NIH Awards Phylonix Phase II SBIR to Develop Zebrafish Apoptosis Drug Screening Assays.Business Editors/Health/Medical Writers BIOWIRE2K CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 2, 2004 Phylonix today announced that it had recently received a Phase II Small Business Innovation Grant (SBIR SBIR Small Business Innovation Research (program/grant) SBIR Space Based Infra-Red SBIR Speaker-Boundary Interference SBIR Site Backsurface-referenced Ideal Plane/Range (silicon wafers) ) from the National Cancer Institute to develop zebrafish apoptosis assays for drug screening. The amount of the award is $993,463. Apoptosis is the genetically programmed process of precise, predictable cell suicide. It occurs as a normal physiological process for removing unnecessary cells throughout the life of an organism. Inappropriate apoptosis has been shown to be the cause of many diseases. Development of agents that modulate apoptosis is a major focus of biopharmaceutical research. The ability to manipulate apoptosis could permit therapeutic intervention in: cancer, heart disease, stroke, AIDS, autoimmunity, and degenerative diseases. "Apoptotic cells in live, transparent zebrafish can be visualized by acridine orange acridine orange n. A basic fluorescent dye used as a metachromatic stain for nucleic acids and in screening cervical smears for abnormal cells. staining without complicated processing. At Phylonix, we are also developing a quantitative, vital dye assay for high throughput screening using an automated liquid handling workstation and a microplate reader," Chuenlei Parng, Ph.D, the Principal Investigator Noun 1. principal investigator - the scientist in charge of an experiment or research project PI scientist - a person with advanced knowledge of one or more sciences for this research, said. Conventional cell-based assays evaluate the potential effects of drugs in culture, but cannot assess the complex metabolism that affects actual drug efficacy or causes toxicity in animals and humans. Therefore, many drugs that appear effective in cell-based assays fail in subsequent, costly animal testing Animal testing or animal research refers to the use of animals in experiments. It is estimated that 50 to 100 million vertebrate animals worldwide [4][5][6] . To streamline the drug development time-line, prioritize drug candidates for animal testing, and reduce unnecessary costs for mammalian studies, we are developing a family of drug screening assays using the small vertebrate vertebrate, any animal having a backbone or spinal column. Verbrates can be traced back to the Silurian period. In the adults of nearly all forms the backbone consists of a series of vertebrae. All vertebrates belong to the subphylum Vertebrata of the phylum Chordata. zebrafish. This convenient animal model will serve as an intermediate step between cell-based evaluation and animal testing for drug evaluation. Zebrafish Background Laboratory animals are critical for defining the mechanisms of drug activity and for testing therapeutic regimens, however, only a few useful models have been developed. Zebrafish has several important advantages for drug screening: they are small, inexpensive to maintain and easily bred in large numbers. Eggs are externally fertilized fer·til·ize v. fer·til·ized, fer·til·iz·ing, fer·til·iz·es v.tr. 1. To cause the fertilization of (an ovum, for example). 2. and a single mating produces 100-200 eggs. Single embryos can be maintained in fluid volumes as small as 100 microliters for the first six days of development and cultured in microtiter wells. Chemicals can then be added directly to the fish water, permeating the intact embryo. Standard microtiter plate A Microtiter plate or microplate is a flat plate with multiple "wells" used as small test tubes. The microplate has become a standard tool in analytical research and clinical diagnostic testing laboratories. readers can be used for quantitation, making this format particularly attractive for high throughput drug screening. The Company is developing a family of zebrafish microplate assays with compelling advantages: 1) short assay time, 2) single dosing, 3) small amount of drug required for each test, 4) statistically significant numbers of animals can be assayed for each condition, 5) embryos maintenance during drug delivery is easy, and 6) low cost: the estimated cost of each zebrafish assay is less than $100. Whole embryo testing has previously been performed on invertebrates, including fruitfly and nematode nematode or roundworm Any of more than 15,000 named and many more unnamed species of worms in the class Nematoda (phylum Aschelminthes). Nematodes include plant and animal parasites and free-living forms found in soil, freshwater, saltwater, and even vinegar , however, these organisms are not closely related to humans and they lack many of the same organs and enzymes. Therefore, their use as comparative models for toxicity effects in humans is limited. All essential components of vertebrate form and organ development are mimicked in the transparent zebrafish and their molecular basis is either identical or similar, underscoring the potential for use in research on human diseases. Company Background Phylonix Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a Contract Research Organization focused on developing and marketing novel in vivo in vivo /in vi·vo/ (ve´vo) [L.] within the living body. in vi·vo adj. Within a living organism. in vivo adv. zebrafish based assays for therapeutic and industrial screening for cancers, central nervous system and cardiovascular diseases, apoptosis, and organ toxicity. The Company is assembling embryo and chemical sample handling instrumentation to automate analysis. The Company has established a state of the art aquaculture aquaculture, the raising and harvesting of fresh- and saltwater plants and animals. The most economically important form of aquaculture is fish farming, an industry that accounts for an ever increasing share of world fisheries production. facility. Initially, the Company offers drug screening services, primarily to the pharmaceutical industry. Long term, the Company expects to contribute to the study and treatment of human diseases by genetic screening, gene cloning, and target identification using zebrafish as a model organism A model organism is a species that is extensively studied to understand particular biological phenomena, with the expectation that discoveries made in the organism model will provide insight into the workings of other organisms. . |
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