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Biotech / Medical : Ciphergen Biosystems(CIPH): -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tuck who wrote (63)	9/9/2002 12:32:04 PM
From: tuck	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 510

The MD Anderson effort is one funded by CIPH, meaning they get commercial rights . . . These aren't necessarily biomarkers, but . . . >>Clin Exp Metastasis 2002;19(4):319-26 Identification and validation of metastasis-associated proteins in head and neck cancer cell lines by two-dimensional electrophoresis and mass spectrometry. Wu W, Tang X, Hu W, Lotan R, Hong WK, Mao L. Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston 77030, USA. weiguowu@mdanderson.org Despite improvements in treatment of patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) over the last two decades, the survival rate of these patients has not increased significantly. One of the major factors in the poor outcome of the disease is regional metastasis. To better understand the mechanisms of this process at the protein level, we performed two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) and mass spectrometry using SELDI ProteinChip technology to identify proteins differentially expressed in two HNSCC cell lines, UMSCC10A and UMSCC10B, from the same patient. UMSCC10A was derived from the primary tumor and UMSCC10B from a metastatic lymph node. The differentially expressed proteins were excised from the gels. Following in-gel digestion by trypsin, mass profiles of the peptides were generated. Proteins were identified by submitting the peptide mass profiles to a public available NCBInr databases (www.proteometrics.com). Two membrane-associated proteins, annexin I and annexin II and glycolytic protein enolase-alpha were found to be upregulated, and calumenin precursor down-regulated, in metastatic cell line UMSCC10B. The identity of these proteins was confirmed by analyzing additional peptide mass fingerprints obtained by endoproteinase lysine-C digestion. The results were also validated by Western blotting analysis. Our results showed that enolase-alpha, annexin-I and annexin-II might be important molecules in head and neck cancer invasion and metastasis. The results also suggest an important complementary role for proteomics in identification of molecular abnormalities important in cancer development and progression.<< Cheers, Tuck

To: tuck who wrote (63)	11/6/2002 5:13:26 PM
From: tuck	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 510

The 10-Q is not at EDGAR yet. Today's pop courtesy of a Forbes article that contained nothing new. Meanwhile . . . >>Accelerating Patent Activities. Ciphergen filed 7 new patent applications in the second quarter, more than in any previous quarter. Many of these applications are directed to multiple biomarkers and assays resulting from work with our research collaborators. Since the beginning of 2002, Ciphergen has filed 12 new patent applications.<< This phrase appeared in an August 19th, 2002 PR, but I could not find the applications they were talking about. It turns out they had been filed, but for the most part were not published until about a week ago. The referenced post notes one that was. A batch of others from Canadian collaborators is now published. I cannot tell how direct their affiliation with CIPH is. A run of their names through PubMed shows they all seem to be associated with Canadian medical institutions, not directly with Ciphergen. The applications all have to do with Syndrome X related disease states. The markers are identified by molecular weight in daltons. I've put together a table of markers by molecular weight and the disease states they indicate: 1020 myocardial infarction 1998, 1097 Type II diabetes 1348, 1449 myocardial infarction, intracerebral hemorrhage, or congestive heart failure 1521, 1206 Renal Failure 2753, 2937, 2267 insulin resistance 1777, 2021, 1865 myocardial infarction, intracerebral hemorrhage, congestive heart failure or Type II diabetes 1896 myocardial infarction, Type II diabetes, and congestive heart failure 1465 renal failure or intracerebral hemorrhage 1525, 1536, 1077 myocardial infarction 1562 myocardial infarction or congestive heart failure 1350 myocardial infarction or renal failure 1424, 1793 congestive heart failure 1949 Syndrome X related disease Ciphergen is not listed as the assignee on these, but the SELDI and ProteinChip are clearly identified as the means by which they are found. I believe this means that since the collaborators are not among those funded by CIPH, so they retain rights to the markers. CIPH can presumably license these if they so choose. I have seen no other work in this area, most of it has been in oncology. So I could see CIPH licensing these. The above almost but doesn't quite seem to gibe with the language of the PR excerpt cited above. Might give someone at CIPH a holler and ask . . . Cheers, Tuck