GSK KICKS OFF 2014 DISCOVERY FAST TRACK CHALLENGE FOR ACADEMIC DRUG HUNTERS IN EUROPE, CANADA AND US

GSK is inviting academic scientists to enter their most innovative drug research proposals into its 2014 Discovery Fast Track Challenge – a programme designed to accelerate the translation of early-stage research into game-changing new medicines.
Building on the success of its first programme in 2013, which ran in the US and Canada, GSK is implementing the challenge for a second year and expanding it to include Europe. Scientists who participate in the challenge are asked to submit details about the biological targets or pathways they are researching and the scientific rationale detailing how this early stage research could direct future drug development.
Scientists whose entries are selected will collaborate with GSK’s Discovery Partnerships with Academia (DPAc) team, the sponsor of the challenge, to test their hypotheses on potential disease pathways or targets against GSK’s extensive library of compounds. If a compound is identified during this process that shows activity against these pathways or targets, and could form the starting point for drug development, the winning investigators could be offered a formal DPAc partnership and opportunity to work together on the development of a potential new medicine.
The 2013 challenge received nearly 150 entries from 70 universities, academic research institutions, clinics and hospitals in the U.S. and Canada across 17 therapeutic areas. Entries selected last year focused on disease areas including malaria, antibiotic resistance and certain types of cancer.
The challenge provides a new template for drug discovery as it seeks to uncover the best opportunities for discovery research in just two to three months.
Launched in the UK in late 2010, DPAc is a new approach to drug discovery where academic partners become core members of drug-hunting teams. GSK and the academic partner share the risk and reward of innovation, where GSK funds activities in the partner laboratories, as well as provides in-kind resources to progress a programme from an idea to a candidate medicine. DPAc’s reach is global. To date, GSK has initiated 11 collaborations in 11 disease areas in the US, Canada and Europe.
“Through this challenge we’re paving the way for innovative new collaborations between academic scientists and investigators in GSK’s DPAc team,” said Pearl Huang, Global Head of DPAc. “This means successful entrants will be given access to GSK’s unique, highly diverse compound collections and our expertise in drug discovery.”
One of eight selected scientists from last year’s challenge, Dr. Rahul Kohli, an assistant professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, proposed a potential new approach to the design of antibiotics. He said, "We now have a way to take an idea that has good potential and move it from an academic theory into the practical realm, where it may one day benefit patients.” Dr. Kohli is now working with GSK to identify new compounds to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Duncan Holmes, Head of European DPAc, said, “As the Discovery Fast Track challenge is open to all principal investigators and is not restricted to any particular disease type or target strategy, it allows us to find and partner with those academics who have the most innovative and original ideas and capabilities.”
Registering for the challenge consists of submitting a brief summary of the novel drug development concept, including non-proprietary details of the biological target. An expert panel of judges from GSK will then select up to 20 finalists, who will present their proposals in person.
Registration closes on April 23, 2014 in Europe and May 16, 2014 in North America. As many as ten scientists in each region will be selected and announced in late 2014. Further details can be found online at www.gsk.com/discoveryfasttrack.
GSK – one of the world’s leading research-based pharmaceutical and healthcare companies – is committed to improving the quality of human life by enabling people to do more, feel better and live longer.
www.gsk.com

SCENTS AND SUSTAINABILITY

Renewable sources for artificial scents and flavours
Fresh banana, a waft of flowers, blueberry: the scents in Shota Atsumi's laboratory in the UC Davis Department of Chemistry are a little sweeter than most. That's because Atsumi and his team are engineering bacteria to make esters -- molecules widely used as scents and flavourings, and also as basic feedstock for chemical processes from paints to fuels.
Their latest work was published March 9 in the journal Nature Chemical Biology.
Nearly all industrial chemicals, from artificial flavourings to paint, are derived from oil or gas, Atsumi said.
"Our motivation is to make chemicals from renewable sources instead," Atsumi said. Scents and flavourings make up a $20 billion industry worldwide, he said.
Esters are molecules in which two chains of carbon atoms are linked through an oxygen atom. They are made chemically by reacting an alcohol with an organic acid. But the thermodynamics of this reaction mean that it tends to run the other way -- it's easier to break up an ester than to make it.
Living cells can also make esters. For example, yeasts produce small amounts of esters that give flavours to wine and beer, without requiring high temperatures or special conditions.
"The reaction is chemically difficult but biologically easy," Atsumi said. "Nature gives you a great system to work with."
Nature uses a class of enzymes called alcohol O-acetyltransferases to make esters from acyl-Coenzyme A (acyl-CoA) molecules. These consist of a carbon chain of variable length, attached to a coenzyme A subunit. Loss of coenzyme A during the reaction provides energy to drive the process.
Changing the acyl- part of acyl-CoA that goes into the reaction changes the type of ester that is produced.
Atsumi, graduate student Gabriel Rodriquez and postdoctoral researcher Yohei Tashiro took genes for biochemical pathways from yeast and introduced them into E. coli bacteria, a reliable test system for genetic engineering. By tweaking the Acyl-CoA pathway, they could manipulate one half of the ester: by adjusting the pathway that produces alcohols in the cell, and by shutting down other potential pathways, they could adjust the other half. Therefore, they were able to pick the final ester made by the bacteria.
The technique, which has been patented, opens up possibilities for producing many different esters in biological systems, Atsumi said. The source material for the bacteria is based on sugars, which can come from renewable biomass. Ultimately, Atsumi hopes to engineer these chemical pathways into cyanobacteria (blue-green algae), single-celled organisms that can draw energy directly from sunlight and carbon from the atmosphere.
University of California - Davis

SEPARATOR IO
The new control generation GEA Westfalia Separator IO reduces complexity and focuses on user-friendliness. Accordingly, the initial consideration when developing the human machine interface was not what the implemented logical controller or the centrifuge are able to do; instead, the focus was on what the user needs, either the operator, the commissioner or the company’s own service engineer. Who needs what information and functionalities in which situation and what is not required, or in short: user-friendliness. This was the motto of the developers at GEA Westfalia Separator Group when they started to develop the new IO control. For the customer, this has enormous benefits: operating personnel are quickly able to understand and handle the control units of the centrifuge, the familiarisation is relatively short. This increases flexibility in production. The reliability of the production processes also improves because, if the system only displays what the user needs, the error potential declines automatically. The equation is simple: the fewer the buttons, the lower the probability to hit the wrong one. That’s why GEA Westfalia Separator IO aims to be as intuitive as possible.
www.gea.com

CLARIANT: TO DIVEST THE WATER TREATMENT BUSINESS
Clariant has announced that it has signed an agreement to divest the Water Treatment business in Africa to AECI, domiciled in South Africa. The total consideration of the sale amounts to CHF 34 million in cash at closing that is expected by the end of the second quarter 2014. The transaction is subject to certain conditions precedent, as well as regulatory approvals. Hariolf Kottmann, CEO of Clariant refers: “The divestment is a result of our continuous active portfolio management. The Water Treatment business does no longer meet our positioning as a globally leading company in all of our businesses. Although Water Treatment is an overall attractive industry and the business is well positioned in Africa Clariant has decided to identify a better owner who is able to focus on this service driven activity”.
www.clariant.com

SILIKOPHEN^® AC 900 AND SILIKOPHEN^® AC 1000
Evonik refers that SILIKOPHEN^® AC 900 and SILIKOPHEN^® AC 1000 were designed for the high temperature applications of industrial objects, muffler coatings and oven coatings. Due to their ambient temperature curing capabilities, a feature highly coveted by manufacturers, these resins permit energy-saving coating application of large objects, which would otherwise prove difficult in a more traditional oven-cure. Formulations with SILIKOPHEN^® AC 900 and SILIKOPHEN^® AC 1000 provide excellent long-term heat resistance as well as early chemical resistance after application. SILIKOPHEN^® AC 900 is very flexible during heating and cool down. It is also highly compatible with organic resins and shows excellent wetting properties with a wide range of pigments and fillers. SILIKOPHEN^® AC 1000, on the other hand, provides excellent colour stability.
www.evonik.de

INTERNATIONAL GPC/SEC SYMPOSIUM IN FRANKFURT GERMANY, SEPTEMBER 30 - OCTOBER 2, 2014
Waters Corporation and PSS Polymer Standards Service GmbH announce the return of the International GPC/SEC Symposium in Frankfurt Germany, September 30 - October 2, 2014. This event brings together some of the world's foremost research and applications scientists for the exchange of information related to polymer and additive analysis. The conference will begin with an Expert Day of presentations from some of the world's leading polymer scientists, followed by two days of presentations and interactive workshops on topics chosen by our visiting panel of experts.
Scientists and researchers are now invited to submit their Poster and Oral abstracts to the International GPC/SEC Symposium. Abstracts will be reviewed and selected on merit for inclusion in the program. Abstract submission deadline is May 14, 2014.
www.cvent.com

JLL & DSM
JLL Partners (JLL), the middle-market private equity firm, and Royal DSM, the global Life Sciences and Materials Sciences company, have announced the successful closing of the transaction announced in November 2013 combining DSM Pharmaceutical Products (DPP) and Patheon Inc. into a new privately held company, named DPx Holdings B.V. (DPx).
www.dsm.com

ADDIVANT ANNOUNCES COMPLETION OF PHASE 1 OF CAPACITY EXPANSION AT ITS PRODUCTION FACILITY IN PYONGTAEK, SOUTH KOREA
Addivant announced the completion of its first stage of a series of capacity expansions at its production facility at Pyongtaek, South Korea. The capacity of ALKANOX^® 240, phosphite antioxidant has been increased by 40 percent. Further expansion is currently under progress and is scheduled to be completed by early 2015.
www.addivant.com

i-CHIRAL 6
Chiral Technologies Worldwide has announced the availability of i-CHIRAL 6, a set of six Daicel 3-µm immobilised CSPs packed in columns of 4.6 mm internal diameter and 150 mm long. This combination of columns, which includes CHIRALPAK^® IA, IB, IC, ID, IE and IF, raises method development success rates to greater than 93 percent. The company refers that the i-CHIRAL 6 set, which complements i-CHIRAL 4 set released in late 2013, is designed for high-speed, high-efficiency separations of enantiomers. It is the complementarity nature of the added CHIRALPAK IE and IF that allows scientists to achieve resolution of the most difficult-to-separate target compounds.
www.chiraltechworldwide.com

A SAFETY GUIDE FOR USING LABORATORY HEATING BLOCKS
Asynt in conjunction with the Department of Chemistry, University of St Andrews (UK) and Advanced Chemical Safety Inc. (USA) have produced an 8-page illustrated document to provide laboratory staff with an IN BEST PRACTICE GUIDE to safe use of heating block systems. Heating blocks provide a safe, convenient and productive alternative to heating mantles and oil baths for heating round bottomed flasks, tubes and vials. Used in combination with a standard hotplate stirrer - heating blocks such as the Asynt DrySyn range have proved themselves with their ability to outperform the heat-conducting properties of oil baths. They pose a far lower fire risk and their use makes the clean-up of glassware far easier as there is no residual oil contamination on the outside of the flasks. In addition to accelerating your chemical reactions - heating blocks ensure a safer, cleaner, healthier working environment. Drawing upon the expertise and experience of Asynt and independent chemistry experts the illustrated IN BEST PRACTICE GUIDE leads you through glassware inspection, setting up your reaction, heating your reaction and the post-reaction cool down phase.
www.asynt.com

A RAPID SAFE TECHNIQUE FOR DRYING OLIGONUCLEOTIDES
A technical article is available from Genevac that describes a rapid, safe technique for drying oligonucleotide and DNA samples. DNA and oligonucleotide samples are sensitive and care needs to be exercised during concentration. Research done at the Welcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics (UK) shows that the Genevac EZ-2 evaporator is an ideal tool for concentrating SNP and oligonucleotides in microplates when preparing samples for microarraying and for Sequenon analysis. Compared to traditional methods, using the EZ-2 evaporator is shown to significantly speed up concentration rates, eliminate potential sources of damage to samples and also improve final sample quality. Using the most advanced technology in evaporation science, the Genevac EZ-2 Series has proven itself as a popular centrifugal evaporator for QA and research labs worldwide, be that for concentration of samples or complete drying. The innovative design of the EZ-2 presents real advantages for all chemists faced with removing both regular solvents and volatile chemicals. Intuitive controls and large LCD display provide ease of use comparable to a typical rotary evaporator yet the EZ-2 can process many more samples per unit time. Smart evaporator software provides true walk-away automation so simple and sample safe that anyone can use it with confidence. The proprietary pump technology combined with a visible glass condenser trap and easy access solvent drain valve make the EZ-2 the most compact, reliable and productive benchtop sample evaporator available.
www.genevac.com/en/ArticleDetail.asp?S=6&V=1&ProductDownload=69

ENHANCED CRYSTALLISATION CONTROL IMPROVES POLYMORPH SCREENING
Genevac announces eXalt - an exciting new non-destructive evaporation technology developed with partners in the field of pharmaceutical small molecule crystallisation. eXalt has found application in labs that perform tasks including first time crystallisation of amorphous forms, recrystallisation of samples which have only a few known forms, removing a hydrate, solvent screening studies to find the most suitable conditions to take forward in development, high throughput co-crystallisation screens and studies to confirm stable isoforms. eXalt enables a wide range of solvents and multiple actives to be evaporated all at the same slow rate, and under the same conditions, giving the user unprecedented control of the crystallisation process. This is achieved using a special holder which allows a can be configured to slow the evaporation rate each solvent, i.e. the more volatile solvents are impeded more, and some solvents such as water, need no restriction. The holder is then placed in the controlled conditions of a Genevac HT Series Evaporator which cycles the pressure over the samples to create a draw, achieving controlled, even evaporation. eXalt holders can accept up to 24 different samples, and 4 8 or 12 holders can be placed in the evaporator, depending on size.
www.genevac.com/exalt

STOMACHER^® 400 CIRCULATOR
Seward Ltd., manufacturers of the world leading range of Stomacher^® paddle blenders and Stomacher^® accessories used in sample preparation for microbiological analyses, have highlighted the highly effective use of its Stomacher technology in combination with sponge swabs for hygiene monitoring and biosecurity applications. The company refers that this popular sampling method utilises sponge swabs pre-dosed with buffer to swab a surface and then, to recover the micro flora, the sponge swabs are processed in the Stomacher^® 400 Circulator. A number of suppliers offer pre-manufactured devices such as 3M^® and Technical Services Consultants Ltd, which work very effectively in Stomacher products. Various different approaches can be applied, processing either pooled samples in the Stomacher^® 400 or individual swabs in the Stomacher^® 80 Biomaster.
www.seward.co.uk

U.S. PATENT FOR ITS PACKAGING SYSTEM FOR PHARMACEUTICAL COMPOSITIONS AND KIT FOR INTRAVENOUS ADMINISTRATION
INFA Group will be granted a U.S. Patent for its Packaging System for Pharmaceutical Compositions and KIT for Intravenous Administration. INFA Group, a global API Producer with manufacturing sites in Italy and Spain, has announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) recently issued a Notice of Allowance for a new patent to the INFA Group. The number of patents granted to the INFA Group currently exceeds 100. This new patent essentially covers a kit for intravenous administration comprising a collapsible container holding solution for intravenous administration and a vial.
www.infagroup.com