Arizona Biosciences

For the eighth straight year, Arizona showcased its growing assets and reputation at the world’s largest annual biotechnology convention and exposition, BIO 2009. The Arizona Department of Commerce (ADOC) and Arizona BioIndustry Association (AZBio) led the state delegation along with economic-development, non-profit, and industry partners at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, May 18-21. The event drew more than 14,000 registrants from 48 states and 58 nations.

Another piece of Arizona's proteomics puzzle is in place. The Translational Genomics Research Institute has announced the recruitment of Konstantinos Petritis to direct its Center for Proteomics. The center is a critical component of the Partnership for Personalized Medicine, a multi-institutional collaboration to develop new molecular diagnostics for the early detection and treatment of disease.

Karen Weihs, medical director of psychosocial oncology for the Arizona Cancer Center at the University of Arizona, has received a $3.7 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to investigate the biologic, psychosocial, and social characteristics that breast-cancer patients employ to ward off depression.

In a study published May 14 in the New England Journal of Medicine, a research team led by Leslie V. Boyer of the University of Arizona found that an experimental antivenom drug is tremendously effective in countering the neurotoxic effects of the bark scorpion's sting.

Throughout the United States, there is probably no bigger name in cancer treatment than the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. And in two years, M.D. Anderson will be serving patients in Arizona.

Those with a fear of heights probably shouldn't follow in the footsteps of Ron King and MaryAnn Guerra. Five years after the two technology-commercialization experts took a gamble to help establish the Translational Genomics Research Institute, they have stepped away from that highly successful venture to lead a new one, Catapult Bio.

No class of ailments kills and disables more children in the United States than injuries, diseases, and disorders of the brain. In light of that grim reality, the arrival of P. David Adelson as chief of neurosurgery and director of the Children's Neuroscience Institute at Phoenix Children's Hospital looks like a stroke of luck for Arizonans.

On April 8, leaders from Arizona State University and Barrow Neurological Institute (BNI), joined by colleagues from the broader biomedical-research community, celebrated the opening of the BNI-ASU Center for Preclinical Imaging. The facility's most-prized new asset is a 7-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner, enabling high-resolution visualization of anatomy, brain function, and disease progression.

For more than three and a half years, Arizona leaders in research, industry, and economic development looked toward the opening of Covance's new drug-testing laboratory in Chandler as an inflection point in Arizona's efforts to develop its bioscience enterprise. The $175 million facility, unveiled March 26, is now operational and may ultimately support up to 2,000 high-wage jobs.