MichBio Member News

A case of the flu is often the furthest thing from people’s minds at the beginning of summer. Not so for two Michigan State University scientists who are making advances in controlling influenza.

Elizabeth Gardner, associate professor of food science and human nutrition, and Sungjin Kim, assistant professor of microbiology and molecular genetics, were awarded a $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study cell reaction to the flu.

Program involving leading researchers in HDL will work to advance multiple development programs targeting new therapies to treat cardio-metabolic disease.

Esperion Therapeutics, a privately held biopharmaceutical company working to discover, develop and commercialize treatments for cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, announced the establishment of a collaborative research agreement with Cleveland Clinic, one of the world's leading academic medical centers. The collaboration will work to advance research targeting new HDL therapies to treat cardiovascular disease.

Asterand plc, a leading provider of human tissue and human tissue-based research services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies engaged in drug discovery, announced that its subsidiary BioSeek, LLC, a pioneer in the application of predictive human biology to drug discovery, has signed a one-year collaboration agreement with Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Nearly half of patients hospitalized with bipolar disorder may suffer from hypertension, and the younger a person is diagnosed with the psychiatric condition the more likely they are to develop high blood pressure, according to a recent Michigan State University study.

The study, led by MSU psychiatrist Dale D'Mello, analyzed 99 patients hospitalized for bipolar disorder, a condition sometimes called manic-depressive disorder and characterized by mood swings ranging from depression to mental hyperactivity known as mania.

Click here to read this article, posted in the Great Lakes Innovation and Technology Report.

Michigan State University’s leadership in specialty crop research has helped yield a four-year, $4 million grant to enhance the economic and nutritional value of the common bean.

MSU crop and soil scientist and Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station researcher Jim Kelly will lend his 30-plus years of expertise in dry bean breeding and genetics to help develop breeder-friendly genomic research tools to assist in selection of agronomic traits such as yield, plant architecture, processing quality, drought tolerance and disease resistance and key nutritional traits.

Scientists from the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit presented preliminary data that shows nitrogen-containing bisphosphonates, therapeutic agents used to promote bone health and inhibit resorption, may cause a slightly poorer survival rate in post-menopausal women with early stage breast cancer who take them for their anti-osteoporosis properties. The findings were announced at the 2010 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting.
 

Asterand plc, a leading human-based solutions provider to pharmaceutical companies engaged in drug discovery research, today announced that the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has extended its Phase II funding commitment to Asterand’s subsidiary BioSeek LLC under the agency’s ToxCast™ screening program. This extension is for an additional $1.5 million, to profile the biological properties of chemical compounds, and is in addition to the $1.7 million commitment for Phase II announced in June, 2009.

For the first time, scientists have discovered a possible biological culprit in the development of eating disorders during puberty: a type of estrogen called estradiol.

The groundbreaking pilot study led by Michigan State University found that influence of one’s genes on eating disorder symptoms was much greater in pubertal girls with higher levels of estradiol than pubertal girls with lower levels of estradiol. The study appears in the journal Psychological Medicine.

The Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, in cooperation with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), is introducing the Environmental Cancer Program to physicians statewide July 1.
 
The program trains primary care physicians to accurately identify and diagnose cancers and other serious illnesses resulting from exposure to arsenic, radon and asbestos, three of the state’s most frequently encountered carcinogens.