January News and Product Briefs

News Briefs 

 

The Myelin Repair Foundation (MRF) and Bionure, Inc. entered a collaborative partnership to advance therapeutics development for multiple sclerosis (MS). In this agreement, the Myelin Repair Foundation will work closely with Bionure to assess the neuroprotective capabilities of the company’s proprietary MS therapeutic compound, BN201, which has shown promising results in promoting myelin repair. Bionure will collaborate with MRF researchers at the Myelin Repair Foundation’s Translational Medicine Center, an industry-standard laboratory facility dedicated to the evaluation of promising myelin repair candidates for MS. BN201 is a potential MS treatment for acute optic neuritis and severe MS relapses. EON 

 

CTI Clinical Trial and Consulting Services (CTI), a global CRO, acquired Community Research, a dedicated, multi-specialty clinical research site with three locations throughout Greater Cincinnati, Ohio. Community Research conducts 40-60 phase I-IV clinical trials annually in a variety of therapeutic indications, including internal medicine, dermatology, psychiatry, and sleep disorders, as well as trials in healthy volunteers. Community Research operates a hospital-based, residential phase I facility, which can accommodate drug and device trials, and has a special emphasis on first-in-human studies in various patient populations. The team of over 50 employees from Community Research will also be joining CTI. Cincinnati Business Courier 

 

ICON plc, a global provider of outsourced development services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries, announced that its Chief Executive, Ciaran Murray, has been elected 2014 Chairman of the Association of Clinical Research Organizations (ACRO). ICON Legal Counsel, Diarmaid Cunningham, has also been elected as Secretary of ACRO for a second term. Press release 

 

INC Research, a therapeutically-focused global CRO, announced the appointment of two senior executives to its oncology team. Asli Turkes, PhD joined the Company as Vice President, Clinical Development, Oncology. Susan Timoney, PhD joined as Executive Director, Clinical Development, Oncology. The new executives will support global trials while also adding dedicated oncology leadership in Europe. Press release 

 

The Center for Biotechnology (CeBiTec) at Bielefeld University added TimeLogic’s latest J-series Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) hardware to their computational tools platform. TimeLogic’s DeCypher systems are designed to increase the speed of sequence comparison by combining custom FPGA circuitry with optimized implementations of BLAST, Smith-Waterman, Hidden Markov Model and gene modeling algorithms. Press release 

 

New Products 

 

Sapio Sciences announced the release of Exemplar NGS LIMS.  Sapio's NGS LIMS system will track multiple next-generation sequencing (NGS) platform workflows from request through processing and analysis. Sapio has worked with prominent NGS labs for over five years, resulting in a system that features: pre-built, CLIA standard workflows for leading NGS platforms; integration with robotic sample preparation platforms; and complete consumables management for reagents and other consumables with re-order alerts, in a 100% web based solution with no extra software required on the client. PR Newswire 

 

Empiriko announced the availability of its Biomimiks technology, a biomimetic platform that mimics the in vivo metabolism mediated by liver enzymes (cytochrome P450) to enable pharmaceutical researchers to conduct rapid and iterative in vitro and ex vivo drug metabolism studies to predict the metabolic patterns, pathways and profiles of drugs. Empiriko’s chemistry-based solutions address the full drug development lifecycle, from lead generation to patient treatment, helping pharmaceutical companies improve safety testing and reduce later-stage attrition rates by predicting and preventing toxicity earlier in development. Press release 

 

Oracle announced the latest release of Oracle Health Sciences Translational Research Center, a platform that enables secondary use of electronic health records and omics data to help accelerate biomarker identification for drug discovery, clinical development and translational medicine. The new release features expanded omics and clinical data models, new user interfaces and workflows for patient stratification and reporting, and analytical capabilities for the discovery of driver mutations. In addition, a new collaboration module lets users share patient stratification criteria and other research findings with another user or a user group, while supporting the safety of their data. Press release 

 

Thermo Scientific released the new DXRxi Raman imaging microscope, designed to quickly reveal molecular structure, chemical composition and sample morphology. By employing the image-centric software interface, users can quickly profile materials through information-rich chemical images. Instant visual feedback and instinctive image-driven control separates this instrument from other Raman microscopes. The DXRxi microscope offers new Thermo Scientific OMNICxi image-centric software to provide visually driven data acquisition and intuitive sample targeting and parameter optimization; automated alignment and calibration; and near-instant visual chemical profiling that requires no spectroscopic expertise to interpret. Press release 

 

IDBS has added key data visualization and data analysis capabilities to E-WorkBook 9.4. The new chemical drawing features enable users to capture a wider variety of molecular types and streamlines chemistry data input. Users can also define organometallic structures simply and efficiently, and a customizable chemical data lookup function speeds collaboration and data retrieval. The E-WorkBook Suite is a single platform solution with a suite of applications for data and sample management, analysis, reporting and IP retention. Press release