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

To: Biomaven who wrote (160)	10/23/2003 12:48:33 PM
From: tuck	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 510

>>Biomarker Discovery Firm Biospect Raises $27M in Financing, Appoints CEO By a GenomeWeb staff reporter NEW YORK, Oct. 21 (GenomeWeb News) - Biospect, a South San Francisco, Calif.-based startup developing systems for detecting biomarker patterns, today said it has received more than $27 million in equity financing from four venture capital firms: Advent Venture Partners, Prospect Venture Partners, Venrock Associates, and Versant Ventures. In addition, the company said that it has appointed Deborah Neff as president and CEO. Neff, who most recently held the position of worldwide president of BD Biosciences, will also serve on Biospect's board of directors. Jim Tananbaum, chairman of Biospect and managing partner of Prospect Venture Partners, said the company plans to use the funding to commercialize its biomarker platform, which consists of proprietary separation, detection, and informatics technologies to detect patterns that characterize distinct biological states.<< Cheers, Tuck

To: Biomaven who wrote (160)	11/19/2003 2:37:50 AM
From: tuck	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 510

There are only five abstracts at AACR-EORTC, at least one we've already seen elsewhere. Two caught my eye, one concerning treatment specific biomarker patterns: >>A199 Serum proteomic patterns in cancer patients after treatment with the hypomethylating agent 5-aza-2 deoxycytidine (Decitabine). Debra Stuart, Chris Twelves, Kim Appleton, and Bob Brown. University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom. Serum proteomic pattern analysis is currently being used as a tool for diagnostic and therapeutic evaluation in cancer. We have analysed serum profiles to examine the ability of this technology to detect drug induced protein changes in patient samples. Decitabine is known to cause the re-expression of a number of cellular proteins including the mismatch repair protein MLH1. However, DNMT inhibitors such as Decitabine are likely to cause numerous changes in protein expression. Using 2D gel analysis and MALDI mass spectrometry we have identified a number of cellular proteins that are induced by Decitabine in tumour cell lines. We have also used seldi technology to investigate Decitabine induced protein changes in the low molecular weight serum proteome from patients being treated with Decitabine. Serum protein profiles were resolved on the Strong Anionic Exchange (SAX) protein chip surfaces and detected by mass spectrometry. Pre and post treatment (Day 2, 4, 8) serum protein profiles were compared. Significant changes were observed in multiple proteins in patient samples two days after treatment with Decitabine. These changes could still be detected 8 days post treatment. We have identified a set of differentially expressed protein markers present in the low molecular proteome from patients treated with Decitabine. These differentially induced markers are unique to treatment with Decitabine as serum profiles from patients undergoing treatment with the other cytotoxic drugs do not contain these markers. These results suggest that serum profiling after drug treatment may be a useful diagnostic tool that could provide potential pharmaco proteomic endpoints.<< And another emphasizing the importance of care in the preanalytical stage in obtaining reliable, reproducible results: >>A223 Gene and protein expression patterns depend on tissue ischemia time. Annika Spruessel, Garnet Steimann, Mira Jung, Sung A. Lee, Theresa Carr, Anne-Kristin Fentz, Joerg Spangenberg, Hartmut H. Juhl, Carsten Zornig, and Kerstin A. David. Indivumed, Center for Cancer Research at the Israelitic Hospital, Hamburg, Germany, Lombardi Cancer Center, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, and Department of Surgery, Israelitisches Krankenhaus, Hamburg, Germany. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of ischemia on gene- and protein expression profiles of normal and malignant colon tissue and, thus, on screening studies for identification of molecular targets and diagnostic molecular pattern. Normal and malignant colon tissue were snap frozen at various time points ('3 to '30) after colon resection. Gene- and protein expression were determined by microarray (affymetrix, chip HG-U133A) and seldi-tof-ms technology (ciphergen, cm10-, sax2-, and imac3ni-chips), respectively. Real time RT-PCR was used for comparative measurement of expression of particular genes. Initial changes of gene- and protein expression profiles were already observed 5 to 8 minutes after colon resection. Fifteen minutes after surgery 10-15% of molecules and after 30 minutes already 20-25% of all detectable genes differed significantly from the baseline values. Significant changes of gene expression was found in most functional groups. As confirmed by real time RT-PCR this included not only known hypoxia related molecules (hif, c-fos, ho-1) but also cytoskeletal genes (e.g. ck20) and tumor markers (e.g. cea). In conclusion, preanalytical factors, such as tissue ischemia time, dramatically affect molecular data. Control of these variables is mandatory to obtain reliable data in screening programs for molecular targets and diagnostic molecular pattern. << emphasis mine Considering that these instruments are used by bench biologists who are used to strict protocols, this shouldn't be too big a deal as long as the protocols are elucidated. On second thought, these aren't likely to be the folks doing the surgery -- though they can be present to whip the samples out of the surgeons hands while looking at a stopwatch. In light of this study, anybody got thoughts on how difficult it would be to get good data from tissue? Cheers, Tuck<<

To: Biomaven who wrote (160)	12/16/2003 10:57:25 AM
From: tuck	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 510

>>Di-through the pentasaccharide that mimic the upstream terminus of the O-specific polysaccharide of Vibrio cholerae O:1, serotype Ogawa were synthesized in the form of 5-methoxycarbonylpentyl glycosides and linked to BSA using squaric acid diester chemistry.<< As opposed to cyclic monster chemistry, which gave us Frankenstein, right? Whatever, I don't recall seeing SELDI used in an application like this before. Don't know if it'll catch on . . . >>Carbohydr Res. 2003 Nov 14;338(23):2591-603. One-pot preparation of a series of glycoconjugates with predetermined antigen-carrier ratio from oligosaccharides that mimic the O-PS of Vibrio cholerae O:1, serotype Ogawa. Saksena R, Ma X, Kovac P. Laboratory of Medicinal Chemistry (LMC), NIDDK, National Institutes of Health, Building 8, Rm B1A24, 20892-0815, Bethesda, MD, USA Di-through the pentasaccharide that mimic the upstream terminus of the O-specific polysaccharide of Vibrio cholerae O:1, serotype Ogawa were synthesized in the form of 5-methoxycarbonylpentyl glycosides and linked to BSA using squaric acid diester chemistry. The conjugation reactions were monitored by surface-enhanced laser-desorption/ionization-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOF MS), which allowed conducting the conjugation of the synthetic oligosaccharides in a controlled way and termination of the reaction when the desired molar hapten-BSA ratio had been reached. This made it possible to prepare, from one hapten in a one-pot reaction, a series of neoglycoconjugates having different, predetermined carbohydrate-carrier ratios. The accuracy of molecular mass determination in SELDI-TOF MS analysis could be increased by using the carrier protein as the internal standard.<< Cheers, Tuck