BioSeek in the News
April 29, 2008 BioSeek Initiates Research Collaboration with Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
BioSeek, Inc., a pioneer in applying predictive human biology systems to drug discovery and development, announced today the initiation of a research collaboration with Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Under the agreement, BioSeek’s BioMAP® Systems will be used to help further evaluate selected compounds associated with several of Lexicon’s drug discovery programs.
“This research collaboration with Lexicon leverages the power of our BioMAP Systems to speed the characterization of targets identified by genomic approaches and the discovery of drugs to modulate them,” said Michael C. Venuti, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of BioSeek. “By providing predictive preclinical human data on the pharmacological properties of Lexicon’s compounds, the BioMAP platform can help to discern the relevant physiologic pathway impacted by the compounds and identify appropriate cellular assays for their further optimization.”
BioMAP Systems are a series of human primary cell-based assay systems designed to replicate the intricate cell and pathway interactions present in human disease biology. To date, BioSeek has developed systems for indications in vascular inflammation, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, fibrosis and related conditions. Depending on their mechanism of action, compounds induce specific patterns of changes in these systems (BioMAP profiles) that can be compared to a large number of reference profiles in BioSeek’s database. BioMAP profiling provides early insight into human pharmacological properties of compounds, including in-depth characterization of biological drug function, on- and off-target activities, dose responses and biomarker identification.
[pdf]
April 1, 2008
In the news: "You, In A Dish", Science News. [pdf]
Reprinted with permission from Science News, copyright 2008.
February 5, 2008
BioSeek, Inc. today announced that Roy
A. Whitfield has been elected executive chairman of the Company's board of directors. Mr.
Whitfield had joined BioSeek's board of directors and served as a business advisor to the
Company since November, 2005.
"Roy's management experience and expertise in drug
discovery and business development have been extraordinarily valuable to BioSeek thus far. We
look forward to his continued leadership and guidance as executive chairman as we advance our
internal drug discovery and development efforts and continue to secure corporate partnerships
that capitalize upon our BioMAP® screening systems platform" said Michael
C. Venuti, Ph.D., CEO of BioSeek.
Roy Whitfield has over 20 years of management and
governance experience in the biotechnology industry. Most recently, Roy served as CEO and
Chairman of Incyte Corporation, a genomics company he co-founded in 1991. Incyte pioneered the
commercialization of high throughput and information technology in pharmaceutical and medical
research. At Incyte, Roy executed the first genomics initial public offering (IPO) and later
raised over $700 million in financing. In 1997, he was named Northern California
"Entrepreneur of the Year" for Life Sciences. Roy also serves on the boards of
directors of Incyte Corporation, Nektar Therapeutics, Illumina and several private companies,
and in the past served on the boards of Aurora Biosciences and the Biotechnology Industry
Organization (BIO). Roy received a B.A. degree from Oxford University and an M.B.A. from
Stanford University.
January 24, 2008
BioSeek, Inc., a leader in applying integrated human biology systems for developing new therapeutics, announced today that it has entered into a collaboration agreement
with Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma Co. (DSP), a global biopharmaceutical leader based in Japan.
Under the collaboration, BioSeek will apply its BioMAP®
Systems to support compound differentiation, lead development, and drug candidate selection activities for DSP's discovery programs in the fields of inflammation
and metabolic diseases.
"We are excited to be working closely with DSP, a well respected and innovative global company, and look forward to supporting their discovery efforts," commented
Michael C. Venuti, Ph.D., CEO of BioSeek. "This collaboration leverages our technology platform's power in addressing key decision points in the discovery process,
making it extremely valuable to partners such as DSP."
"The BioMAP® platform represents a very compelling approach to applying human systems biology to pharmaceutical research and development,"
stated Dr. Yuichi Yokoyama, Executive Director at DSP. "BioMAP® Systems deliver otherwise difficult-to-obtain human biological information,
which will help us prioritize leads and candidates."
CTC Laboratory Systems Corporation, a subsidiary of Itochu Techno-Solutions Corporation, assisted with the closing of this agreement.
December 5, 2007
BioSeek, Inc., a leader in applying integrated human biology systems for developing new therapeutics, announced today that it has entered into a collaboration agreement with
UCB, a global biopharmaceutical leader based in Belgium. Under the
collaboration, BioSeek will apply its
BioMAP® Systems to evaluate a number of UCB compounds across
several target classes, in support of target differentiation, lead development, and drug candidate selection activities at UCB.
"We are excited to be working closely with UCB, an innovative biopharmaceutical company combining
distinctive
strengths in chemistry and biology,
and focusing on severe diseases in three important therapeutic areas, CNS, inflammation and oncology,"
commented Michael C. Venuti, Ph.D., CEO of BioSeek. "This collaboration leverages the power of our
systems biology technology across multiple disease
areas and multiple phases of the drug development process."
November 8, 2007
Ellen Berg presentation: "Primary Human Cell Systems for Drug Discovery: No More Black Box", SBS Symposium on Back to Pharamcology: Stem Cells & Primary Cells in Drug Discovery, Anaheim, CA
November 7, 2007
BioSeek, Inc., a leader in
applying integrated human biology systems for developing new therapeutics,
announced today that Michael C. Venuti, Ph.D., has joined the Company as
its Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors. Dr.
Venuti succeeds Peter D. Staple, who will continue his involvement with the
Company as an investor and Board member. Dr. Venuti previously served as
Chief Executive Officer of Discovery Partners International, a small
molecule-based drug discovery services company.
[article]
May 23, 2007
Ellen Berg presentation: "Complex Human Cell Systems for Understanding Toxicity Mechanisms", International Science Forum on Computational Toxicology, Durham, NC
May 22, 2007
BioSeek enters into joint research collaboration to discover novel peptide therapeutics with Amylin Pharmaceuticals. [pdf]
April 18, 2007
BioSeek has been awarded a contract from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to utilize its BioMAP® Systems technology to profile the toxic effects of compounds in the agency's ToxCast™ program. [pdf]
April 17, 2007
Ellen Berg presentation: "Human Cell Systems as a Broad-based Platform for Drug Discovery. No More Black-Box", Society for Biomolecular Sciences 13th Annual Conference, Montreal, Canada [article]
March 14, 2007
Elen Rosler presentation: "Phenotypic Screening for Novel Anti-Fibrotic Drugs Using BioMAP® Systems", Keystone Symposium on Molecular Mechanisms of Fibrosis: From Bench to Bedside, Tahoe City, CA
December 4, 2006
Peter Staple presentation: "Drug-Device Combinations Powered by Predictive Biology", BIO Drug-Device Summit, San Diego, CA
December 4, 2006
Ellen Berg presentation: "Human Cell Systems for Innovative Drug Discovery", GTCbio Modern Drug Discovery & Development Summit, Philadelphia, PA
October 18, 2006
Peter Staple presentation: "Transforming Drug Discovery and Development through Human Biology", BIO Investor Forum, San Francisco, CA
October 16, 2006
Ellen Berg presentation: "Human cell systems for drug discovery: characterization of inflammatory pathway mechanisms", Inflammation Research Association 14th Annual Conference, Cambridge, MD
August 2, 2006
BioSeek will use its BioMAP® Systems technology to screen and evaluate peptides from Amylin's proprietary peptide hormone library with the objective of identifying peptides that are candidates for development as novel therapeutic agents, focusing primarily on inflammatory diseases. [pdf]
July 6, 2006
BioSeek Initiates Compound Evaluation
Collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline. Under the collaboration, BioSeek will apply its BioMAP® Systems for the characterization of compounds from GSK.
[pdf]
June 26, 2006
Inflazyme Pharmaceuticals and BioSeek Sign
Research Collaboration Agreement on LSAIDsTM. BioSeek will apply its proprietary BioMAP® Systems in an effort to characterize the mechanisms of action of Inflazyme's Leukocyte Selective Anti-inflammatory Drugs. [pdf]
May 17, 2006
BioSeek announces it has entered into a non-exclusive agreement with Boston Scientific Corporation to profile compounds for potential applications in new products. [pdf]
March 13, 2006
Vangelis Hytopoulos
presentation: "A Practical System Biology Approach for
the Discovery of Novel Therapeutics", CambridgeSoft European
Conference and User Meeting, London, UK
February 28, 2006
Ellen Berg presentation: "Complex
human cell systems analysis for mechanism of action and identification
of pathway networks", NYAS Symposium on Pathway Analysis
Approaches, New York, NY
February 14, 2006
Peter Staple presentation: "Transforming
drug discovery and development through human biology",
BioCEO Conference, New York, NY
February 6, 2006
BioSeek names Michael Gallatin
and Roy Whitfield to Board of Directors [pdf]
February 2, 2006
Eugene Butcher presentation: "Human
Cell Systems Biology: Applications and Implications for Innovation
in Drug Development", Global Pharma R&D Summit,
Austin,
TX
January, 2006
Publication describes applications
of BioMAP technology for compound characterization and validation -Article published in the Journal of Pharmacological and Toxicological Methods
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