NCTT-Related News
A listing of news releases from other National Institutes of Health (NIH) institutes and centers, academic and non-profit institutions, and scientists or scientific societies related to NCTT-funded work.
2012
- January 5, 2012: New drug screening identifies chemical agents with potent anti-cancer activity
From The Endocrine Society: Drugs already approved for clinical use across a variety of therapeutic categories can be screened to identify effective agents for thyroid cancer according to a recent study accepted for publication in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM). These findings could rapidly be implemented into a clinical trial to test how effective the treatment would be.The current study examined the newly assembled National Institutes of Health (NIH) Chemical Genomic Center's pharmaceutical collection, which contains 2,816 approved drugs and bioactive compounds and sought to identify agents with an anti-cancer effect in thyroid cancer cell lines. This collection is now part of the newly established National Institutes of Health's National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS).
2011
- December 6, 2011: AesRx Begins Clinical Trial of Aes-103 for Sickle Cell Disease
From AesRx, LLC: AesRx, LLC announced today it has commenced a clinical trial of Aes-103, the company's novel anti-sickling agent. Aes-103, designated as an orphan drug by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, is a first-in-class, orally bioavailable small molecule therapeutic under investigation for the treatment of sickle cell disease (SCD). The present trial is part of an ongoing collaboration between AesRx and two separate components of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and the Therapeutics for Rare and Neglected Diseases (TRND) program. The collaboration is planned to develop Aes-103 through completion of initial proof of principle trials. - November 3, 2011: Study Identifies an Expanded Role for PKM2 in Helping Cancer Cells Survive
From Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center: It has long been known that cancer cells use nutrients differently than normal cells. In recent years, the rapidly reemerging field of cancer metabolism has shed new light on the ways that cancers use glucose to grow and thrive, demonstrating that manipulation of an enzyme called PKM2 is important to this metabolic process. Now a new study led by a scientific team at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and Harvard Medical School (HMS) that includes researchers from the NIH Chemical Genomics Center has uncovered another key mechanism that cancer cells use as part of their survival strategy -- and once again it seems that they are using PKM2 to their advantage. - November 1, 2011: KU's Institute for Advancing Medical Innovation, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and NIH begin groundbreaking clinical trial for leukemia patients
From Kansas University Medical Center: As part of an aggressive effort to speed delivery of treatments to patients by finding new uses for approved drugs, researchers at the University of Kansas Medical Center have begun a clinical trial targeting the most common form of adult leukemia with a drug first approved to treat arthritis more than 25 years ago. The trial is one key piece of a larger collaboration between KU, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) and the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) Therapeutics for Rare and Neglected Diseases Program (TRND) - October 25, 2011: California state stem cell agency enters historic agreement to foster collaboration between California researchers and National Institutes of Health investigators
From California Institute for Regenerative Medicine: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is entering agreements to foster collaborative funding of research with outside funding agencies. One such agreement is with the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the state stem cell agency created by Proposition 71. The NIH, through its trans-NIH Center for Regenerative Medicine (NIH CRM), the NIH Clinical Center, and the newly established NIH Center for Translational Therapeutics (NCTT), will foster these interactions. - October 19, 2011: Frontiers in Science and Medicine Day:
For Third Year, Local Universities, Healthcare Organizations, and Private Companies Seek to Spark Student Interest in Science

From Johns Hopkins University Montgomery County: Seventh graders from Lakelands Park Middle School and Ridgeview Middle School in Gaithersburg, Md., will spend October 28 participating in hands-on science activities at the Johns Hopkins University Montgomery County Campus. Activities include learning about personalized medicine from a Johns Hopkins University biotechnology professor, playing a video game used by Shady Grove Adventist Hospital surgeons for training and finding out why grape Kool-Aid is purple from the National Institutes of Health Chemical Genomics Center (NCGC). - September 26, 2011: Afraxis Enters Collaboration with NIH as Part of Therapeutics for Rare and Neglected Disease Program
From Afraxis: Afraxis, a San Diego-based biotechnology company developing drugs to treat rare genetic diseases through the modulation of p21-activated kinase (PAK), announced today that it has been selected to participate in the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) Therapeutics for Rare and Neglected Disease (TRND) Program. As part of the program, Afraxis will partner with the NIH to pursue the ongoing development of the company's disease-modifying treatments for Fragile X syndrome. Fragile X syndrome is a rare genetic disorder that is the most common inherited form of mental retardation. - May 19, 2011: New Zealand Pharmaceuticals Announces Collaboration with the NHGRI to Develop DEX-M74 as a Treatment for Hereditary Inclusion Body Myopathy (HIBM)
From New Zealand Pharmaceuticals Ltd: New Zealand Pharmaceuticals Ltd (NZP), announced today that it has entered into a collaboration with the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) located in Bethesda, Md., to take the investigational Hereditary Inclusion Body Myopathy (HIBM) therapeutic, DEX-M74, through pre-clinical development followed by initial clinical trials with HIBM patients lead by NHGRI's William Gahl M.D., Ph.D. Two other NIH groups will contribute to the research, including the NIH Therapeutics for Rare and Neglected Diseases (TRND) program and the NIH Clinical Center.
2010
- November 17, 2010: AesRx announces collaboration with NIH to develop Aes-103 for sickle cell disease
From AesRx, LLC: AesRx, LLC, announces that it has entered into a collaboration with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to take AesRx's investigational sickle cell therapeutic, Aes-103, through pre-clinical development and initial clinical trials, including two trials in sickle cell patients. Several NIH components will contribute to the research, including the NIH Therapeutics for Rare and Neglected Diseases (TRND) program, an affiliated program with the National Human Genome Research Institute; the NIH Clinical Center; and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). - July 24, 2010: NIH Takes On New Role in Fight Against Rare Diseases
From The Wall Street Journal: A government program focusing on rare diseases has launched five pilot projects that are taking the National Institutes of Health in a new direction: developing drugs. The NIH Therapeutics for Rare and Neglected Diseases (TRND) program was established last year with $24 million of funding. TRND will work together with scientists, advocates and others to do the required research and testing on drugs before a compound can be tried in humans in a clinical trial. - July 19, 2010: EPA and Other Federal Agencies Collaborate to Improve Chemical Screening
From the Environmental Protection Agency: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences National Toxicology Program and the National Institute of Health Chemical Genomics Center - an NHGRI affiliated center - welcome the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to the Tox21 collaboration, of which they are all members. The Tox21 collaboration merges federal agency resources to develop ways to more effectively predict how chemicals will affect human health and the environment.
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Last Updated: February 15, 2012



