Articles by Matt Ellsworth

Members of the University of Arizona community will have the chance to meet the candidate for UA's presidency in less than a week. Ann Weaver Hart, currently president of Temple University, will visit UA's Tucson campus on February 13.

As Temple's president, Dr. Hart oversees a academic medical center, Temple University Health System, and during a six-year tenure has achieved several milestones for Temple:

She has significantly increased undergraduate and graduate applications while raising the academic qualifications of incoming students; produced an institutional record number of Fulbright scholars; improved the freshman retention rate and time to degree; grown research expenditures by nearly $30 million; fostered technology transfer and economic development efforts; and advanced Temple's ranking with the National Science Foundation seven spots. The Chronicle of Higher Education cites Temple's graduation rate as increasing at the second fastest rate among public research universities nationwide, a feat accomplished under Hart's leadership.

Previously, Dr. Hart served as president of the University of New Hampshire, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Claremont Graduate University, and dean of the Graduate School and special assistant to the president at the University of Utah, where she earned her doctorate in educational administration. 

Read more at the source: "ABOR Names Ann Weaver Hart as UA Presidential Candidate"

In Nature, Heidi Ledford speaks with pathogen-genomics expert Paul Keim of Northern Arizona University and TGen North about the controversial recommendation by the US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity--Keim chairs the panel--that Nature and Science censor papers on how to make the H5N1 avian flu virus more transmissible:

“We’re being accused of being the bad guys,” says Keim, based at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. “But most of what we’ve done is to push back against harsher regulations.” Since its inception, Keim says that the NSABB has only been asked to review six papers, including two in 2005 that described the reconstruction of the 1918 influenza virus that is thought to have killed more than 20 million people. In that case, the board recommended that the papers simply be amended to spell out the public-health benefits of the research.

[...]

In the course of its deliberations over the H5N1 papers, the NSABB became aware of additional work on H5N1 transmissibility that was nearing publication. Keim says the board is now considering whether to recommend a voluntary moratorium on the publication of such work until the community can discuss further precautions to prevent misuse. He expects the board to vote on this in the next few weeks, and adds: “It is time for us to have a broad and global discussion.”

Read more: "Call to censor flu studies draws fire"

The Chan Soon-Shiong Institute for Advanced Health, which announced earlier this year that it would establish headquarters in Phoenix, has, with NantWorks LLC and National LambdaRail, selected IO, "the leading provider of next-generation modular data center technology and services," to support the giant data center that the CSS Institute is establishing in Phoenix.

"Now, for the first time, we are able to bring together a high-performance communications network, dedicated storage capacity and high-performance computing," said Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, Chairman of the CSS Institute, NantWorks and the NLR. "This is the infrastructure that we have so far lacked for healthcare, and which is vital to translate genomic data into actionable clinical decision making. It is the beginning of 21st century medicine."

"In addition to generating massive volumes of information requiring high-performance IT, the regulatory environment of the healthcare ecosystem also requires a highly protected and reliable infrastructure," said Anthony J. D'Ambrosi, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer. "IO's high-density and ultra-secure infrastructure enables healthcare IT to accomplish their goals both today and into the future."

Read more: "IO Announces Contract with the Chan Soon-Shiong Institute for Advanced Health, NantWorks LLC and National LambdaRail"

The inaugural Arizona Science and Technology Festival will occur during February 2012 with events at sites across the state. Individuals and organizations wishing to participate in and support this unique opportunity to showcase Arizona's scientific strength and potential should contact Jeremy Babendure, director of the Festival.

What are the aims of the Festival, and how big an undertaking will it be? Here's what Dr. Babendure has to say:

Spearheaded by the Arizona Technology Council Foundation, Arizona State University, and the Arizona Science Center, the Arizona Science and Technology Festival will be 6-week statewide celebration involving 200+ orgs in industry, education and community to inspire Arizonans about how STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) will drive the future of Arizona.

Through a series of hands-on activities and workshops, discussions, exhibitions, concerts, and tours centered during the month of February 2012, the First Annual Arizona SciTech Festival’s goals are to (1) brand Arizona as a leader in science and technology; (2) inform/inspire our future workforce about opportunities in AZ; and (3) serve as a focal point to bring diverse stakeholders in workforce, education and community together.

We anticipate the festival will reach 100,000+ Arizonans through 300+ activities that take place in diverse neighborhoods throughout the state with: signature events highlighting the innovative character of each region (aerospace, technology, bioscience) with high energy exhibitions and shows; 20+ neighborhood hubs providing workshop and discussion opportunities at accessible locations such as libraries and community centers; tours of science/technology facilities statewide; and activities, talks and challenges in-schools to get kids engaged before, during and post festival.

[From Inside Tucson Business]

Five weeks of reserach at the University of Arizona has concluded for the latest cohort of participants in the KEYS internship program, one of Arizona's great summer research opportunities for young people. The program is sponsored by the UA College of Pharmacy and the BIO5 Institute.

"This is what the University of Arizona is all about," said Jennifer Barton, a UA biomedical engineering professor and assistant director of the Bio5 Institute. "It's important that we serve the state of Arizona."

[...]

Their research covered a diverse spectrum of topics, including the effects of habitat fragmentation among mountain lion populations, genetic characteristics of rice that could help maximize harvest yields and the foraging behavior of honeybees.

Businessman Thomas Keating, who is also a Bio5 Institute benefactor, said the students work and that of the scientists they've teamed with was an inspiration.

"It's so easy to admire these people," Keating said.

Read more at the source: "High school students get hands-on with scientific research"

With little advance fanfare, Cardinal Health Inc., based in Dublin, OH, has opened an $11M facility in Phoenix near the Tempe border. With the research site come 20 new jobs:

The 25,000-square-foot facility at 4505 E. Broadway Road will help pharmaceutical companies and academic research institutions accelerate the development, testing and commercialization of new radiopharmaceuticals and positron emission tomography imaging agents used in PET scans.

The 20 positions in Phoenix include roles for radio-chemists, engineers, scientists, product development managers, project managers and quality and regulatory personnel.

Cardinal Health is on of the larger bioscience companies to establish a foothold in Arizona in recent years. The firm has more than 30,000 employees worlwide, and annual revenue of $99 billion.

Read more at the source: "Cardinal Health opens $11M imaging research center in Phoenix"

Algae Biosciences Corp., a northern-Arizona firm working in three bioscience niches--neutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals, and biofuels--will soon be a public company. The reverse merger with Triwood Capital Corp. values Algae Biosciences at more than $6.8 million (Canadian):

Triwood Capital Corp. (TSX-V: TRD.H), to be renamed Algae Biosciences Corporation, has filed a final prospectus for an offering of up to 25 million common shares at $0.20 per share to raise up to $5 million. The offering is expected to close on April 15, 2011.

[...]

As Triwood’s proposed qualifying transaction (QT), Triwood and Algae Biosciences have agreed to effect a forward triangular transaction under which Algae Biosciences will merge with and into Algae Delaware, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Triwood, with Algae Delaware as the surviving entity. Following the completion of the QT, Triwood will be renamed Algae Biosciences Corporation.

Read more at the source: "Triwood Capital/Algae Bioosciences Files Final Offering Prospectus"

[From the Worcester Telegram and Gazette]

Scottsdale-based Apthera Inc. has been purchased for $7.2 million by RXi Pharmaceuticals, a Massachusetts company. 

Mark W. Schwartz, Apthera president and CEO, will become chief operating officer of RXi, the companies reported.

RXi is focused on RNA interference, technology that aims to block the activity of genes. The company’s first product under development, RXI-109, aims to reduce surgical scarring.

Acquiring Apthera gives RXi a therapeutic vaccine for cancer called NeuVax that is close to the third and final phase of human testing in breast cancer patients. NeuVax uses a small peptide from a protein expressed by certain tumors to prod the body’s immune system to attack cancer cells.

Apthera's Robert Kennedy will also join RXi.

The acquisition comes in the wake of RXi's decision to move from a focus on research into product development.

Read more at the source: "RXi to buy Ariz. firm"

Arizona State University and Mayo Clinic are developing a new device that could put an end to the painful finger pricking that patients with diabetes must endure on a daily basis.

The project, funded first by a seed grant from Mayo Clinic, now also has support from BioAccel, an Arizona-based nonprofit organization focused on accelerating the commercialization of bioscience technology.

The new sensor would enable people to draw tear fluid from their eyes to get a glucose-level test sample.

Glucose in tear fluid may give an indication of glucose levels in the blood as accurately as a test using a blood sample, the researchers say.

“The problem with current self-monitoring blood glucose technologies is not so much the sensor," says Jeffrey T. LaBelle, a bioengineer. "It’s the painful finger prick that makes people reluctant to perform the test. This new technology might encourage patients to check their blood sugars more often, which could lead to better control of their diabetes by a simple touch to the eye."

LaBelle, the designer of the device technology, is a research professor in the School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering, one of ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering. He is leading the ASU-Mayo research team along with Mayo Clinic physicians Curtiss B. Cook, an endocrinologist, and Dharmendra (Dave) Patel, chair of Mayo’s Department of Surgical Ophthalmology. The team reported on their early work on the sensor in the Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology last year and at various regional and national conferences.

[...]

“With funding provided by BioAccel, the research team will conduct critical experiments to determine how well the new device correlates with use of the current technology that uses blood sampling,” says Ron King, BioAccel’s chief scientific and business officer.

The results should help efforts to secure downstream funding for further development work from such sources as the National Institutes of Health and the Small Business Incentive Research Program, King says.

Read more at the source: "ASU, Mayo Clinic team work to help diabetes patients"

From Sandra Watson, COO of the Arizona Commerce Authority:

BIO 2011 is just around the corner! The Annual BIO International Convention is the world’s largest biotechnology gathering. Over 15,000 biotechnology, life science and industry professionals from around the world will gather to highlight the future of biotechnology at the BIO 2011 Annual International Convention in Washington D.C. from June 27 – 30, 2011.

The Arizona Commerce Authority will be promoting Arizona as the premier location to establish a bioscience company and exposing Arizona’s existing bio companies and research organizations to potential partners and customers worldwide.

The Arizona Pavilion provides strategic opportunities for companies, organizations and communities to make an impact at the BIO 2011 Annual International Convention.

Please join us and show your commitment to accelerating Arizona’s bio industry and making this year the best yet at BIO! For more information contact Jennifer Edson at jennifere@azcommerce.com

[From the Arizona Republic]

Ken Alltucker of the Republic reports on an important project that the Translational Genomics Research Institute and the Mayo Clinic (Scottsdale) have completed: sequencing the genome of a pancreatic cancer tumor--quickly.

Doctors and scientists have talked about the prospect of tailored medical treatments based on an individual's DNA since the Human Genome Project was completed in 2003. Yet the technology has provided few practical tools for doctors as they provide care for patients facing life-threatening disease.

"We were impressed with the technology," said Keith Stewart, Mayo Clinic's dean of research. "What we couldn't figure out is how we would make this clinically applicable for the future."

The extraction and sequencing took 6 weeks, and cost an estimated $150,000. But given the expense of many cancer-fighting drugs, and the potential for sequencing costs to continue falling, TGen and Mayo are already closing in on a clinical viability.

John Carpten, director of TGen's cancer-genomics division, said that the cost of such DNA sequencing should be compared to existing chemotherapy drugs. Such cancer drugs may cost as much as $60,000 to $70,000 per round, and patients often must endure multiple rounds of such therapies before they find one that is effective for them.

"What if you spend tens of thousands up front to try to figure out the right regimen to give patients?" Carpten said. "We are in the proof-of-principle stage. We have to prove to the medical establishment that providing this type of molecular detail is as or more beneficial (than current therapies). It is up to us to prove it."

Read more at the source: "DNA quickly mapped in study by Mayo Clinic, TGen"

[From the Sacramento Bee]

Hudson Sangree of the Bee reports on a celebrated project led by researchers at the University of Arizona and the University of California at Davis:

Open the door to a vault-like room at UC Davis and the cool sterility of a laboratory gives way to the sticky heat of the tropics, with thousands of mosquitoes buzzing in cages and feasting on blood.

Here in the university's medical sciences complex, researchers are studying mosquitoes which they genetically altered to resist the parasite that causes malaria.

In other words, malaria-proof mosquitoes.

Now the goal is to make the altered mosquitoes hardier than native varieties, which they could someday supplant in nature throughout the world.

Read more at the source: "UC Davis researchers work to create malaria-proof mosquitoes"

The headline in the Jan. 28 Arizona Republic is not the kind anyone interested in STEM education would like to see: "Arizona students fare poorly in science."

The Republic notes a new report issued by the National Assessment of Educational Progress and finds that:

Students in fourth and eighth grades scored 11 and 8 points, respectively, below the national average. Arizona's fourth-graders earned 138 on a scale of 300, which was below the national average of 149. Eighth-graders in Arizona scored 141, below the 149 national average.

Arizona-specific results did not include the 12th grade, but overall, the state ranked among the 10 lowest in the 2009 assessment of student knowledge of physical, life, Earth and space sciences.

Darcy Renfro, vice president of Science Foundation Arizona's STEM Initiatives, cuts to the chase:

"What I am seeing in these numbers is that we're not moving the ball in science, and we have to start approaching this in a fundamentally different way." She adds, ""How do you engage students by making (STEM) more interesting and relevant? You have to start with the colleges of education."

The news in Arizona is not uniformly bad, though, as many of those involved in strengthening STEM education would attest.

Also released this week was the Milken Institute's annual state technology and science index, which ranked Arizona 15th, up from 17th last year. That's good, by itself. But look closer, and there are particular niches to be excited about.

One of Milken's sub-assessments is the Human Capital Investment Composite Index. It contains some sobering statistics--especially related to education funding--and some exciting ones. It sure looks like the work done at the community colleges and universities in recent years to encourage students toward degrees in STEM subjects is paying off--In some areas, Arizona is among the nation's best:

• All Recent Degrees in Science and Engineering per 1,000 Civilian Workers (2007): Rank: 4
• Recent Bachelor's Degrees in Science and Engineering per 1,000 Civilian Workers (2007): Rank: 6
• Recent Master's Degrees in Science and Engineering per 1,000 Civilian Workers (2007): Rank: 2

Renfro and her colleagues have something to build on.

The endorsement by an FDA advisory panel of a new test to diagnose Alzheimer's disease in living patients has ignited excitement among researchers and clinicians about potential benefits that Alzheimer's patients may soon see.

The new test was developed by drugmaker Avid Radiopharmaceuticals, with important research contributions from scientists at the Phoenix-based Banner Alzheimer's Institute. Eric Reiman, the institute's executive director, and Pierre Tariot, director of the institute's memory disorders center, were both interviewed by numerous Arizona and national media outlets, including:

• The Arizona Republic ("Test may spot early signs of Alzheimer's")
• The New York Times ("Alzheimer’s Test, First of Its Kind, Clears Hurdle")
• CBS News ("Alzheimer's Brain Scan Works, Says FDA: Would You Want to Know?")

[From University Communications, University of Arizona]

Adrian Shelton is certainly no stranger to the University of Arizona. Not only is she married to the University's top administrator, she's also actively involved with the campus community, particularly through her fundraising efforts for the Arizona Assurance financial aid program. But her ties to the UA recently became even stronger when she was appointed interim assistant vice president for research compliance and policy.

[...]

In the interim role, Adrian Shelton is heading up the University's Office for the Responsible Conduct of Research, which helps University researchers comply with a variety of federal regulations pertaining to topics such as human subjects research, humane animal care and use, laboratory safety, and various issues related to scientific integrity and ethical practices.

A national search for an individual to fill the position on a full-time basis will be underway within the next few weeks.

Read more at the source: "Adrian Shelton Appointed Interim Assistant VP for Research Compliance and Policy"