park. A letter of intent is nothing definitive. But it popped into my head after seeing Tony mention:
"And having a little (biotech) community on Cocoanut and 10th would be nice," Tony Frudakis says. "But I don't know how long DNAPrint is going to be here. We are starting to burst at the seams. We need a larger facility. But for a short period of time it will be nice."
On another note, the help wanted posting by DNAP yesterday indicates to me that DNAP now has a greater need to make the forensic business a more distinct department from the rest of the company.
The finishing touches
The USF Research Park is in its final stages and is scheduled for completion this semester.
http://www.usforacle.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/01/24/41f49d8dcd08e
By Jen Pfaff
Features Editor
January 24, 2005
The new two-building USF Research Park, which stretches over 230,000 square feet of USF property near Fowler Avenue and Bruce B. Downs Boulevard, is under construction and set to be complete before the spring semester ends.
The park consists of an Interdisciplinary Research Building and a Business Partnership office building for local technology businesses. The facility will allow for bioengineering and life sciences research to be conducted while housing businesses that can turn research innovations into manufactured goods.
The park will cost the USF Research Foundation $46 million, which will be recouped from businesses leasing office spaces. Production began last January and is a month behind schedule, with the Business Partnership building to be complete in February and the Interdisciplinary Research building slated for completion in May.
Rod Casto, the associate vice president for research and executive director of the USF Research Foundation, plays a major role in the establishment of the park by overseeing construction, handling financing and bringing in tenants, all to ensure the facility will meet its deadline.
"(The park will) take inventions that occur in a research environment and bring them together (with business companies) so there is a higher probability of turning (the inventions) into product," Casto said.
To assist technology companies' utilization of resources at USF, a program called USF Connect was established to manage a cooperative relationship between the school and Tampa Bay businesses. The program includes the Tampa Bay Technology Incubator, which provides businesses with any support or supplies needed for entrepreneurial success.
"A lot of times businesses try to find resources in the university and get lost," Casto said. "For example, say a company wants to use the USF Library. What can they use and can't they use? Many times people in the university are not used to dealing with businesses. USF Connect will handle those situations. It also provides services to startup companies such as business plans and finance plans."
In addition to offering USF Connect to help attract tenants, the Research Park does not require any leasing contracts when agreeing to rent office space.
"If you're a regular business in a general community, it's usually required to sign a five-year lease. We don't require that because it's difficult," Casto said. "A lot of companies can't lease a space with a laboratory and we feel that's a risk we can take."
The park is open to any type of business, according to Casto. Thirteen businesses, including Boston-based biotech company Intezyne Technologies, are expected to open offices within the park.
The 100,000 square-foot Business Partnership building will be three stories tall and contain 20,000 10x12 offices. The commercial tenants will be situated on the first floor, the business incubator and USF Connect on the second floor and a laboratory will occupy the top level.
The four-story Interdisciplinary Research building will feature a different type of research on each floor: engineering on the lower level; microbiology, chemistry and applied physics labs on the second floor; biological defense education and training on the third; and biological defense labs on the top level.
The Research Park will provide a multitude of benefits in various areas. Businesses in the park will serve as a source of financial support for the university, Casto said. Hands-on internship opportunities in both research and business areas will be offered to USF students. Casto said the complex will fuel the creation of jobs, therefore stimulating the economy in the Tamp Bay area.
"The whole community is going to benefit," said USF President Judy Genshaft in a media release. Genshaft's inspiration and dedication are largely credited in the establishment of the USF Research Park.
"The idea (for the park) had been around for a while, but the vision and motivation came from Judy Genshaft," said Casto.
Construction progress can be viewed live at http://www.research.usf.edu/webcam .
So they're now in the UK? cool...
Where did chrisbaskett "attack" you. Show me.
It is funny and a little ironic that you would ask me:
"Why do you think the FDA is developing the guidelines"
Seeing that you never had the courtesy to answer that question I don't see why I should answer it myself but I'll give it a go anyway:
I think the FDA needs a data template to evaluate pharmacogenomic data in a fair and conclusive manner. Not only does there need to be a format but there needs to be a way of separating out useful data from, well, mere data. I mentioned to someone earlier that the current process is akin to everyone filing their taxes on a scratch pad with no formating or standardization. How would the IRS begin to process taxes in such a manner? The FDA currently faces a similar problem. It has very little to do with classifiers and very much to do with the current state of the drug development. The generation of genetic data is a reality that now extends to every facet of the pharmaceutical world.
The focus of the pharmaceutical industry, IMO, will always be on new drugs. It's more profitable. If there was truly an interest in classifiers then you would see them appear shortly after guidance was issued. After all, the guidance isn't stopping anyone from developing classifiers, only getting them approved. Right?
Headed out now. Have a good New Year.
Thanks for the response. For the record, I doubt very much that there will be many classifiers in the foreseeable future. I doubt that there are many drug companies working on classifiers or have any inclination to do so.
But I also believe that the industry stands to benefit from the new guidelines a great deal.
Maybe I'll try a different route...
Are you expecting a bunch of genomic classifiers to hit the market in 2005? Surely you can answer that?
btw - it would be nice if you didn't feel the need to insult me with every post, even if just for the holidays.
It was plenty specific. You could probably answer it in two or three sentences. But if you don't want to go there, that's fine. I'll drop it.
Actually, I asked a question. I didn't make any statements about the PGx. Or classifiers. Or DNAP for that matter.
I thought it was a simple enough.
When you feel you've done enough research to come up with a reasonable answer, let me know.
It doesn't seem to me that you even know what the new FDA guidance is for. In your own words, what do you think it's purpose is?
I'll give you some time to look it up.
European insurance company? Where did you get that from?
DNAP *was* listed on the Berlin exchange without permission.
Isn't that the same question everyone has? That's not Ming's job to explain - it's DNAP's.
bag - I'm not going to speculate on anything out loud. There is obviously another shoe that has to drop for this new venture to make sense. But the way the PR was worded is very interesting.
Sent you a PM yesterday. Please keep an eye on St. Helens for us!
DNAP contracted to help on another high profile rape case.
Rapist's racial profile confirmed
By Reed Williams / Daily Progress staff writer
September 28, 2004
Testing of the local serial rapist's DNA shows a profile of his ancestry that supports victims' accounts that he is black, authorities announced Monday.
The test conducted by DNA Print Genomics Inc., a company headquartered in Sarasota, Fla., found that the rapist's background is 85 percent sub-Saharan African, 12 percent European and 3 percent Native American.
"You've now not only got the victims' statements. Now what we're doing is essentially corroborating what those victims said," Zach Gaskin, technical coordinator of forensics for DNA Print Genomics, said Monday. "This guy's not Caucasian or East Asian or a guy from Mexico."
Also on Monday, a task force investigating seven forensically linked attacks by the serial rapist since 1997 announced a 24-hour hotline that residents can call to report anything they believe could assist in the case. Calls to the number - (866) 405-2519 - will be forwarded to a detective.
Lt. Greg Jenkins of the Albemarle County police said anyone who sees a suspicious prowler still should call 911 immediately, but anyone who wishes to report a past incident may call the hotline.
The ancestral information released Tuesday indicates that the serial rapist looks like a typical African-American man, Gaskin said. The results do not include more specific information concerning the rapist's skin tone.
Victims have said he is black, but descriptions of his complexion have ranged from light to dark. He also is said to be between 5 feet 6 inches tall and 6 feet tall, between 150 and 200 pounds, and age 20 to 40. He is further described as having a medium to muscular build and eyes that are extremely white. Police believe he is familiar with the Charlottesville area and probably lives locally.
Scientists with DNA Print Genomics determined the serial rapist's ancestral makeup by analyzing 176 "genetic locations," or parts of the DNA that vary from person to person, Gaskin said.
The company has performed "DNA Witness" tests, as they are called, for 50 police agencies in the last year and a half, he said.
Gaskin said the testing method helped authorities apprehend a suspected serial killer in Louisiana. Because of witness accounts, police at first were looking for a white man and took DNA samples from hundreds of them. DNA Print Genomics later tested a DNA sample from one of the crime scenes and said the suspect's heritage was 85 percent sub-Saharan African, the same as the local serial rapist, and 15 percent American Indian. Authorities later linked a black man to the killings.
The Charlottesville Police Department paid DNA Print Genomics $1,000 to conduct the test.
"We honestly are trying to do everything we can," city police Capt. J.E. "Chip" Harding said. "We don't want to rule out any avenue in this investigation."
In addition to the new serial rapist hotline, people with possible information on the case may call Crimestoppers at (434) 977-4000, e-mail a message to wanted@albemarle.org, or write to Detective Randy Higgins, P.O. Box 494, Charlottesville VA 22902.
that won't be of help to those who have lost their hair...lol.
Sorry, Chris - stockholder already has dibs on them.
I'm selling based on frog's pessimism. eom.
Francis Crick, Who Helped Discover DNA Helix, Dies
Thu Jul 29, 2004 11:10 AM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Francis Crick, who helped discover the double helix shape of DNA along with James Watson, has died at the age of 88, his family said on Thursday.
Crick died at Thornton Hospital in San Diego where he had been battling colon cancer.
British-born Crick won the Nobel Prize for his work on DNA's structure, which he studied in 1953 along with Watson at Cambridge University.
Watson issued a statement from his office in Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York.
"I will always remember Francis for his extraordinarily focused intelligence and for the many ways he showed me kindness and developed my self-confidence," Watson said.
"He treated me as though I were a member of his family. Being with him for two years in a small room in Cambridge was truly a privilege. I always looked forward to being with him and speaking to him, up until the moment of his death. He will be sorely missed."
Crick was born in Northampton in Britain but had been living in La Jolla, California. He was a distinguished research professor and former president of the Salk Institute in San Diego.
"Francis Crick will be remembered as one of the most brilliant and influential scientists of all time," said Richard Murphy, the Salk Institute's president and chief executive officer.
Cytomyx Holdings PLC Announces Clinomics BioSciences, Cytomyx' US Subsidiary, in Research Collaboration with Moffitt Cancer Center
http://www.primezone.com/newsroom/news_releases.mhtml?d=60687
CAMBRIDGE, U.K. and ALBANY, New York, July 13, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- Clinomics Biosciences, Inc., the wholly owned US subsidiary of Cytomyx Holdings plc (AIM:CYX), a leading provider of drug discovery products and services, has signed a collaboration agreement with the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, one of the leading cancer research centers in the US, to jointly develop new technologies for use in cancer research.
Known as Tissue MicroArrays, Clinomics' proprietary technology allows the identification of gene and protein expression patterns in tumors on a high-throughput basis. This data will be used to generate "molecular signatures", for more precisely defining cancer patient sub-groups which, in turn will lead to improved cancer diagnosis and treatment.
The initial phase of the research program will focus on the use of Tissue MicroArray methodologies to improve the diagnosis and classification of primary tumors, with the goal of improving treatment outcomes. The joint research will be conducted in the laboratories of the Moffitt Cancer Center, in Tampa, Florida.
Stephen Turner, Clinomics' CEO, said: "We are pleased to be collaborating with Moffitt, a leading, national cancer institute with a substantial molecular characterization program involved in cancer. Together with Clinomics, which has built the world's most extensive database of highly characterized human biology samples, we believe that an important new capability for classifying tumors will result from our collaboration with the goal of creating whole genome datasets on tumor samples and developing the leading gene expression database for pharmaceutical development."
Principle Investigator for the project is Timothy Yeatman MD, Associate Center Director, Clinical Investigations, at the Moffitt Cancer Center. Dr. Yeatman commented: "This is the beginning of an exciting new age in molecular medicine where cancer therapy will now be directed by a comprehensive molecular analysis of gene expression. Molecular signatures may be able to identify and predict the future biological behavior of different tissues or tumor types."
About Clinomics BioSciences, Inc.
Clinomics BioSciences, Inc., (www.clinomicsbio.com), based in Albany, New York, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Cytomyx Holdings plc, offering database products for the biological characterization of gene and protein targets for use in drug discovery research. The company has a collection of more than 200,000 highly characterized human and biology samples and its proprietary Tissue MicroArray technology allows hundreds of individual tissue samples to be arrayed on microscope slides for use in gene and protein characterization studies.
About H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute
The H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute is located in Tampa, Florida. In 2001 the National Cancer Institute awarded Moffitt the status of a Comprehensive Cancer Center in recognition of its excellence in research and contributions to clinical trials, prevention and cancer control. Additionally, Moffitt is a member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, a prestigious alliance of the USA's leading cancer centers, and is listed in the U.S. News & World Report as one of the top cancer hospitals in America. Moffitt's sole mission is to contribute to the prevention and cure of cancer.
About Cytomyx Holdings plc
Cytomyx Holdings plc (www.cytomyx-holdings.com) is a rapidly growing life science company based in Cambridge, UK. Its four operating subsidiaries -- Cytomyx Ltd, Clinomics BioSciences, Inc., Cambridge Bioscience Ltd and Cytocell Technologies Ltd -- develop and market a wide range of products and services to the pharmaceutical, diagnostics and academic research markets. Cytomyx is listed on the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market (AIM).
About Tissue MicroArrays
Clinomics BioSciences has pioneered the development of the emerging new technology known as Tissue MicroArrays (TMAs). These enable researchers to simultaneously study hundreds of individual tissue samples in parallel to establish the relative levels of protein expression in those samples and thereby draw conclusions as to the relevance of these proteins in disease. The Company currently has three granted US patents in this field.
TMAs overcome an important bottleneck in drug discovery, namely the high-throughput evaluation of proteins in human tissue samples. TMAs consist of up to 1000 tiny cylindrical tissue samples (usually 0.6mm in diameter) that are assembled in a paraffin block from which sections (thin slices) are then cut and attached to glass microscope slides.
TMA sections allow the simultaneous analysis of expression of a protein of interest in up to 1000 tissue samples in a single experiment. They are, therefore, cost-efficient and offer an unprecedented degree of standardization as all tissue samples are subjected to exactly the same experimental conditions. TMAs can be constructed from virtually all kinds of tissues, including formalin-fixed and fresh frozen tissue.
Pharmaceutical industry researchers can use TMA technology to link the presence of a particular protein to the progression of a disease. Another major application for the technology is in the development of therapeutic antibody products where they can be used to demonstrate that such antibodies are found only to bind to the protein to which they are intended to be directed.
TMA technology represents one of the most promising new approaches in the fields of proteomics and drug discovery. TMA use is growing rapidly among histology labs and recent reports indicate that the number of users has at least doubled each year over the past two years. The market for TMAs is expected to grow at more than 40% per year to reach over $150 million by 2008.
The validity of the answer can only be established by the questioner
I'm sorry, that's not a valid answer <g>
No, it doesn't make sense.
Does it make sense to say that since one person attacks him that nobody else has given a resonable response? Please explain.
He's received valid answers - he just chooses not to respond to them.
or....he'll change the nature or the question.
or....he'll change tactics and respond by asking more questions than anyone would care to answer.
Ah, yes. First the test is wrong. Then, when you can't explain how it's wrong you demand to see the data with the insinuation that since it's proprietary, it must not be correct. Nice.
So first you say the methodology is wrong. But rather than discuss the methodology you move on to the "it's not what I expected so it must be wrong". It's not like the concept of cross-validation is rocket science.
And if they are all "admixed", how do you know if it is not mech3?
Because it's been shown by numerous reserchers independently that human migrations can be divided into 2, 4, & 8 major groups.
How many 100% IE Indians and Pakistanis were discovered?
Or, are they "all admixed?"
They are highly admixed. Any student of history (with no knowledge of genetics) will tell you as much.
Like I said in the previous post and many other posts - the test takes genetic distance into account by simultaneous cross verification among a dispersed population. How many times have you avoided that point now? Like a hundred?
Mike - it is logical because the markers *must* be validated against the entire BGA category. Didn't we already go over this?
They don't just take the markers and apply them to the whole IE group like you say. They need to screen the first pool of markers against all those populations that show a majority affiliation with the BGA group in question first.
Our difference in opinion pertains to the accuracy of reported admixture.
Your position as I understand it is that a small number of "pure", out-bred parental samples will skew the admixture results for those other populations who fall under the same BGA category due to genetic distance. Is that right?
As for Mechanism 3 - it's no longer clear to me what you're talking about. On the one hand you've mentioned a couple times that you think that #3 is common. For the sake of argument, I'll agree. But then in other posts you say that the admixture levels in ADB are artificially high due to the above paragraph.
Now if you're judging the test by the results that you see - then one of those statements isn't right.
Mike, I think the debate is just beginning on this one. There are a lot of theories proliferating out there and many of them do not necessarily conflict with one another.
http://www.pbs.org/saf/1406/segments/1406-4.htm
Were the First Americans Euorpean?
For years it was believed that Clovis people came through Alaska using a land bridge from Siberia, then traveled south just as ice sheets across Canada were breaking up. So archeologists have long looked for signs of Clovis people in Alaska.
In 1989, road builders in Alaska's Tanana River valley accidentally uncovered a site called Broken Mammoth. With artifacts dating back 14,000 years, it was the oldest site in Alaska-but it held no Clovis points. Later, another nearby site yielded artifacts a few hundred years older, but still no Clovis points. It did, however, contain microblades and scrapers typical of Siberian and Russian sites going back more than 20,000 years.
For Alaska state archeologist Chuck Holmes these findings suggest that early Alaskans weren't the predecessors to Clovis. And he's not alone.
Dennis Stanford of the Smithsonian Institution spent years in Alaska and found no connection between Siberian artifacts and Clovis technology. His new theory is that Clovis people came not from Siberia, but from Europe. The Solutrean people of France and Spain were their predecessors, he says.
Shared technology-including bifacial points and a spear shaft wrench made of mammoth bone-and cultural traits suggest the two are related. But, as Stanford explains to Alan, there are two problems with this theory. First, the Solutrean culture is 5,000 years older than Clovis. Second, how did the Solutreans cross the Atlantic Ocean to get to North America?
A site in Virginia called Cactus Hill may hold some of the answers. Artifacts found there have been dated at 18,000 years-too early for Clovis, but just right for Solutrean. Stanford believes a fossil walrus jaw found in the nearby Chesapeake could suggest how the Solutreans made their way to North America. Ice-loving walrus could only have reached the Chesapeake during the height of the last Ice Age, around 15,000-20,000 years ago. Stanford says that's when the Solutreans got here, and they did it by bringing their boats along the ice edge which stretched across the ocean at the time.
Also, regarding Mech. #3 - DNAP doesn't see things the way you do and neither do I. You still don't understand the test.
......List of suspects down to 500 people?
Net closing on serial sex attacked
Jul 14 2004
By Ross Lidbetter
POLICE are closing the net in their hunt for a serial sex attacker who preys on the elderly.
Detectives have managed to scale down their search from 21,500 "persons of interest" to 500 names.
The attacker has raped four victims and indecently assaulted 27 others over the past 12 years.
All of his victims are aged between 68 and 93 and more offences have occurred in Shirley than anywhere else.
The ground-breaking DNA technique called ancestral testing has enabled investigating officers to trace bloodlines to discover the rapist's family background and then narrow the number of suspects.
Using the latest advancements, detectives announced in April that the offender's origins probably lie in the Caribbean.
Det Supt Simon Morgan, who is leading the hunt, code-named Operation Minstead, said: "Over the years we have been getting the number of persons of interest down and down.
"The latest breakthrough has enabled us to narrow this further.
"We have been able to focus the inquiry and are determined to get the number down and find the attacker."
A £20,000 reward has been offered for information leading to the arrest of the attacker, who is the subject of the Met's largest ever manhunt for a rapist.
The suspect is described as black, possibly light-skinned.
He has been linked to a number of offences in areas including Shirley, Warlingham, Forest Hill, East Dulwich and Sidcup.
Hallmarks of his attacks include cutting phone lines and electricity and the police profile reveals he spends a lot of time in the house.
He has been known to wear a balaclava and an all-in-one suit and may ride a motorbike.
The first offence identified by DNA profiling was carried out in October 1992 in the Shirley area.
Anybody with any information should contact the incident room on 020 8217 6536 or 6539 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.
ReliaGene was also the lab that provided the match on Derrick Todd Lee. What a coincidence.<g>
Interesting news - thanks. eom.
Maybe trying to use up his frequent flyer miles before they expire?
There is always going to be a crisis de jour seeing that, by nature, these boards are more of a social medium than anything else. IMO, if Ovanome comes out of clinical trials successfully in late 2004 then there will be little to stand in the way of success - many other things will fall into place.