Structural Bioinformatics Develops Novel Compound for Sickle Cell Disease.Business Editors and Health/Medical Writers SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 29, 2002 Structural Bioinformatics Structural bioinformatics refers to the branch of bioinformatics which is related to the analysis and prediction of the three-dimensional structure of biological macromolecules such as proteins. Inc. (SBI SBI Special Background Investigation SBI Subsidiary Body for Implementation SBI State Bank of India SBI Secure Border Initiative SBI Small Business Institute SBI Stockholm Brain Institute SBI Serious Bacterial Infection SBI Society of Breast Imaging ) announced that it has developed a non-covalent small-molecule compound that inhibits the polymerization polymerization Any process in which monomers combine chemically to produce a polymer. The monomer molecules—which in the polymer usually number from at least 100 to many thousands—may or may not all be the same. of sickle cell disease-related hemoglobin in laboratory tests. The investigators reported on the joint collaboration between SBI and Albert Einstein College of Medicine
The Albert Einstein College of Medicine (AECOM) is a graduate school of Yeshiva University. It is a private medical school located in the Jack and Pearl Resnick Campus of Yeshiva University in the Morris Park at the Sickle Cell Disease sickle cell disease or sickle cell anemia, inherited disorder of the blood in which the oxygen-carrying hemoglobin pigment in erythrocytes (red blood cells) is abnormal. Association of America's 30th Anniversary National Convention, held in Washington, D.C. "Our Genes to Leads(R) technology has led to the development of the most potent non-covalent inhibitor of sickle cell disease-related polymerization reported to date," said SBI Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Edward T. Maggio, Ph.D. "Based upon the exciting results obtained to date, SBI is exploring the availability of grant funding and is seeking pharmaceutical company participation." In the U.S. alone, 8% of Americans of African descent carry the sickle cell gene. Other affected populations in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. include Hispanics from the Caribbean, Central America Central America, narrow, southernmost region (c.202,200 sq mi/523,698 sq km) of North America, linked to South America at Colombia. It separates the Caribbean from the Pacific. , and parts of South America South America, fourth largest continent (1991 est. pop. 299,150,000), c.6,880,000 sq mi (17,819,000 sq km), the southern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. . In total, the disease results in 75,000 hospitalizations per year in the U.S., with a total cost of almost a half billion dollars per year. About SBI: SBI is a privately-held proteomics-driven drug discovery company utilizing proprietary technologies for accelerating and optimizing the drug discovery process. SBI incorporates these technologies to advance its own drug pipeline, and concurrently markets them to pharmaceutical and to other drug discovery-focused biotech companies. SBI's internal drug discovery programs are focused on diabetes, cancer, and inflammatory and infectious diseases. SBI's Genes to Leads(R) technology produces drug leads in as little as 60 days, with an efficiency that is more than 1,000-fold greater than high-throughput screening. SBI has headquarters in San Diego, with offices in Cambridge, Mass.; Washington, D.C. and Horsholm, Denmark. More information may be found on SBI's Web site at www.strubix.com. Backgrounder: According to the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America Inc., sickle cell originated in at least four places in Africa and in the Indian/Saudi Arabian subcontinent. It exists in all countries of Africa and in areas where Africans have migrated. It is most common in West and Central Africa where as many as 25% of the people have sickle cell trait sickle cell trait n. A hereditary condition, usually harmless and without symptoms, in which an individual carries only one gene for sickle cell anemia. and 1-2% of all babies are born with a form of the disease. In the United States with an estimated population of over 270 million, about 1,000 babies are born with sickle cell disease each year. In contrast, Nigeria, with an estimated 1997 population of 90 million, 45,000-90,000 babies with sickle cell disease are born each year. The transatlantic slave trade slave trade Capturing, selling, and buying of slaves. Slavery has existed throughout the world from ancient times, and trading in slaves has been equally universal. Slaves were taken from the Slavs and Iranians from antiquity to the 19th century, from the sub-Saharan was largely responsible for introducing the sickle cell gene into the Americas and the Caribbean. However, sickle cell disease had already spread from Africa to Southern Europe by the time of the slave trade so it is present in Portuguese, Spaniards, French Corsicans, Sardinians, Sicilians, mainland Italians, Greeks, Turks and Cypriots. Sickle cell disease appears in most of the Near and Middle East countries including Lebanon, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Yemen. The condition has also been reported in India and Sri Lanka. Sickle cell disease is an international health problem and truly a global challenge. |
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