The Weekly Roundup from Biozona News

The Flinn Foundation offers a weekly roundup of the latest news from and about the bioscience community here in Arizona.  Check out the latest Biozona News.

Alzheimer’s study links countries

11/19/2011 | Arizona Republic | Ken Alltucker

It’s a scene that could play out anywhere: four 20-somethings laughing, munching
on pizza and chatting about plans to go dancing in Scottsdale. But this  group of young men and women at a Phoenix hospital last weekend were far from carefree. They know they each may possess a genetic ticking time bomb that has robbed generations of family members in their homeland of  Medellin, Colombia. They are part of a bold experiment conducted by  Banner Alzheimer’s Institute and doctors in Colombia that seeks to find  ways to identify and treat people who will develop the disease before the  first signs of memory loss.


Peoria City Council OKs 3-year plan for bioscience  incubator

11/18/2011 | Sonu Munshi | Arizona Republic

Peoria  will soon play host to bioscience startups, with the lofty long-term goal  of becoming a bioscience hub focused on medical devices that would bring  high-paying jobs to the city. The Peoria City Council on Tuesday night  unanimously approved a partnership with BioAccel, a Phoenix non-profit  that mentors startups, as well as Plaza Companies of Peoria, which would
host the Peoria Incucelerator. The facility, expected to launch in March,  would be the first in Arizona to focus on launching biomedical device  startup companies.


‘Super committee’ could put Tucson’s bioscience  industry at risk (op-ed)

11/18/2011 | Inside Tucson Business | Joan Koerber-Walker

Next  Wednesday, Nov. 23, is the deadline when the Congressional “super  committee” is supposed to present its cohesive cost-savings  plan. Achieving this task could forever change the bioscience sector  in Tucson. Talk of program cuts in an effort to ascend to the  trillion-dollar-savings-mark has placed programs like Medicare and  Medicare Part D at risk. An outcome that would be a serious set back to  the bio industry in our state while hindering patient care and healthcare  innovation.


Fighting cancer at 100 Gigabits per second

11/17/2011 | GigaOM | Derrick Harris

We  often ascribe great, life-changing powers to high-speed Internet  connections when it comes to how we communicate and consume content, but  can they cure cancer? The newly formed Chan Soon-Shiong Institute for Advanced  Health thinks so, and it’s investing hundreds of millions of dollars in a nationally distributed computing system to make it happen. At the core of its efforts is the National LambdaRail (NLR), a research network comprised of more than 12,000 miles of fiberoptic cable and capable of 100 Gigabits-per-second speed.


Phil Gordon to work for non-profit after term ends

11/17/2011 | Arizona Republic | Emily Gersema

Exiting  Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon is taking a job with a billionaire’s  health-research, non-profit group that is in talks with city staff to  redevelop and inexpensively rent two city-owned properties. Gordon and  Bob Peirce, a senior vice president of Nant Holdings in Los Angeles, said
Wednesday that Gordon’s new role with the non-profit related to Nant, the  Chan Soon-Shiong Institute for Advanced Health (CSS Institute), has not  been fully defined and that they haven’t negotiated his salary.


Shea Corridor touted as destination for cancer care

11/14/2011 | Arizona Republic

Scottsdale  Mayor Jim Lane joined local health-care leaders last week to tout the  city’s emerging reputation as a destination for cancer care. Collaborate  efforts in treatment and research between Scottsdale Healthcare, Mayo  Clinic Scottsdale and the Translational Genomics Research Institute
(TGen) have helped cement that reputation, Lane said, during a Mayor and  City Council Breakfast held Tuesday. All are within a 5-mile stretch of  Shea Boulevard in Scottsdale.


Researchers Look to the Cloud to Develop Personalized  Medicine for Kids With Cancer

11/10/2011 | Scientific American | Larry Greenemeier

When  it comes to treating pediatric cancer a group of academic researchers,  oncologists and pathologists believes that a more personal approach isn’t  just more humane, it’s the key to survival. For members of the  Neuroblastoma and Medulloblastoma Translational Research Consortium  (NMTRC) this personal touch means using genomic analysis to develop
highly targeted therapies to treat each individual tumor. Such analysis  produces a lot of data, which means it holds a lot of potential for  helping kids with neuroblastoma, an often aggressive malignant tumor that  develops from nerve tissue. It also means the researchers need access to
some serious computer power to make sense of that data.


Billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong Wants To Remake The  U.S. Health Care System

11/10/2011 | Forbes | Matthew Herper

Patrick  Soon-Shiong is a rarity. He is the only physician on the Forbes 400 list  to have made billions in biotech. He developed a new delivery method to  administer Paclitaxel, a widely-used breast cancer drug. His net worth is  estimated at $7 billion, which he made by selling two drug companies  within the past three years. Soon-Shiong has now turned his focus to  something as complex and elusive as a cancer cure: The U.S. health care  system.

 

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Posted in AZBio News.