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Dear WIPO Re:Search Members,
Summer is upon us in Seattle which was great last week as the Gates Foundation hosted their annual Product Development Forum in the city. I had the opportunity to meet with a number of WIPO Re:Search members who attended the Forum including; David Reddy and colleagues at MMV, Zafar Mirza from the World Health Organization, Claire Wingfield from PATH, Benedict Blayney from Sanofi and several others.
We are pleased to highlight Ellis Owusu-Dabo and Ingrid Sobel's visit to Seattle from the Kumasi Centre of Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine (KCCR) in this edition. Thank you to all of our Seattle WIPO Re:Search members who welcomed and met with Ellis and Ingrid to learn about KCCR's research and partnership interests.
BVGH is proud to have nominated two WIPO Re:Search members for the prestigious Sanofi - Institut Pasteur Awards. Four Awards will go to mid-career and senior scientists whose outstanding research in the life sciences contributes to global public health.
Please join me in welcoming Liz Bromley, Associate Director, Partnering and Program Management to BVGH!
Feel free to share this newsletter with your colleagues and let us know how BVGH can identify new partners to advance your neglected disease programs.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Dent
President, BVGH |
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 Member Spotlight  The Sanofi - Institut Pasteur Awards in 2013 will honor and support four scientists, whose outstanding research shows real progress in the life sciences and contributes to global public health. Each winner will receive an award for themselves and to support their future research. An international committee comprised of eight distinguished scientists will review all applications. The awards will be presented on November 5th, 2013 at a ceremony in Paris, France. BVGH nominated two oustanding scientists from WIPO Re:Search Member organizations based in Africa. Good luck to all award nominees! For more information, please click here. **Please note: the deadline for nominations has been extended to 10 May 2013** |
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The BVGH Team is Growing!
Please join us in welcoming Liz Bromley to BIO Ventures for Global Health and to WIPO Re:Search.
As Associate Director, Partnering and Program Management at BVGH Liz will play a key role in identifying, presenting and facilitating collaborations within our WIPO Re:Search network. Liz brings a mix of expertise and experience in managing collaborations from big pharma and biotech to her role at BVGH.
After completing an AB in Biology at the College of the University of Chicago, she obtained her Masters from MIT and went on to Harvard where she received her PhD in Genetics. Welcome, Liz! |
New Member Announcements 
We are very pleased to welcome two Organizations based in India, to WIPO Re:Search this month.
The International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) division based in New Delhi is actively engaged in developing new vaccine candidates against dengue and malaria as well as understanding immune response and developing innovative diagnostics against tuberculosis. Discussions to explore a Dengue collaboration between ICGEB and another Member organization have already been initiated.
 National Institute of Immunology (NII), also based in New Delhi is focused on understanding host pathogen interactions and the basic mechanisms involved in immune response. We look forward to facilitating collaborations that leverage the strengths and partnering interests of the researchers at NII.
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Cornerstones of Collaboration
Ellis Owusu-Dabo, Scientific Director at the Kumasi Centre of Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine (KCCR) and his colleague Ingrid Sobel, Director of Administration at KCCR visited Seattle to meet with PATH to expand on a number of collaboration opportunities. BVGH facilitated introductions to and meetings with a number of other Seattle organizations--including WIPO Re:Search members Seattle BioMed, the Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI), Northeastern University--and the Gates Foundation
 | | Left photo: Ingrid Sobel and Ellis Owusu-Dabo,both of KCCR, outside the Gates Foundation in Seattle. Right photo: Ingrid, Liz Bromley (BVGH's newest team member!) and Ellis outside the Institute for System Biology, BVGH's new Seattle headquarters. |
 | | Ingrid and Ellis of KCCR with Tayloe Washburn, Dean of Northeastern University's Seattle Campus (standing), and Richard Wamai, Professor of Africa-American Studies at Northeastern University (seated). |
Ellis and Ingrid presented KCCR's interests and capabilities as well as Ellis's research in tuberculosis and non-communicable diseases including diabetes in Ghana.
Follow-up is underway with Northeastern University's Richard Waimi and Tayloe Washburn to explore common areas of interest. |
Partnership Hub Central
After speaking with Nir Qvit from Stanford University at the 2012 ASTMH Annual Meeting, Roopa reached out to AstraZeneca to see if they could provide support for his project. A senior researcher at AstraZeneca's MedImmune Division shared expertise and advice with the Stanford postdoctoral researcher who is formulating peptides for treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis.
Roopa Ramamoorthi represented BVGH and WIPO Re:Search at the Bay Area Malaria Day Event. She introduced the Consortium and presented eight WIPO Re:Search collaborations all with a focus on developing new products for malaria. During the one day event Roopa connected with a number of WIPO Re:Search members to discuss partnership opportunities.
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Roopa presenting at the
World Malaria Day 2013 -- Bay Area Symposium. |
Jennifer Dent presented WIPO Re:Search, with a focus on partnering, on a panel chaired by Jerry Zeldis, Chief Medical Officer, Celgene Corporation and Chief Executive Officer, Celgene Global Health, at the 2013 BIO International Convention in Chicago. Partnerships established by pharmaceutical Founding members were highlighted to reinforce the important contributions available from private industry for neglected diseases global health collaborations.
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Photo of BIO panel, left to right: Jerry Zeldis, CEO of Global Health, Celgene, Jennifer Dent, Sophia Michaelson, Special Advisor to NIH, Yves Ribeill, CEO of SCYNEXIS, Robert Einterz, Assoc Dean for Global Health; Professor of Clinical Medicine, Donald E. Brown Professorship in Global Health, Indiana University and Director, AMPATH. |
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WIPO Re:Search in the News WIPO Re:Search was highlighted in a recent announcement by founding Member GlaxoSmithKline(GSK).  GSK announced that it will receive £5 million in funding from the Wellcome Trust to advance early-stage research focused on neglected tropical diseases, TB, and malaria. These funds will enable GSK researchers to accelerate development of the most promising products. See the complete press release here. |
Highlighted Contributions  Professor James (Jim) Heath's group at Caltech has expertise in creating artificial antibodies that share the high affinity and selectivity of monoclonal antibodies, but maintain the stability of short peptides. They are developing chemistries for targeting these peptides at specific protein epitopes.
The superior stability of these capture agents has possible advantages in diagnostic applications for immunoassays, especially where the diagnostic tests would be exposed to high ambient temperatures.
For more information or to discuss potential collaborations around this technology, please contact Roopa Ramamoorthi.
References:
WIPO Re:Search Database entry describing this contribution Link
Millward S.W. et al. (2011) Iterative in Situ Click Chemistry Assembles a Branched Capture Agent and Allosteric Inhibitor for Akt1. Journal of the American Chemical Society 133, 18280-18288. Link to PubMed |
Upcoming Global Health Events
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Dates |
Event Title |
Location |
Web Link | |
17-19
June |
Global Health Metrics and Evaluation Conference |
Seattle, WA |
Website | |
17-20
June |
World Vaccine Congress Asia |
Singapore |
Website | |
26-29
June |
Annual Meeting of the American Society of Parasitologists |
Quebec City,
Canada |
Website |
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Are you attending a global health event?
Do you have a Research Request to highlight in the Snapshot?
We want to hear from you! Please send feedback and suggestions via email.
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