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BioVentures from UAMS are Boosting State's Economy
When you think cutting edge biotechnology, the Hillcrest area of Little Rock doesn't leap to mind.
The green leafy neighborhood is home to several fine restaurants, and, with it being summer, one of the best snow cone operations in the land, but biotech? It seems like a head-scratcher.
But tucked away in the old Allied Telephone building — yes, Alltel really did have a home in Hillcrest once — is ContourMed, Inc., one of the 17 companies that have come into being from the BioVentures program at UAMS.
BY JEREMY PEPPAS |
Arkansas Success Stories in the Making
Of the seven companies that are considered "graduates" of the BioVentures program at UAMS, five responded back to a survey questionnaire by the Medical News of Arkansas.
Those five — Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health, Safe Foods, ContourMed, e-Doc America and Anabonix (now Radius) — employ a total of 171 scattered across the country and have an economic impact measured in the millions.
InterveXion and BALM Innovations are considered "client" companies of the BioVentures program and they also responded to the questionnaire that was sent to all of the companies.
UAMS BioVentures Graduate Company Capsules |
Viruses Prove an Ally in DeliveringTargeted Medicine
A decade-long collaboration that began from examining the protein function of viruses has yielded the technology to use viruses as containers for helping the body, rather than harming it. Professors Trevor Douglas and Mark Young saw the possibilities of viruses working as containers for inorganic material and have proven an effective method to redesign viruses and activate protein cages to work as molecule delivery systems. Basically, using the protein cage architecture, synthetic cargos take a ride on the backs of viruses undetected by the rest of the body.
BY HOLLI W. HAYNIE |
UAMS BioVentures Client Companies
The BioVentures program at UAMS has 12 companies that are considered "clients." Two of those companies responded to a questionnaire by the Medical News of Arkansas. The information for those two — InterveXion and BALM Innovations — can be found on Page 5.
The other 10 companies are, in some cases, not much more than an idea. But in other cases, they are waiting for the right venture capitalist to come along and move them into the "graduate" category.
What follows are those 10 companies and a brief description of what they do.
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Under the Knife
Over the next 25 years, the number of American adults 65 and older will double, topping 71.5 million. Yet sufficient numbers of professionals to deliver their healthcare is far from assured.
A study last year by the American Geriatrics Society concluded that the current shortage of geriatricians and other healthcare professionals trained to care for older adults could reach "crisis proportions" during those same 25 years.
BY SHARON H. FITZGERALD |
Senior Housing Alternatives
Not too long ago, it was an omen for the elderly: when it was time to leave home, the next stop was an old folk's home.
Today's aging population, including the burgeoning group of baby boomers, has brighter alternatives than simply "being put out to pasture."
Assisted
A flurry of construction activity has centered on the assisted living market, with choices now ranging from private rooms to apartments, with residences ranging from high-rise complexes to single-level dwellings.
BY LYNNE JETER |
Parkway Village Offers Options for Retirees
What started as a dream has turned into a small town.
With a current population of 480, Baptist Health's Parkway Village is bigger than Bauxite (432) and dozens of other towns scattered across Arkansas.
That wasn't the case in 1985 when Parkway Village first opened Chenal Valley in what was then the undeveloped portion of west Little Rock.
BY JEREMY PEPPAS |
Physician Spotlight: Dr. Mike McFarland
Dr. Mike McFarland has heard the criticism.
Way back in 1989, it started.
"I can remember the patient and the time," he said. "That was 1989, December of 1989."
That was when McFarland told his surgical crew that he was going to perform cataract surgery, but he wasn't going to use a suture.
"At the time we were doing small-incision surgery," he said. "And we had been putting in a single, horizontal suture.
BY JEREMY PEPPAS |
Doctors Begin to Opt Out of Prescribing Database
Every time a doctor writes a prescription, the information is collected by a group of vendors, which in turn sells it to drug companies anxious to analyze how their pharmaceuticals are making out on the frontlines of medicine. And for an uncomfortable group of physicians, that data has occasionally been read back to them by a visiting drug representative.
But that is about to change.
BY JOHN CARROLL |
New Studies Cast Fresh Light on MS Drugs
Researchers typically focus on the value of new drugs that are being pushed through the pipeline. But a pair of new studies on a 10-year-old therapy for multiple sclerosis is underscoring some hidden long-term gains for patients.
Dr. Omar Khan, an associate professor of neurology at Detroit's Wayne State University and a prominent MS expert, has concluded that a new study of Copaxone® (glatiramer acetate injection) shows that the drug — made by Israel's Teva Pharmaceutical Industries — continues to help protect patients after they fail to respond to Avonex®.
BY TRACY STATON |
Stack Named Fellow of American College of Endocrinology
Brendan C. Stack, MD, vice chairman of the Department of Otolaryngology at UAMS, was named a fellow of the American College of Endocrinology recently at the 2006 American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists' Annual Meeting and Clinical Congress in Chicago.
Stack, a surgeon who specializes in surgery for thyroid and parathyroid disorders, also is director of the UAMS divisions of Head and Neck Oncology and Clinical Research.
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DeLone Wins Contest
Natalie DeLone, a fifth-grader at Little Rock's Baker Elementary, was the grand-prize winner in the fifth annual Don't Start Smoking Coloring Contest.
The contest was sponsored by Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield, KASN-TV and KLRT-TV, in partnership with the American Lung Association of Arkansas and the Arkansas Department of Education.
Seventeen other student finalists were from elementary schools around Arkansas and more than 17,000 entries were received statewide.
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Center for American Progress Statement on FDA Approval of HPV Vaccine
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Gardasil, Merck's new vaccine that protects against human papillomavirus (HPV) and cervical cancer. This is one of the greatest public health victories since the polio vaccination. FDA experts declared the vaccine safe and effective for girls and women ages nine to 26, and a similar vaccine produced by GlaxoSmithKline has been shown to be effective for women up to 55 years old.
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St. Vincent has State's First Multi-Seat Hyperbaric Chamber
St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center has the state's first multi-seat hyperbaric chamber to treat nonhealing wounds, carbon monoxide poisoning and scuba diving accident patients.
The multi-seat chamber is large enough to accommodate up to 12 patients at a time. In addition, a trained attendant goes into the chamber with the patient(s) to address any needs they may have.
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