The University of California, Irvine, is touting a $3.3 million grant it’s slated to receive from the state as a way to boost its training program for stem cell research.
The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine tentatively approved UC Irvine’s three-year grant, but held off on approving immediate funding because California, in the throes of a financial crisis, isn’t able to sell bonds on the public market.
If UCI gets the money, it will have received some $56.2 million from the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine.
In a release, Peter Donovan, co-director of the Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center at the university, said the money will be used to train scientists to strengthen academic pro-grams and get jobs in Orange County’s medical sector.
The training program will recruit participants from UCI’s laboratories and throughout Southern California and will be centered on a two-week stem cell research “boot camp.”
Participants will learn about ethics, advanced techniques in stem cell biology and participate in team-building exercises. In addition, trainees also will attend monthly seminars on developments in stem cell biology and related fields.
“We need people who can understand basic biology, engineering, chemistry and how to treat human patients,” Donovan said.
UCI became a stem cell hub of sorts after California voters passed Propo-sition 71 in 2004.
The university just broke ground on a four-story building that will be dedicated to stem cell research.
When the building is done, it will house UCI’s stem cell center, laboratory-based and clinical researchers, a master’s degree program in biotechnology with an emphasis on stem cell research and programs and activities for patients and public education.
Lap-Band Support System
Allergan Inc., an Irvine company that makes the Lap-Band surgical weight loss device, has hooked up with a weight management company and a woman’s fitness chain to create support programs for patients.
Allergan said that it signed deals with Lindora Inc. of Costa Mesa and Curves International Inc. of Waco, Texas. Allergan is working with Lindora, a maker of diet products and an operator of weight control clinics, to develop nutritional guidance and weight loss management tools for patients who undergo Lap-Band surgeries.
Under Allergan and Curves’ deal, female Lap-Band patients will have the opportunity to join any Curves club in the U.S. at a reduced rate.
The Lap-Band, which is attached to a patient’s stomach, is a reversible procedure and is much less invasive than traditional gastric bypass surgery. Allergan got the Lap-Band in 2006, after its $3 billion buy of Santa Barbara-based Inamed Corp. (see story, page 1).
Feds Clear AMO Lens
Most of the news surrounding Advanced Medical Optics Inc. has concerned its pending $2.8 billion acquisition by Abbott Laboratories. In the meantime, the Santa Ana-based maker of eye surgery products and contact lens care solutions is building up its product arsenal.
Advanced Medical recently got approval from the Food and Drug Administration for its Tecnis Multifocal intraocular lens, which is used to replace the natural lens in cataract surgery.
Clinical trials showed that more than 94% of patients who received the lens had good distance vision without glasses, Ralph Chu, a Minnesota eye surgeon, said in a release.
Spectrum Shares Drug Results
Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc., an Irvine drug developer, said a study of Zevalin, one of its cancer drugs, produced an 83% treatment response rate in a type of eye cancer.
Spectrum said that Zevalin and rituximab, another cancer drug, were used in a clinical study for ocular adnexal lymphoma, a form of cancer that affects parts of the eye.
Radioimmunotherapeutics Oncology LLC,a joint venture between Spectrum and Seattle-based Cell Therapeutics Inc.,markets Zevalin. Spectrum has put in a supplemental new drug application with the Food and Drug Admini-stration as a front-line therapy for patients with a related type of eye cancer.
Bits and Pieces:
Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach said Jacques Kpodonu, a heart surgeon noted for hybrid techniques, became part of its cardiac surgery team. Kpodonu, a native of France, is known for combining minimally invasive interventional heart procedures with traditional open heart surgeries Irvine-based Cortex Pharmaceuticals Inc. said it received British regulatory approval to start a clinical study of its Ampakine CX1739 drug candidate for sleep apnea.
