“We now have the technical ability to get the wrong answers with unprecedented speed.” Carolyn Compton, Director, Office of Biorepositories and Biospecimen Research
Archive for May, 2010
Food for Thought: Synthetic Biology
Friday, May 28, 2010
A lot has been written since last week’s publication of Craig Venter’s latest coup – the creation of the first cell controlled by a synthetic genome. While the reactions span from the alarmist (“playing god”) to the dismissive (“nothing new”), most commentaries overlook that Venter has demonstrated that life – for now, bacteria – can be customized to an extend that by far exceeds conventional genetic technologies which merely introduce a few new genes into existing organisms.
For now, it is impossible to forecast the success of building and introducing synthetic genomes to manufacture organisms that spill out biofuel or clean up polluted shores at unprecedented efficiency. Synthetic genomes have only recently become available as the technology to accurately synthesize and assemble large pieces of DNA has made tremendous progress and has led to decreasing prices for synthetic DNA. Venter used 1078 cassettes of 1080 base pairs each which were assembled to a genome of 1.08 million base pairs. In comparison, the E. coli genome consists of about 4.6 million base pairs.
Company News: 365 Energy Selected as Provider of ChargePoint® Networked Charging Stations in Poland
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
- 365 Energy and partner Zohar Energy start collaboration with POLENERGIA -
365 Energy today announced that its partner Zohar Energy has been chosen by Polish energy company POLENERGIA to support its expansion as a leading provider of infrastructure solutions for electric vehicles (EVs) in Poland. The first ChargePoint® Networked Charging Station was installed in Warsaw earlier this month. The ChargePoint stations are manufactured by US-based Coulomb Technologies. More information is available here.
Food for Thought: Open Source Principles – A Concept for the Life Sciences?
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
In the IT industry, open source is an acknowledged development principle for software that uses peer review and transparency of the development process. The promise of open source is better quality, i.e. higher reliability, more flexibility, and lower cost, among others.
Now, this principle is spreading to the life sciences. For one, there is the Open Source Sensing Initiative which is trying to apply a bottom-up, decentralized approach to the development of sensors for security and environmental purposes. Read more…
Company News: MediGene Expands Commercialization of Veregen to China and South Korea
Monday, May 10, 2010
- Closing of two additional license and supply agreements for the commercialization and marketing of Veregen® -
MediGene AG (Frankfurt, Prime Standard, TecDAX) has signed two further license and supply agreements for the commercialization and marketing of Veregen®. These have been signed with GC-Rise Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. in China and JS Bio Pharm Co., Ltd. in South Korea.
GC-Rise will conduct the clinical trials of Veregen® (for the treatment of genital warts) that are required for approval of the ointment in China, and will be responsible for all the regulatory and approval procedures thereafter. MediGene will receive a one-time payment upon execution of the agreement and a further milestone payment upon initiation of the first clinical trial in China. In addition, MediGene will profit from supplying GC-Rise with the drug product. GC-Rise expects market launch in China at the end of 2013.
JS Bio Pharm will promote and distribute Veregen® for the treatment of genital warts, and will also be responsible for all regulatory procedures and for obtaining approval of the drug in South Korea. MediGene will receive royalties and a milestone payment contingent on the level of sales achieved. In addition, MediGene will profit from supplying JS Bio Pharm with the drug product. JS Bio Pharm expects to launch the drug on the South Korean market during 2012.
