AZ Bioscience February Update

The top bioscience news stories around the state thanks to the Flinn Foundation... Follow Biozona News via: Twitter | Google News | RSS | Evernote. For related info--and new connections--join the AZBio LinkedIn group.

Abraxis, schools start nonprofit for better health care

02/26/2010 | Phoenix Business Journal | Angela Gonzales

Arizona State University, the University of Arizona and the founder of Abraxis BioScience Inc. are in early discussions to create a nonprofit organization to improve health outcomes and the way patient care is delivered. The goal of the Health Transformation Institute is to link the three separate worlds of scientific discovery, health care delivery and reimbursement.

St. Joe's set for pediatric heart transplants

02/26/2010 | Phoenix Business Journal | Angela Gonzales

St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center is launching the Valley's first pediatric heart transplant program. In Arizona, 10 to 20 children become eligible for the surgery each year, Nigro said. They have had to travel to Tucson's University Medical Center or other states to receive heart transplants because no local doctors were qualified to perform the procedure.

Medical Clinical Trials Face Obstacles

02/26/2010 | KPHO.com | Donna Rossi

In collaboration with the Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center at Scottsdale Healthcare, the Translational Genomics Research Institute has about 35 clinical trials under way. New drugs are constantly in development. But some of the clinical trials to test these new drugs could be at risk if more cancer patients don't get involved in the studies.

Bioscience students network with top AZ companies

02/25/2010 | Daily Wildcat | Luke Money

UA bioscience students met with some of Arizona's largest bioindustry companies during the Second Annual UA Student/Bioindustry Networking Event on Wednesday. Ten private companies attended the event. They included Genomics USA, Ventana Medical Systems, and W.L. Gore.

New Science to Bolster FDA Drug Approval (Notes work by C-Path)

02/24/2010 | ScienceInsider | Jocelyn Kaiser

The National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced a new initiative, including a grants program funded at up to $6.75 million over 3 years, to support regulatory science, the tools and standards used to evaluate new drugs and devices. The initiative comes in addition to a proposed $25 million for regulatory science in FDA's 2011 budget for nanotechnology and other areas.

Teasing Vaccines From Tobacco (Notes work by ASU, VAXX)

02/24/2010 | Wall Street Journal | Gautam Naik

The U.S. Department of Defense, caught off guard by the swift spread of the H1N1 flu virus last year and delays in producing a vaccine, is backing an unusual plan to use tobacco plants to make the vaccine. Flu vaccines are typically grown in chicken eggs. Although the technique is slow and expensive, vaccine makers have done little to improve on this reliable method for more than 60 years. The urgent need for a better way became apparent last year.

Intel, partners to give $3.5 billion to tech startups

02/24/2010 | Arizona Republic | Andrew Johnson

Intel Corp.'s plans to direct $3.5 billion of investments into U.S. technology companies could help cash-strapped startups in Arizona, where venture-capital activity is lagging. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based semiconductor giant said Tuesday that its venture-capital arm, Intel Capital, was forming a $200 million fund to focus on domestic companies developing "clean" technology, information technology and biotech.

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