The News Review:

- $18 million awarded to TGen and University of Pennsylvania for …
- Senior Director Clinical Research & Development
- bioRASI to Present at the MAGI 2009 Clinical Research Conference …
- World first: Japanese scientists create transgenic monkeys
- Premier Research Names Hal Ward R.Ph. PharmD as Executive …
- Europe Planning Biobanking Coordination
- First Comprehensive Guidelines For Managing Medullary Thyroid …

$18 million awarded to TGen and University of Pennsylvania for …
EurekAlert (press release)
“We want to do something dramatic. It is going to take a tremendous amount of real thinking power to make that difference so it is a dream come true to be able to put this team together to work towards this goal” said Dr. Von Hoff who also is Chief Scientific fficer for TGen Clinical Research Services (TCRS) at Scottsdale Healthcare a primary clinical research site for TGen and the SU2C grant. The $18 million to TGen and Penn was the largest single grant among five awards totaling $74 million announced by SU2C a philanthropic group created by cancer scientists and members of the entertainment industry a year ago today to quickly turn scientific discoveries into ways to care for cancer patients. The goal of the pancreatic cancer Dream Team research project “Cutting ff the Fuel Supply” is to develop tests using advanced imaging techniques to determine what nutrients pancreatic cancer cells require to fuel their growth and survival. Understanding the cell’s fuel supply will help scientists develop more individualized treatments with fewer side effects. TGen and its clinical partner at TCRS will launch a series of innovative clinical trials in advanced pancreatic cancer.

Senior Director Clinical Research & Development
FierceBiotech
Specifically study design methodology and protocol development of Phase I studies IND filings and oversight of FIH drug-drug interaction ADME and other pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic studies. ? Provides input to decisions that have medical scientific and future marketing implications. ? Is responsible for the medical input to design planning initiation and completion of clinical trials. ? Is responsible for the preparation of the medical components of study protocols INDs and other regulatory submissions.

bioRASI to Present at the MAGI 2009 Clinical Research Conference …
Earthtimes (press release)
Boris Reznik Chairman of bioRASI will be a keynote speakerat the event’s symposium titled “Lessons Learned Study Post Mortems. Leading the Symposium Dr. Reznik will be discussing the issues ofimproving Clinical Research Processes through applying Deming’s “ContinuesImprovement Process” (CIP). “Too often ‘Lessons Learned’ is reduced to trying to derive value fromanecdotal review of the issues after the clinical trials are completed”Dr. “At bioRASI in order to consistently increase thequality of our work we have been applying a method developed by thelegendary W.
Related from Harmonyriley: Grainger to Present at 2009 EPG Spring Conference

World first: Japanese scientists create transgenic monkeys
AFP
The exploit opens up exciting prospects for medical researchers they said. It could eventually lead to lab monkeys that replicate some of humanity’s most devastating diseases providing a new model for exploring how these disorders are caused and how they may be cured. “Great advances in pre-clinical research can be expected using these models” the team said. But other voices warned of a potential ethics storm brewed by fears that technology used on our closest animal relatives could be turned to create genetically-engineered humans. In a study published in the British journal Nature a team led by Erika Sasaki of the Central Institute for Experimental Animals at Keio University reported on experiments on common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) a small monkey native to Brazil. They introduced a foreign gene tucked inside a virus into marmoset embryos that were then nurtured in a bath of sucrose. The gene codes for green fluorescent protein (GFP) a substance that was originally isolated from a jellyfish and is now commonly used as a biotech marker.

Premier Research Names Hal Ward R.Ph. PharmD as Executive …
PR Newswire (press release)
“His expertise and proven leadership will strengthen our team and help us expand our pharmacovigilance services to meet the evolving needs of our clients. About Premier ResearchPremier Research is a leading global solutions-driven CR committed to therapeutic focus and operational expertise to deliver clinical trial services of the highest quality for biopharmaceutical and medical device companies. They are leaders in clinical research for analgesia CNS oncology and infectious disease and have a wealth of experience in medical device and pediatric research. Premier Research has 32 offices and operates in more than 30 countries across North America and Europe employing more than 1200 clinical professionals dedicated first and foremost to fulfilling each client’s requirements in a timely accurate and cost-effective manner. This includes a strong international network of monitors and project management professionals combined with regulatory data management statistical scientific and medical experts and staff at our well-established network of dedicated clinical sites.

Europe Planning Biobanking Coordination
GenomeWeb Daily News
Sweden’s UCRC said that part of the EU’s research strategy involves organizing 30 different biobanks in respective population-based and disease-based databases and their research techniques and regulations concerning ethics administration and funding all will be coordinated. UCRC said that Europe and the Nordic nations in particular have biobanks that are a “goldmine for research. Sweden has collections of biographical materials “that are unique in the world and of great interest” the university said pointing out that it has samples for finding markers for good and bad prognoses for cardiovascular diseases and that the Karolinska Institute has a unique twins registry. “If someone wanted to make comparisons across studies from different countries or amalgamate studies to attain a really enormous database it’s important for analyses to be carried out in the same manner” Ulf Landegren a professor of molecular genetics and pathology at Uppsala University said in a statement.

First Comprehensive Guidelines For Managing Medullary Thyroid …
Science Daily (press release)
Emerson MD Editor-in-Chief of the Journal and Professor Emeritus at University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester. "This form of thyroid cancer is especially important because of its high mortality strong inheritance patterns and associations with other serious glandular disorders. These evidence-based guidelines will become a benchmark for patient management and clinical research as they illuminate the diagnostic and therapeutic strategies required when caring for gravely ill patients and those in the anxiety-ridden early stages of the disease and when offering testing and counseling to family members. "MTC is a complex disease that accounts for about 4% of all thyroid cancer cases in the United States. Nearly 25% of cases worldwide are familial and present as an autosomal inherited disorder. In individuals with the inherited form of MTC a preneoplastic lesion called C-cell hyperplasia will first develop and then progress to an invasive life-threatening malignancy. The American Thyroid Association (.