UC Irvine program will prepare scientists to turn research into improved patient care.

Sherrie Kaplan, UC Irvine

The UC Irvine School of Medicine has kicked off an innovative master’s degree program in biomedical translational science that will prepare emerging doctors and scientists to turn basic and clinical research into improved patient care.

The Master’s of Science in Biomedical and Translational Science (MS-BATS) is a flexible program developed to address the acute needs for clinical researchers trained to meet the increasingly sophisticated demands of the clinical research environment. It is aimed at junior faculty in clinical departments, fellows, residents, fourth-year medical students, physicians and others with a solid basic science foundation who are interested in developing the skills needed to conduct, interpret, evaluate and apply clinical research.

“The recent emphasis by the federal government to speed biomedical discoveries into the health care marketplace make this program particularly timely,” said Sherrie Kaplan, program director and executive co-director of UCI’s Health Policy Research Institute. “Our curriculum has been developed to meet the increasingly sophisticated demands of the clinical research environment.”

The curriculum involves two years – six academic quarters plus one summer quarter – of coursework and research training. During their first year, students will focus on required coursework needed to establish a solid foundation in the fundamental disciplines underlying modern biomedical and clinical research. The second-year curriculum provides extensive research training where students will choose a research mentor and apply those principals learned during their first year of coursework.

“Initially, our MS-degree program curriculum will focus on the conduct and interpretation of clinical research and the assessment and improvement of quality of health care,” Kaplan said. “The long-range expectation is to offer additional fields of emphasis, especially in molecular medicine and population health sciences.”

For more information, see: www.som.uci.edu/msbats.

UC-owned site chosen for the proposed consolidation of the lab’s biosciences programs.

Richmond Field Station architectural rendering

The University of California announced today (Jan. 23) that it has identified the Richmond Field Station as its preferred site for the proposed consolidation of the biosciences programs of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The University of California-owned site presents the best opportunity to solve the lab’s pressing space problems while allowing for long-term growth and maintaining the 80-year tradition of close cooperation with the UC Berkeley campus.

With this identification of a preferred site, the university will now move ahead with developing environmental impact studies and with the process of seeking final approval from the U.S. Department of Energy for the project.

“Each city, community and their developer partners presented extremely thoughtful and well-formulated proposals for us to consider, for which we are deeply grateful,” says Berkeley Lab Director Paul Alivisatos. “The communities of Albany, Alameda, Berkeley, Emeryville, Oakland and Richmond have been true partners in this process. While we can only pick one site, we hope that the new relationships we’ve made will continue to help us foster excitement in science. The enthusiasm is wonderful affirmation of the desire of the entire East Bay to be part of developing scientific solutions to some of the greatest challenges facing our society.”

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Simple universal test spots biomarkers for group of disorders, may speed diagnosis.

Jeffrey Esko, UC San Diego

A team of scientists, led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine and Zacharon Pharmaceuticals, have developed a simple, reliable test for identifying biomarkers for mucopolysaccharidoses (MPS), a group of inherited metabolic disorders that currently are diagnosed in patients only after symptoms have become serious and the damage possibly irreversible.

The findings will be published online Sunday in the journal Nature Chemical Biology.

MPS is caused by the absence or malfunctioning of a lysosomal enzyme required to break down and recycle complex sugar molecules called glycosaminoglycans, which are used to build bone, tendons, skin and other tissues. If not degraded and removed, glycosaminoglycans can accumulate in cells and tissues, resulting in progressive, permanent damage affecting appearance, physical abilities, organ function and often mental development in young children. The effects range from mild to severe.

There are 11 known forms of MPS, each involving a different lysosomal enzyme. A number of treatments exist, including enzyme replacement therapy and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, but efficacy depends upon diagnosing the disease and its specific form as early as possible. That has been problematic, said Jeffrey D. Esko, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine and co-director of the Glycobiology Research and Training Center at UC San Diego.

“The typical time from seeing first symptoms to diagnosis of MPS is about three years. Since the early signs of disease are common childhood issues like ear infections and learning disorders, the disease is usually not immediately recognized,” Esko said.

“A child often has multiple visits with their pediatrician. Eventually they are referred to a metabolic disease specialist, where rare diseases are considered. It takes an expert to identify MPS and its most likely form in each patient. Every subclass of MPS has its own specific diagnostic test, so developing better diagnostics is an essential part of effective treatment. ”

In their paper, the scientists describe an innovative method to detect tell-tale carbohydrate structures specific to glycosaminoglycans in the cells, blood and urine of MPS patients. The biomarker assay identifies all known forms of the disease.

Esko is collaborating with Zacharon Pharmaceuticals, a San Diego-based biotechnology company, to develop a commercial diagnostic assay for differentiating forms of MPS from urine and blood samples, a screening test for newborns and a tool for measuring the biochemical response of MPS patients to existing and novel therapies.

“Since the severity of the disease is highly variable among patients, this could provide a tool that a doctor can use to optimize dosing or treatment,” said Brett Crawford, vice president for research at Zacharon. “Currently, all patients are treated with the same dose of drug.”

The biomarker test may also be used to discover new forms of MPS and better characterize existing ones.

Disclosure: Esko co-founded Zacharon Pharmaceuticals in 2004 with Brett E. Crawford and Charles Glass. He is a scientific advisor to the company.

Co-authors include Roger Lawrence and William C. Lamanna, UC San Diego Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Glycobiology Research and Training Center; Jillian R. Brown, James R. Beitel and Brett E. Crawford, Zacharon Pharmaceuticals; Geert-Jan Boones and Kanar Al-Mafraji, University of Georgia, Athens.

Funding for this research came, in part, from the National Institutes of Health, a Kirschstein National Research Service Award and the National MPS Society.

Extending Innovation Network program selects three projects; other academic partners with Roche include UCSF.

Joan Heller Brown, UC San Diego

The new UC San Diego-Roche Extending Innovation Network (EIN) program has been launched with selection of its first three research projects at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine. The UC San Diego-Roche EIN program, which was formalized in June 2011, aims to accelerate the discovery of new drug therapies through research innovation at the interface of industry and academia. The program is slated to grow in the coming years as additional rounds of proposals are solicited.

Under this partnership, faculty-initiated research projects are selected for funding from proposals solicited campuswide on a planned biannual basis. The program is headed by a joint steering committee comprising two Roche researchers and two UC San Diego faculty members, Joan Heller Brown, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Pharmacology, and Michael K. Gilson, M.D., Ph.D., professor of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences and director of UC San Diego’s new Drug Discovery Institute.

“We are very pleased about this exciting and innovative partnership, which strengthens UCSD Health Sciences’ strategic goal of broadly advancing our programs in drug discovery,” said David A. Brenner, M.D., vice chancellor for health sciences and dean of the UC San Diego School of Medicine.

The EIN program allows Roche to have the first look at in-licensing opportunities that match the company’s strategy, and is designed to further strengthen the cooperation between university research and pharmaceutical development. Other academic institutions that are partners with Roche in the EIN program include Harvard University and UC San Francisco.

The three two-year projects selected in this initial round will use innovative molecular technologies recently developed at UC San Diego to gain a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of neuropsychiatric disease and leukemia, with the ultimate goal of developing effective new treatments.

“This funding will help provide important new opportunities to translate basic discoveries and leading-edge technologies from UC San Diego’s research laboratories into needed therapies for patients — an effort being spearheaded by our new Drug Discovery Institute,” said Palmer Taylor, Ph.D., associate vice chancellor for health sciences and dean of the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

The three projects selected for this initial round of funding are as follows.

Xiang-Dong Fu, Ph.D., professor of cellular and molecular medicine and member of the UC San Diego Institute of Genomic Medicine, in collaboration with Michael G. Rosenfeld, M.D., will use cutting-edge genomic and RNA-based approaches to help identify new potential therapeutic targets.  Coupled with a new gene-signature approach, this research project could identify compounds that will ultimately lead to the discovery of new neuropsychiatric drugs.

Paul Insel, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology and medicine, will investigate the expression of the GPCR family of receptors on the surface of cells from patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). There are limited successful therapies for CLL, which is the most common form of adult leukemia and can progress to a very aggressive form that is rapidly lethal.  Insel seeks to identify new targets for drugs to improve the course of this disease.

Gene Yeo, Ph.D., assistant professor of cellular and molecular medicine, will apply innovative technologies to detect abnormal patterns of RNA in neurons and discover molecules that reverse these defects. This work has promise for the treatment of a variety of neuropsychiatric disorders.

Takeda buys Intellikine.

Kevan Shokat, UC San Francisco

A cancer drug company founded by UC San Francisco professor Kevan Shokat, Ph.D., has been acquired by Japan-based Takeda Pharmaceuticals in an effort to add two novel drug projects to Takeda’s pipeline of potential oncology therapies.

Shokat, who chairs the UCSF Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, launched Intellikine in 2007 to translate his UCSF kinase research into the development of small-molecule drugs. Kinases are enzymes that are known to regulate the majority of cellular pathways. The Intellikine therapies specifically target the PI-3 kinase (PI3K) pathway – a key target in cancer biology due to its impact on a wide array of cellular functions, including cell growth, proliferation and survival.

Intellikine is based on Shokat’s research at UCSF into four common variations of this pathway. In just four years, the company has developed a portfolio of novel small-molecule kinase inhibitors that selectively target the drivers of cancer cell growth and already has moved three potential drugs into human clinical trials. Takeda’s announcement identified two specific drug candidates — INK128 and INK1117 – as being potential “best in class” inhibitors of cancer growth. The third candidate is being developed in partnership with Infinity Pharmaceuticals.

Under the agreement, Takeda America Holdings will purchase Intellikine for $190 million in cash, plus up to $120 million in so-called “BioBucks,” or projected payments linked to specific milestones in clinical development.

Joint BioEnergy Institute researchers develop CAD-type tools for engineering RNA control systems.

Jay Keasling (left) and James Carothers, Berkeley Lab (click image for larger view)

The computer assisted design (CAD) tools that made it possible to fabricate integrated circuits with millions of transistors may soon be coming to the biological sciences. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) have developed CAD-type models and simulations for RNA molecules that make it possible to engineer biological components or “RNA devices” for controlling genetic expression  in microbes. This holds enormous potential for microbial-based sustainable production of advanced biofuels, biodegradable plastics, therapeutic drugs and a host of other goods now derived from petrochemicals.

“Because biological systems exhibit functional complexity at multiple scales, a big question has been whether effective design tools can be created to increase the sizes and complexities of the microbial systems we engineer to meet specific needs,” says Jay Keasling, director of JBEI and a world authority on synthetic biology and metabolic engineering. “Our work establishes a foundation for developing CAD platforms to engineer complex RNA-based control systems that can process cellular information and program the expression of very large numbers of genes. Perhaps even more importantly, we have provided a framework for studying RNA functions and demonstrated the potential of using biochemical and biophysical modeling to develop rigorous design-driven engineering strategies for biology.”

Keasling, who also holds appointments with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California, Berkeley, is the corresponding author of a paper in the journal Science that describes this work. The paper is titled “Model-driven engineering of RNA devices to quantitatively-program gene expression.” Other co-authors are James Carothers, Jonathan Goler and Darmawi Juminaga.

Synthetic biology is an emerging scientific field in which novel biological devices, such as molecules, genetic circuits or cells, are designed and constructed, or existing biological systems, such as microbes, are re-designed and engineered. A major goal is to produce valuable chemical products from simple, inexpensive and renewable starting materials in a sustainable manner. As with other engineering disciplines, CAD tools for simulating and designing global functions based upon local component behaviors are essential for constructing complex biological devices and systems. However, until this work, CAD-type models and simulation tools for biology have been very limited.

Identifying the relevant design parameters and defining the domains over which expected component behaviors are exerted have been key steps in the development of CAD tools for other engineering disciplines,” says Carothers, a bioengineer and lead author of the Science paper who is a member of Keasling’s research groups with both JBEI and the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences. “We’ve applied generalizable engineering strategies for managing functional complexity to develop CAD-type simulation and modeling tools for designing RNA-based genetic control systems. Ultimately we’d like to develop CAD platforms for synthetic biology that rival the tools found in more established engineering disciplines, and we see this work as an important technical and conceptual step in that direction.”

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“Paths to Innovation” details role in recombinant DNA, oncogenes and prions.

Henry Bourne (left) wrote "Paths to Innovation"

When Henry Bourne retired in 2008 after 39 years at UCSF, he wasn’t sure what to do next.

“I had run a lab for decades and I had an illusory sense of well-being,” said Bourne, M.D., professor emeritus and former chair of the Department of Pharmacology. “And suddenly it didn’t matter whether I was there or not. I went through a period of feeling a bit despondent about that. I decided what I wanted to do was write.”

What he produced is a 338-page book that chronicles UCSF’s metamorphosis in the 1970s from a provincial campus into a major center for biomedical research. The book, titled “Paths to Innovation: Discovering Recombinant DNA, Oncogenes, and Prions, in One Medical School, in One Decade,” is among the first five books published by the University of California Medical Humanities Consortium.

“It’s a book that describes how very important discoveries were made over a period of eight years, in the 1970s, within a diameter of 150 yards, by four different people, three of whom won Nobel prizes,” Bourne said. “They changed the whole face of biology and medical care.”

These game changers are:

• Michael Bishop, M.D., chancellor emeritus of UCSF, who shared a 1989 Nobel Prize for their studies of genes that play a role in cancer with Harold Varmus, M.D., who was a UCSF faculty member for more than two decades;
• Herbert Boyer, Ph.D., who did groundbreaking work in DNA technology and later co-founded Genentech and
• Stanley Prusiner, M.D., who won a Nobel Prize in 1997 for his discovery of an infectious agent he named the prion that causes fatal neurodegenerative diseases.

The publication of Bourne’s book “couldn’t be more appropriate timing since we’re building up to the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of UCSF,” Brian Dolan, co-director of the UC Medical Humanities Consortium, said at a book-signing party in the Kalmanovitz Library on the Parnassus campus on Dec. 7.

Bourne described Boyer, Bishop, Varmus and Prusiner as wild cards in the academic deck who all arrived at UCSF between 1966 and 1970, joining a cadre of exceptional leaders he called the face cards. One of his main goals was to figure out how their bursts of discovery could all occur at once, which meant taking a look at what UCSF was like then.

“Neither the wild cards nor the face cards were attracted to UCSF because it was a wonderful academic center,” said Bourne, 71, a would-be novelist and former newspaper reporter in his native Virginia. “It absolutely was not. But it was a place where they could be free to do what they wanted to do without interference.”

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The network could transform the future of medical discovery, diagnosis and treatment.

A National Academy of Sciences committee co-chaired by UC San Francisco Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann, M.D., M.P.H., recommends the creation of a Google maps-like data network that could transform the future of medical discovery, diagnosis and treatment.

The so-called “Knowledge Network” would integrate the wealth of data emerging on the molecular basis of disease with information on environmental factors and patients’ electronic medical records, with the goal of developing more diagnostics and treatments tailored to individual patients — known as “precision medicine.”

The development of this broadly accessible data network would allow scientists to share emerging research findings faster, thereby accelerating the development of tailored treatments. It also would allow clinicians to make more informed decisions about treatments. It would reduce health care costs and ultimately improve care.

The report, titled “Toward Precision Medicine: Building a Knowledge Network for Biomedical Research and a New Taxonomy of Disease,” (PDF) is the result of a one-year study conducted at the special request of Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D., director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Keith Yamamoto, Ph.D., vice chancellor for research at UCSF who served on the National Academy of Sciences committee, considers the proposal “the most important National Academy of Sciences Framework Analysis since that advisory body recommended that the United States go forward with the Human Genome Project.”

The task of the committee, which also included Bernard Lo, M.D., UCSF professor of medicine and director of the Program in Medical Ethics, was to propose a strategy for incorporating molecular data into the current classifications of diseases — going beyond descriptions that are today generally defined broadly by organs and symptoms — thus creating a “new taxonomy” of disease.

But the committee went further, proposing an infrastructure in which the patient would be the lynchpin of a health care system where findings from the laboratory would inform patient care, and individuals’ responses to treatment would inform basic research.

The Knowledge Network would be centered on a dynamic, interactive data repository, or “Information Commons,” that, like Google maps, would link layers ofdata to reveal information. The layers – environmental exposures, signs and symptoms, genetics, epigenetics, microbial exposures and othertypes of patient data – would be linked to data on individual patients. Data would be continuously refreshed with new basic and clinical research results and patient outcomes.

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Campus academic leaders — including in health — plan for a new era of innovation.

As UC San Diego enters its 51^st year—a new era of innovation—the campus senior academic leaders have created bold strategic plans to identify research areas of strength and spark interdisciplinary collaboration among its world-class faculty. In a wide-ranging videotaped conversation at the Seuss Library in the Faculty Club on Oct. 25, Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Suresh Subramani, Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences and School of Medicine Dean David Brenner and Vice Chancellor for Marine Sciences and Scripps Institution of Oceanography Director Tony Haymet shared their vision for the next decade and beyond.

“We have fewer academic departments and divisional structures than many other top universities. That means fewer of the usual barriers to integrated research,” Subramani said. “The campus has always been collaborative and interdisciplinary, and I’d like to see more and more of these interdivisional activities taking place.”

“At UC San Diego, we have a critical mass of really talented people who are highly collaborative and collegial,” Brenner said. Haymet added: “We have to count our blessings that we ended up in a little enclave north of San Diego. We offer the kind of collaborative environment that early career people love to be in.”

“UC San Diego is a research powerhouse with limitless potential,” said Subramani. “The challenge is to maintain our excellence, reputation and access despite the declining state contributions to the University of California budget and an unstable state, national and global economy. We absolutely will not compromise on quality.”

Aggressive faculty hiring plans have been initiated by Academic Affairs, Health Sciences and Marine Sciences to ensure UC San Diego’s prominence.

Through brainstorming sessions with the academic deans, Subramani developed a three-year hiring plan to recruit 125 to 130 new faculty with roughly one-fourth to be in quantitative/systems biology; a design center or design institute; and energy, particularly alternative sources of energy and sustainability. These areas were identified as “transformative research themes” for the divisions to pursue over the next 10 to 15 years.

In Health Sciences, Brenner launched a similar planning initiative for the recruitment efforts of approximately 50 new faculty hires per year.  “The clinical plans say that there are three areas of growth that would be exciting for us and for San Diego: cardiovascular disease, oncology and advanced surgery. We’re specifically going to recruit key thought leaders in those areas as we make UC San Diego the medical destination in those areas.”

The Health Sciences faculty identified drug discovery/drug design, computational chemistry/systems biology and bioengineering/biomedical research as areas with opportunities to be the best. “We recognize that the collaboration with Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the general campus will present incredible opportunities to be the best in a few selected areas. For example, in drug discovery, there are incredible strengths in discovery from the ocean,” Brenner said.

At Scripps Institution of Oceanography, faculty-hiring decisions will focus on both collaboration and the initiatives identified through a recent faculty review process. In the coming months, Scripps will finalize its plans for new hires. “My colleagues and I think of three circles of collaboration, and we’re trying to craft our workforce to meet the exciting opportunities that those collaborations provide,” Haymet said. The first circle of collaboration is within Scripps with its faculty and researchers. The second circle is among the community of CleanTech San Diego, and the third is with the county and internationally. “Discoveries and knowledge gained at UC San Diego have been exported off campus. I think our campus can do more in that area,” he said.

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UC Santa Cruz researchers awarded for research that has potential to improve human health.

(From left) Nicholas Shikuma, Kelly Peach and Walter Bray, UC Santa Cruz

A team of UC Santa Cruz researchers searching for drugs to fight cholera won the Deloitte QB3 Award for Innovation, presented by representatives of QB3 and Deloitte Thursday (Oct. 27) at a ceremony at UC San Francisco Mission Bay.

The team — graduate students Kelly Peach and Nicholas Shikuma, with research specialist Walter Bray — developed a high-throughput screening method to identify drugs that prevent Vibrio cholerae, the cholera pathogen, from forming biofilms: thin, tough sheets in which bacteria are shielded from antibiotics.

Biofilms are also a source of infection following operations to implant medical devices, and the team’s method could equally be applied to screen for drugs that disrupt other bacteria.

The $10,000 Award for Innovation, given to a graduate student, postdoc, staff scientist or team working in QB3 laboratories at UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz and UCSF, recognizes research that has the potential to improve human health.

The competition began in June when QB3 faculty nominated 38 candidates. By September, a jury panel drawn from industry, venture capital, academia and the media had narrowed the field to five. QB3 then invited the entire Berkeley, UCSF and Santa Cruz campus communities to vote, “American Idol” style, for the ultimate winner. (San Francisco Business Times reporter Ron Leuty covered the competition.) Santa Cruz featured its team in a news article on its website, while on Twitter, the universities (and the Gladstone Institutes) waged a sporadic battle for votes. In the end more than 1500 votes were cast—over half of them for the Santa Cruz team.

In a paper published this year in the journal Molecular Biosystems, the Santa Cruz team explained that biofilms are involved in over 60 percent of bacterial infections in humans. Bacteria often lie dormant in biofilms, encased in material that protects them from a host’s immune response — or drugs. Most antibiotics target cells that are actively dividing, so bacteria in a biofilm can sit out a course of treatment and emerge later to multiply. Drugs that disrupt biofilms make bacteria more vulnerable. Ideally, disruptors would be used in “cocktails” with antibiotics to kill free-floating bacteria.

Cholera remains a major Third World pathogen; an outbreak following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti sickened half a million and killed over 5,000. Biofilms are crucial to the virulence of V. cholerae, but no therapeutics exist to disrupt them. In a step toward solving this problem, Bray, Peach, Shikuma, and colleagues developed a technique to grow cholera biofilms in 384-well plates, and an automated method that uses fluorescence microscopy to measure how much biofilm is present in each well. Theirs is the first reported technique in the scientific literature to use images to analyze V. cholerae biofilms.

In a demonstration run, from a relatively small library of 3080 compounds, the team identified 29 compounds that disrupt cholera biofilm without killing the cells. The 29 compounds are “leads” — starting points for a company to test and refine into an actual drug therapy through many rounds of screens and clinical trials.

The work brought together scientists in three QB3 labs at UC Santa Cruz: those of Roger Linington, Scott Lokey and Fitnat Yildiz. Nadine Gassner, currently the grant program administrator at QB3-Santa Cruz, also contributed.

Four other finalists were in the running:

• Jonathan Galazka, a UC Berkeley graduate student, for engineering a strain of yeast that digests two types of sugar, thus speeding our path to biofuels and improving our access to clean, reliable, and affordable energy sources

• Patrick Goodwill, Ph.D. , a UC Berkeley research associate, for a magnetic particle imaging technique that could enable real-time angiography without radiation or iodine tracer

• Ellen Yeh, M.D., Ph.D., a resident fellow at UCSF, for identifying a potential drug target in the malaria parasite

• Daniel Zwilling, Ph.D., a postdoc, and Lily Huang, a research assistant, both at UCSF and the Gladstone Institutes, for discovering a potential treatment to slow neural breakdown in Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s diseases.

Collaboration has resulted in five initial projects for therapies to treat cancer, other maladies.

Jeffrey Bluestone, UC San Francisco

An 11-month-old partnership between UC San Francisco and Pfizer Inc., aimed at rapidly moving new therapies into human clinical trials, has selected its first projects for funding and joint development. Teams from the university and Pfizer will work together on experimental therapies developed by UCSF scientists with a goal of testing them in people with five hard-to-treat, often deadly conditions, including lung and prostate cancer.

Three to five additional projects from university researchers will be selected after a second round of proposals, due Nov. 4, are evaluated. Details on the proposal process and how to submit the initial two- to three-page preproposal can be found at http://officeofresearch.ucsf.edu/ITA/CTI, or email ita@ucsf.edu with questions.

As part of the unique collaboration, Pfizer, the world’s largest drug company, will not only provide funding for the selected researchers, but has set up its own laboratory space next to UCSF’s Mission Bay campus. Scientists at the Pfizer lab, the Center for Therapeutic Innovation, will work directly with each of the UCSF teams.

“At UCSF, we are absolutely focused on finding new ways to turn the groundbreaking research of our scientists into therapies that benefit patients and the public,’’ said Jeffrey Bluestone, Ph.D., UCSF’s executive vice chancellor and provost. “Our work with Pfizer epitomizes our approach to building innovative, collaborative partnerships with industry.”

The Pfizer and UCSF researchers can visit each other’s labs, conduct experiments together and participate in joint team meetings, said Stephanie Robertson, Ph.D., who oversees the collaboration for the UCSF Office of Innovation, Technologies & Alliances with colleague Tuhin Sinha, Ph.D., alliance manager of the ITA.

“The proximity is key,” Robertson said. “People can literally walk across the street. That was a big reason for Pfizer locating right here.’’

As the cost of developing new drugs has skyrocketed — reaching $1.8 billion per approved drug, according to some recent research — drug companies have been searching for ways to lower the cost. Since they often spend years or months developing testing tools geared to the biology they’re interested in, the UCSF-Pfizer collaboration offers a way to jump-start that process by linking with academic researchers who know the biology and have already developed the tools.

“We are truly excited to work in this partnership with leading experts from UCSF to understand more about the mechanisms that drive diseases with high unmet medical need,” said Anthony Coyle, vice president and head of Pfizer’s Global Centers for Therapeutic Innovation. “By understanding the mechanisms underlying inflammatory diseases, cardiovascular disease and oncology, we can design better molecules to treat the right patients.”

Pfizer will have the right to commercialize the drugs and UCSF will earn milestone payments as the therapies advance through different stages of testing, as well as royalties from sales of approved therapies. This collaborative structure also provides the university the potential for a bigger return than it would normally receive when licensing out an early-stage technology.

“Best of all, it allows the scientists to be involved in turning research they’ve worked on for years into something that could actually be used to treat patients,” Robertson said.

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New UC Santa Barbara center brings together research and teaching in biology, engineering and physical sciences.

Frank Doyle (left) and Samir Mitragotri, UC Santa Barbara

A new center at UC Santa Barbara has the development of an artificial pancreas in its sights, as well as new biomaterials, new tools for the detection and diagnosis of disease, and new mechanisms for drug delivery, among other cutting-edge scientific developments.

UC Santa Barbara’s new Center for BioEngineering (CBE), proposed by Frank Doyle, associate dean of research in the College of Engineering, was approved earlier this year by the Academic Senate. The center is a locus of research and teaching — at the interface of biology, engineering and physical sciences — that is already producing results that benefit industry and medicine. Research at the CBE is yielding important advances in the understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of common and devastating diseases such as cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and macular degeneration.

CBE builds on UC Santa Barbara’s interdisciplinary strengths in biophysics, biomaterials, biomolecular discovery and systems biology, which allow for fundamental scientific discoveries to be transitioned to applications in medicine and biotechnology.

“UC Santa Barbara is very proud to be the home of the new Center for BioEngineering,” said Chancellor Henry T. Yang. “The creation of the CBE marks a major step forward for our campus. In this highly interdisciplinary field, UCSB is already at the forefront. Our new center will consolidate our position and support groundbreaking research aimed at finding innovative solutions for the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease.”

Samir Mitragotri, the founding director of the center and professor of chemical engineering, emphasizes the importance of CBE as a “home” for bioengineering on campus, since bioengineering is already an area of research in many of UC Santa Barbara’s centers, institutes, departments and colleges.

“I expect that the center will enable opportunities in terms of new fundamental understanding of disease mechanisms, and research at the interface of physical sciences, engineering sciences, medicine and biology,” said Mitragotri. “That includes understanding and development of new technologies to either diagnose or treat a disease.”

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