VBS Pharmaceuticals News
June 11, 2013 – Vascular BioSciences to Present at NHLBI Innovation Conference
March 26, 2008 – Vascular BioSciences Awarded STTR Matching Grant from the State of North Carolina
San Diego CA, June 11, 2013 – Vascular BioSciences (VBS) announces it will be presenting at a National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) conference from 10:30 to 5pm at the Janssen Research & Development Labs, 3210 Merryfield Row, San Diego CA 92130.
This conference will bring together small businesses, angel investors, venture capitalists, strategic partners, and business leaders from the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. The conference is intended to provide a valuable opportunity for companies to present their technology and network with potential investors and partners. The conference will feature presentations by top NHLBI funded companies with innovative technologies on the brink of commercialization, an expert panel of investors, and opportunities for partnering and networking. VBS will give a fifteen‒minute platform presentation as well as a poster presentation during the conference.
VBS CEO David Mann commented, “Having received several NHLBI grants for our research, it is a further honor to be selected as a presenting company at next Tuesday’s conference. We look forward to sharing the story of our CAR peptide and its potential.”
About Vascular BioSciences
Vascular BioSciences, a diversified biomedical company with operations in California and North Carolina, provides disease solutions in order to enhance and prolong human life.
Vascular BioSciences makes interventional catheters to obtain endoarterial biopsies, provides molecular diagnostic services, and through its majority owned subsidiary VBS Pharmaceuticals, develops targeted therapeutics for patients with difficult‒to‒treat diseases.
More information is available at www.vascularbiosciences.com and vbspharma.com.
More information on the 2013 NHLBI Innovation Conference is available at: http://nhlbisdinnovationconference2013-es2.eventbrite.com/?rank=3
Goleta, CA., October 11, 2012 – Vascular BioSciences recently awarded a NIH SBIR/STTR Phase I Commercialization Assistance Award to develop the CAR peptide as a therapeutic adjuvant.
CEO David Mann remarked, “The NIH SBIR/STTR Phase I Commercialization Assistance Award is a helpful step forward in commercializing our CAR peptide therapeutic adjuvant. We look forward to working with Foresight Science and Technology to develop a market entry strategy for our products.”
The National Health Institute (NIH) issues a Niche Assessment Program for those that wish to stimulate commercialization. In collaboration with the NIH SBIR/STTR awardees, the Foresight Science & Technology Incorporated provides a Technology Niche Analysis that presents a company with data about market-oriented information such as market size, potential consumers, and competing technologies. Companies selected to win the award are given an in-depth, unbiased assessment of appropriate market niches for products and given opportunities to connect with potential customers, licenses, investors, or commercial partners.
About Vascular BioSciences
Vascular BioSciences, a diversified biomedical company with operations in California and North Carolina, provides disease solutions in order to enhance and prolong human life
Vascular BioSciences makes interventional catheters to obtain endoarterial biopsies, provides molecular diagnostic services, and through its majority owned subsidiary VBS Pharmaceuticals, develops targeted therapeutics for patients with difficult‒to‒treat diseases.
More information is available at www.vascularbiosciences.com
San Diego, CA., October 10, 2012 – Vascular BioSciences announces CEO David Mann will present “CAR Peptide, a Disease Selective Therapeutic Adjuvant For Targeted Drug Therapy” during the 7th Annual Therapeutic Peptide Symposium to be hosted at The Salk Institute in La Jolla, CA on October 25th and 26th, 2012.
“A major limitation in the treatment of disease is the lack of therapeutic selectivity. Our therapeutic peptide adjuvant addresses this need by homing to areas of disease, internalizing into targeted tissues, and enabling co‒administered drugs to achieve selective therapeutic effects,” commented CEO David Mann.
CARSKNKDC (CAR), a 9 amino acid cyclic peptide selectively targets and internalizes into a range of diseased tissues. CAR targets hypertensive vessels, angiogenesis, fibrotic lesions, areas of inflammation, acute lung injury, asthma, wounds, and tumors. Interestingly, CAR peptide also enables a multiplicity of co‒administered drugs to preferentially affect disease tissues to increase localized concentrations of therapeutics without requiring the drug to be conjugated to the CAR peptide adjuvant. There is also evidence to indicate that CAR possesses oral bioavailability. In addition to oral availability, CAR peptide has a long half‒life (27 hours), and no toxic effects seen to date in pre‒clinical models.
About Vascular BioSciences
Vascular BioSciences, a diversified biomedical company with operations in California and North Carolina, provides disease solutions in order to enhance and prolong human life
Vascular BioSciences makes interventional catheters to obtain endoarterial biopsies, provides molecular diagnostic services, and through its majority owned subsidiary VBS Pharmaceuticals, develops targeted therapeutics for patients with difficult‒to‒treat diseases.
More information is available at www.vbspharma.com.
About The Peptide Therapeutics Symposium
The Peptide Therapeutics Symposium is a non-profit annual meeting established in 2005 to promote research and development of peptide therapeutics. More information on this year’s symposium as well as previous symposiums can be found at: www.peptidetherapeutics.org.
Goleta, Calif., July 3, 2012 – Vascular BioSciences announced today that Dr. Kalju Kahn, PhD, has been named head of Medicinal Chemistry.
Dr. Kahn, an expert in computational chemistry and drug design at the University of California Santa Barbara, brings a wealth of expertise and a passion for chemistry to our drug development efforts. “We are very excited about the addition of Dr. Kahn as head of medicinal chemistry to our team,” remarked CEO David Mann, “Kalju brings a wealth of technical excellence and a deep understanding of the underlying chemistry that is of great value as we explore the correlation between molecular structure and pharmacological activity of our targeted therapeutic compounds.”
Dr. Kahn commented, “I look forward to contributing my talents in computational chemistry and drug design to help advance the exciting new therapeutic agents we are developing at VBS. I believe that with my broad background in experimental biochemistry and expertise in computational analysis of biomolecular interactions, I can significantly contribute toward achieving our goal to develop novel solutions for hard to treat diseases.”
About Vascular BioSciences
Vascular BioSciences, a diversified biomedical company with operations in California and North Carolina, provides disease solutions in order to enhance and prolong human life.
Vascular BioSciences makes interventional catheters to obtain endoarterial biopsies, provides molecular diagnostic services, and through its majority owned subsidiary VBS Pharmaceuticals, develops targeted therapeutics for patients with difficult‒to‒treat diseases.
More information is available at www.vascularbiosciences.com and www.vbspharma.com.
Goleta, Calif., June 24, 2011 – A recently published paper from Vascular BioSciences (VBS) in collaboration with Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute and the University of South Alabama has been selected by the Faculty of 1000 (F1000) as one of the top 2 percent of all published articles in the biological and medical sciences in 2011. F1000 is a global collaboration of the world’s leading scientists who identify and evaluate the most important articles in biology and medical research publications.
The paper, “Peptide-Directed Highly Selective Targeting of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension,” is published in the current issue of the American Journal of Pathology, was authored by Takeo Urakami, Tero A.H. Järvinen, Michie Toba, Junko Sawada, Namasivayam Ambalavanan, David Mann, Ivan McMurtry, Masahiko Oka, Erkki Ruoslahti, and Masanobu Komatsu. The paper was selected for The Faculty of 1000 Biology by F1000 member Dr. Yuichiro Suzuki, Ph.D., Professor of Pharmacology at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
The article describes the discovery of CAR, a novel peptide that specifically targets and penetrates the vasculature of lungs affected by pulmonary arterial hypertension. Reviewer Suzuki commented, “Specific targeting of drugs to affected areas within the pulmonary vasculature should significantly advance the treatment strategies for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), a serious and lethal condition. The authors discovered a peptide which specifically targets affected tissues of remodeled pulmonary vasculature, providing a promising technology for drug delivery to treat PAH patients.”
“We are honored to have our paper highlighted by such a prestigious group as the Faculty of 1000. To have our paper selected by such an elite group of reviewers validates the tremendous potential our discoveries have in the PAH field,” said senior author Dr. Masanobu Komatsu, Ph.D., of the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute in Lake Nona, Florida.
First author Dr. Takeo Urakami, Ph.D., also of the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute in Lake Nona, Florida, stated, “To our knowledge, this paper presents the first technology that allows for the selective targeting of PAH and we believe that the future breakthroughs in PAH lies in targeted therapies utilizing molecules like the CAR peptide. To have our paper considered to be among the top two percent of scientific articles in the biological and medical sciences by the F1000 further justifies our approach to the development of PAH treatments.”
“Our goal as a company is to provide therapeutic solutions to improve the lives of those suffering from life-threatening diseases like PAH. We believe CAR has tremendous potential to help PAH patients and are honored to have our efforts and progress acknowledged by the Faculty of 1000,” commented co‒author and VBS Pharmaceuticals CEO, David Mann.
About VBS Pharmaceuticals
VBS Pharmaceuticals, a majority owned subsidiary of Vascular BioSciences, develops targeted therapeutics for difficult to treat diseases.
For more information please visit: www.vbspharma.com.
About Vascular BioSciences
Vascular BioSciences, a diversified biomedical company with operations in California and North Carolina, provides disease solutions in order to enhance and prolong human life.
Vascular BioSciences makes interventional catheters to obtain endoarterial biopsies, provides molecular diagnostic services, and advances therapies in order to improve disease outcomes for patients with significant unmet medical needs.
More information is available at www.vascularbiosciences.com.
About Sanford‒Burnham Institute for Medical Research
Sanford‒Burnham Medical Research Institute is dedicated to discovering the fundamental molecular causes of disease and devising the innovative therapies of tomorrow. Sanford‒Burnham, with operations in California and Florida, is one of the fastest‒growing research institutes in the country. The Institute ranks among the top independent research institutions nationally for NIH grant funding and among the top organizations worldwide for its research impact. From 1999 – 2009, Sanford-Burnham ranked #1 worldwide among all types of organizations in the fields of biology and biochemistry for the impact of its research publications, defined by citations per publication, according to the Institute for Scientific Information. According to government statistics, Sanford-Burnham ranks #2 nationally among all organizations in capital efficiency of generating patents, defined by the number of patents issued per grant dollars awarded.
Sanford‒Burnham utilizes a unique, collaborative approach to medical research and has established major research programs in cancer, neurodegeneration, diabetes, and infectious, inflammatory, and childhood diseases. The Institute is especially known for its world‒class capabilities in stem cell research and drug discovery technologies. Sanford‒Burnham is a nonprofit public benefit corporation.
For more information, please visit www.sanfordburnham.org.
About University of South Alabama
The University of South Alabama, a diverse and vibrant public university, is making a difference in the lives of the people of Alabama and the nation through teaching, research, service and health care. The University offers a wide range of high-quality undergraduate and graduate academic programs, and the USA Health System, which includes the College of Medicine, USA Physicians, USA Mitchell Cancer Institute and USA Hospitals, provides state‒of‒the‒art health care and medical education.
Goleta, Calif., June 10, 2011 – VBS Pharmaceuticals, in collaboration with the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, and the University of South Alabama, announces the publication of a scientific article which describes a novel peptide that specifically targets and penetrates the vasculature of lungs affected by pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) in the current issue of the American Journal of Pathology.
The paper, “Peptide-Directed Highly Selective Targeting of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension”in the American Journal of Pathology 2011; 178(6): 2489-2495, by Takeo Urakami, Tero A.H. Järvinen, Michie Toba, Junko Sawada, Namasivayam Ambalavanan, David Mann, Ivan McMurtry, Masahiko Oka, Erkki Ruoslahti, and Masanobu Komatsu, describes the first discovery of a highly selective PAH targeting and tissue‒penetrating cyclic peptide CARSKNKDC (CAR). Injection of CAR resulted in the accumulation of the peptide in induced hypertensive lungs but not healthy lungs or other organs of the PAH rats. CAR also accumulated in various regions of the pulmonary system that play a crucial role in the development and pathogenesis of PAH. These findings support the future utility of CAR in the targeted delivery of therapeutic compounds and imaging probes to PAH lungs.
First author Dr. Takeo Urakami, Ph.D., of the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute in Lake Nona, Florida, stated, “To assess the potential utility of CAR in targeting human PAH, we tested the binding abilities of CAR to human cells in culture. The expression of CAR in these cells demonstrated the presence of necessary receptors in human cells, suggesting that the application of CAR targeting to human PAH is feasible.”
Senior author Dr. Masanobu Komatsu, Ph.D., also of the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute in Lake Nona stated “The use of peptides for human therapy is a growing concept within the pharmaceutical industry. The successful targeting of the pulmonary system utilizing the CAR peptide can offer unique opportunities to target multiple cell types important in the pathogenesis of PAH.”
Despite recent advances in the treatment of PAH, with eight approved clinical therapies and additional therapies undergoing clinical trials, PAH remains a serious life-threatening condition. The lack of pulmonary vascular selectivity and associated systemic adverse effects of these therapies remain the main obstacles to successful treatment. Co‒author and VBS Pharmaceuticals CEO, David Mann concluded, “Current limitations in PAH regimens require the development of target specific treatments and to our knowledge, CAR presents the first technology that allows for this selective targeting of PAH.”
About VBS Pharmaceuticals
VBS Pharmaceuticals, a majority owned subsidiary of Vascular BioSciences, develops targeted therapeutics for difficult to treat diseases.
For more information please visit: www.vbspharma.com.
About Vascular BioSciences
Vascular BioSciences, a diversified biomedical company with operations in California and North Carolina, provides disease solutions in order to enhance and prolong human life.
Vascular BioSciences makes interventional catheters to obtain endoarterial biopsies, provides molecular diagnostic services, and advances therapies in order to improve disease outcomes for patients with significant unmet medical needs.
More information is available at www.vascularbiosciences.com.
About Sanford‒Burnham Institute for Medical Research
Sanford‒Burnham Medical Research Institute is dedicated to discovering the fundamental molecular causes of disease and devising the innovative therapies of tomorrow. Sanford‒Burnham, with operations in California and Florida, is one of the fastest‒growing research institutes in the country. The Institute ranks among the top independent research institutions nationally for NIH grant funding and among the top organizations worldwide for its research impact. From 1999 – 2009, Sanford-Burnham ranked #1 worldwide among all types of organizations in the fields of biology and biochemistry for the impact of its research publications, defined by citations per publication, according to the Institute for Scientific Information. According to government statistics, Sanford-Burnham ranks #2 nationally among all organizations in capital efficiency of generating patents, defined by the number of patents issued per grant dollars awarded.
Sanford‒Burnham utilizes a unique, collaborative approach to medical research and has established major research programs in cancer, neurodegeneration, diabetes, and infectious, inflammatory, and childhood diseases. The Institute is especially known for its world‒class capabilities in stem cell research and drug discovery technologies. Sanford‒Burnham is a nonprofit public benefit corporation.
For more information, please visit www.sanfordburnham.org.
About University of South Alabama
The University of South Alabama, a diverse and vibrant public university, is making a difference in the lives of the people of Alabama and the nation through teaching, research, service and health care. The University offers a wide range of high-quality undergraduate and graduate academic programs, and the USA Health System, which includes the College of Medicine, USA Physicians, USA Mitchell Cancer Institute and USA Hospitals, provides state‒of‒the‒art health care and medical education. The Center for Lung Biology is a world recognized research center with active research programs in lung injury and pulmonary hypertension. The CLB collaborates with clinical programs at USA including a vibrant Pulmonary Hypertension Center.
Santa Barbara, Calif., April 24, 2011 – Opening speaker David Mann presented the following remarks at the SCURC at the University of California at Santa Barbara on April 23, 2011. Reflecting from personal experience, he presented the following motivation and advice to the undergraduates honored in the conference:
“In the course of building Vascular BioSciences I’ve had the good fortune to work with people who are not only very smart, but also very nice as well.
During the past 2 years of working with Dr Kalju Kahn in medicinal chemistry and drug design, I’ve come to appreciate that he is one of those very smart and very nice people.
It’s the expertise and consideration of faculty like Kalju Kahn that help make UCSB’s chemistry program one of the best in the world.
Since I launched a branch of VBS in the Santa Barbara area, our company has benefited greatly through our association with UCSB’s chemistry department.
I started my company, Vascular BioSciences in the 1990’s, but my passion to develop science‒based healthcare solutions goes back much farther.
When I was 21 I watched my Mom die of cancer. She was only 54.
- As I looked on helplessly as her doctors failed to save her, a thought occurred to me:
- When people get sick, they go to their doctors for help.
- But when doctors don’t have the solution, who do they turn to for help?
In my inability to help my Mom a desire was born to become a person who helps the doctors solve the seemingly unsolvable problems so that someone else in a similar situation could be spared, or at least delay, having to go through what I went through.
It’s the awareness of knowing that you contributed something that can potentially help make a positive difference that provides so much satisfaction to a career in science.
But careers in science, even the most successful ones, are often marked by failure.
When you try to do something you have never done before, let alone something no one has done before, you’re likely to fail, at least on your initial attempts.
But if you persevere, and I can tell that many in this audience are the persevering type, many times you can eventually succeed.
And your reward for persevering? You get to proceed to the next step in your path that you’ve never done before. At which you will fail again, and again, until you succeed.
From the outside, some may judge you a success, but to yourself, you’re often failing.
And that, I would submit, is the key to a successful career in science and a successful life: challenging yourself with new tasks and new goals that are initially met with failure. Because only by exposing ourselves to the possibility, even the certainty, of failure can we be ultimately successful.
All the presenters here, of both the oral talks as well as the poster presenters, are successes because they had the courage to face failure, and the perseverance to overcome it.
Vascular BioSciences is proud to be a sponsor of this conference along with the American Chemical Society.
Welcome to the conference and enjoy the
science.”
About Vascular BioSciences
Vascular BioSciences, a diversified biomedical company with operations in California and North Carolina, provides disease solutions in order to enhance and prolong human life.
Vascular BioSciences makes interventional catheters to obtain endoarterial biopsies, provides molecular diagnostic services, and advances therapies in order to improve disease outcomes for patients with significant unmet medical needs.
More information is available at www.vascularbiosciences.com.
Santa Barbara, Calif., April 23, 2011 – Vascular BioSciences will be a major sponsor of the 2011 Southern California Undergraduate Research Conference in Chemistry and Biochemistry to be held at the University of California Santa Barbara.
The Southern California Conference on Undergraduate Research (SCURC) is a distinguished gathering that recognizes outstanding research achievements among undergraduates in chemistry and biochemistry. The SCURC conference attracted over 340 research submissions from chemistry and biochemistry undergraduates throughout southern California. The SCURC provides a forum for chemistry and biochemistry undergraduates to present their research to their peers and the scientific community.
“Sponsoring an undergraduate research conferences such as SCURC is one way to help recognize and nurture the scientific research community of tomorrow. I look forward to seeing the presentations and learning more about the research being done today by undergraduates at Southern California universities. Presenting their research in such a setting helps undergraduates prepare for the road ahead. It will also be an honor to share my knowledge and experiences with them on a personal level,” commented David Mann, CEO of Vascular BioSciences, who will also present opening remarks at the conference.
About Vascular BioSciences
Vascular BioSciences, a diversified biomedical company with operations in California and North Carolina, provides disease solutions in order to enhance and prolong human life.
Vascular BioSciences makes interventional catheters to obtain endoarterial biopsies, provides molecular diagnostic services, and advances therapies in order to improve disease outcomes for patients with significant unmet medical needs.
More information is available at www.vascularbiosciences.com. and www.vbspharma.com.
Durham, NC, December 24, 2010 – Vascular BioSciences announced today it has received, in collaboration with the University of South Alabama, a two year Exploration/Development grant from the National Heart Lung Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the amount of $412,850. The 1R21HL106101 award was given to the project, “Cell‒targeted drug delivery for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension,” and will be performed in collaboration with principal investigator Masahiko Oka, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine at the University of South Alabama, and David Mann, CEO of Vascular BioSciences.
With the R21 Grant, the group looks to identify homing peptides that can be used to deliver pharmacological agents selectively to hypertensive pulmonary arteries. The discovery and isolation of such peptides can lead to the development of a targeted drug delivery system to improve the future treatment of PAH.
“I am honored to receive this R21 Grant,” said principal investigator Dr. Oka. “Despite modern advances in the treatment of PAH, it still remains a life‒threatening condition. The NIH award has made it evident that novel research ideas are urgently needed in order to progress towards better treatment of PAH.”
David Mann, CEO of Vascular BioSciences and co-principal investigator of the project commented, “We are very fortunate to receive this grant award to further develop our research on homing peptides. The recognition from the NIH supports our confidence in the potential impact of our ideas on the future treatment of PAH. This award also highlights the creativity and dedication of our entire collaborative group including our co‒investigators Ivan McMurtry, Ph.D., and Michie Toba M.D., of the University of South Alabama Medical Center and Erkki Ruoslahti M.D., Ph.D., and Masanobu Komatsu, Ph.D. of the Sanford‒Burnham Medical Research Institute.”
About Vascular BioSciences
Vascular BioSciences, a diversified biomedical company with operations in California and North Carolina, provides disease solutions in order to enhance and prolong human life.
Vascular BioSciences makes interventional catheters to obtain endoarterial biopsies, provides molecular diagnostic services, and through it’s majority owned subsidiary VBS Pharmaceuticals, develops targeted therapeutics for patients with difficult to treat diseases.
More information is available at www.vascularbiosciences.com. and www.vbspharma.com.
About University of South Alabama
The University of South Alabama, a diverse and vibrant public university, is making a difference in the lives of the people of Alabama and the nation through teaching, research, service and health care. The University offers a wide range of high-quality undergraduate and graduate academic programs, and the USA Health System, which includes the College of Medicine, USA Physicians, USA Mitchell Cancer Institute and USA Hospitals, provides state‒of‒the‒art health care and medical education. The Center for Lung Biology is a world recognized research center with active research programs in lung injury and pulmonary hypertension. The CLB collaborates with clinical programs at USA including a vibrant Pulmonary Hypertension Center.
San Diego, CA, November 9, 2010 – Vascular BioSciences was awarded a grant in the amount of $181,876 from the U.S. Government’s Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project (QTDP) Program. The grant will be used to support the development of CAR peptide as a therapeutic adjuvant.
The QTDP grant program provides support for innovative projects that are determined by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to have reasonable potential to result in a new therapy, reduce health care costs, or significantly advance the goal of curing cancer. The QTDP program was created by Congress on May 21, 2010 under Section 48D of the Internal Revenue Code, as enacted under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).
The highly competitive QTDP program provides a 50% tax credit or grant for qualified investments by eligible companies in taxable years beginning in 2009 and in 2010 in connection with qualifying projects.
- Qualifying projects included those designed to:
- Treat or prevent diseases or conditions by conducting pre-clinical activities, clinical trials and clinical studies, or carrying out research protocols for the purpose of securing federal government approval by the FDA.
- Diagnose diseases or conditions or to determine molecular factors related to diseases or conditions by developing molecular diagnostics to guide therapeutic decisions.
- Develop a product, process or technology to further the delivery or administration of therapeutics.
The U.S. federal government awarded $1 billion in grants and tax credits to nearly 3,000 biotechnology companies with 250 or fewer employees. Congress allocated the money as part of last year’s health‒care reform law to protect biotechnology jobs, and increase the country’s efficiency in the development of lifesaving drugs and devices.
“We are very pleased to receive this QTDP grant,” said Vascular BioSciences CEO David Mann. “This grant acknowledges the innovation of our approach in developing targeted therapeutics, and it will greatly speed our efforts to develop more selective treatments for desperately ill patients.”
About Vascular BioSciences
Vascular BioSciences, a diversified biomedical company with operations in California and North Carolina, provides disease solutions in order to enhance and prolong human life.
Vascular BioSciences makes interventional catheters to obtain endoarterial biopsies, provides molecular diagnostic services, and through it’s majority owned subsidiary VBS Pharmaceuticals, develops targeted therapeutics for patients with difficult to treat diseases.
More information is available at www.vascularbiosciences.com. and www.vbspharma.com.
Goleta, Calif., January 8, 2010 – Vascular BioSciences announced today that it has opened a new office and pilot catheter manufacturing facility in Goleta, California. The new Goleta office will also serve as the company’s center for medicinal and computational chemistry.
The Goleta facility will feature an ISO 6 (Class 1,000) clean room for manufacturing the endoarterial biopsy catheter as well as offices and lab space for VBS Pharmaceuticals. This new office is an expansion from the company’s currently established offices in San Diego, California and Durham, North Carolina. Located near the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB), this new facility will allow for scientific collaboration between Vascular Biosciences, VBS Pharmaceuticals, and distinguished researchers at the University of California Santa Barbara. With VBS Pharmaceuticals’ increasing focus in research and development, the Goleta office’s close proximity to UCSB’s research centers provides a strategic location for the advancement of VBS Pharmaceuticals’ research efforts.
David Mann, CEO and Chairman of Vascular BioSciences and VBS Pharmaceuticals, commented, “The Goleta office will be a great addition to our headquarters in Research Triangle, North Carolina, and provide vital additional research and clean room manufacturing capabilities in California. With a research partnership already established with scientists at the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute at UCSB, the opportunity to work closely with other UCSB faculty will greatly benefit our company’s progress.”
About Vascular BioSciences
Vascular BioSciences, a diversified biomedical company with operations in California and North Carolina, provides disease solutions in order to enhance and
prolong human life.
Vascular BioSciences makes interventional catheters to obtain endoarterial biopsies, provides molecular diagnostic services, and through
it’s majority owned subsidiary VBS Pharmaceuticals, develops targeted therapeutics for patients with difficult to treat diseases.
More information is available at www.vascularbiosciences.com. and www.vbspharma.com.
Chicago, Illinois, March 28, 2008 – Vascular BioSciences announced today that Abraham Rothman, M.D., will present experimental data on the use of Vascular BioSciences’ endoarterial biopsy catheter in models of pulmonary hypertension, lung transplant rejection, and congenital heart disease at the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions annual scientific sessions at this year’s American College of Cardiology Annual Innovation in Intervention Meeting. Dr. Rothman’s presentation will be given from 3:00 to 4:00 pm at McCormick Place in Chicago, Illinois on March 30, 2008.
Dr. Rothman, a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Nevada School of Medicine, and a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, will present new techniques to assess pulmonary vascular gene expression, identify novel applications for existing drugs and describe new methods to deliver individualized pharmacogenomics for vascular diseases using endoarterial biopsy.
About Vascular BioSciences
Vascular BioSciences, a diversified biomedical company based in Research Triangle, North Carolina, provides solutions for vascular–based diseases in order to enhance and prolong human life.
Vascular BioSciences makes interventional catheters to obtain endoarterial biopsies, provides diagnostic services, and advances therapies in order to improve outcomes for vascular–based disease patients. More information is available at www.vascularbiosciences.com.
Durham, North Carolina, March 26, 2008 – Vascular BioSciences announced today it has been awarded a $100,000 STTR matching grant under the One North Carolina SBIR/STTR Matching Funds Program. The One North Carolina SBIR/STTR Matching Grant matches a recently awarded NIH Phase 1 STTR grant “Targeting Pulmonary Hypertension with R-Ras.”
David Mann, CEO of Vascular BioSciences commented, “This matching grant from the State of North Carolina will enable our company to expand our innovative product pipeline and to accelerate our commercialization efforts. I’d like to especially acknowledge the assistance and support of Governor Mike Easley, Congressman David Price, State Senator Floyd McKissick, Jr., State Representative Henry Michaux, Jr., the North Carolina Office of Science and Technology, and the North Carolina Department of Commerce.”
About Vascular BioSciences
Vascular BioSciences, a diversified biomedical company based in Research Triangle, North Carolina, provides solutions for vascular–based diseases in order to enhance and prolong human life.
Vascular BioSciences makes interventional catheters to obtain endoarterial biopsies, provides diagnostic services, and advances therapies in order to improve outcomes for vascular–based disease patients. More information is available at www.vascularbiosciences.com.
San Diego, Calif., October 12, 2007 – Vascular BioSciences announced today that Dr. Roy Williams, Ph.D., will join the company as a Special Consultant for Bioinformatics. Dr. Williams brings extensive expertise in bioinformatics and microarray analysis to the company’s Molecular Diagnostics division.
Dr. Roy Williams, Ph.D., an experienced research scientist at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research, is an internationally recognized pioneer in genomics, microarray technology, and the computer based analysis of complex genome-wide datasets. Prior to joining the Burnham Institute, Dr. Williams was an important member of the Small Molecule Drug Discovery Group at Diversa Corp in San Diego, CA. Dr. Williams, who received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom, performed ground-breaking gene expression post-doctoral research at Stanford University, the University of Chicago, and the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France.
David Mann, CEO and Chairman of Vascular BioSciences, commented, “Dr. Williams is a brilliant scientist and a pleasure to work with. He provides the company with the necessary expertise to handle the large amounts of data generated in our analysis of endoarterial biopsy samples. Roy’s valuable skill set will greatly accelerate our efforts to provide personalized medicine to patients based on the molecular analysis of endoarterial biopsies. Roy will also be invaluable to our drug discovery efforts at VBS Pharmaceuticals.”
About Vascular BioSciences & VBS Pharmaceuticals
Vascular BioSciences, a diversified biomedical company based in San Diego, California, provides solutions for vascular-based diseases in order to enhance and prolong human life.
Vascular BioSciences makes interventional catheters to obtain endoarterial biopsies, provides diagnostic services, and advances therapies in order to improve outcomes for vascular-based disease patients.
A newly formed majority-owned subsidiary, VBS Pharmaceuticals, has been created to provide a framework for Vascular Biosciences to engage in drug discovery and pharmaceutical development targeting vascular-based diseases.
For more information please visit: www.vbspharma.com.
San Diego, Calif., February 28, 2007 – Vascular BioSciences announced today that it has secured a worldwide exclusive license to intellectual property from Burnham Institute for Medical Research relating to work done by Erkki Ruoslahti MD, Ph.D., and Masanobu Komatsu, Ph.D. on their discovery of the role of the intracellular protein R-Ras in neointimal hyperplasia, angiogenesis and vascular proliferation. R-Ras is a small GTPase of the Ras family that regulates cell survival and integrin activity. Drs. Komatsu and Ruoslahti found that R-Ras exerts a strong inhibitory effect on mitotic and invasive activities of activated endothelial cells and vascular smooth muscle cells, and promotes quiescence of these cells.
The discovery of this unexpected role for R-Ras in blood vessel homeostasis will enable Vascular BioSciences to target R-Ras signaling for therapeutic intervention in a wide range of disorders characterized by pathological vascular remodeling, vascular cell proliferation and endothelial activation. Such diseases include atherosclerosis, sepsis, systemic and pulmonary hypertension, diabetic vasculopathies, acute respiratory distress syndrome, post-angioplasty restenosis, collagen vascular diseases and other conditions. The ability of R-Ras to promote vascular quiescence may also be useful in anti-angiogenesis therapies for cancer and the engineering of mature blood vessels.
David Mann, CEO and Chairman of Vascular BioSciences commented, “This license agreement with the Burnham Institute for Medical Research represents an extremely important expansion to our existing intellectual property portfolio and product pipeline. In addition to securing this valuable worldwide exclusive license, we gain the ability to work closely with internationally renowned scientists like Drs. Komatsu and Ruoslahti to develop novel innovative treatments for vascular diseases.”
Dr. Erkki Ruoslahti, Distinguished Professor and former President of Burnham Institute for Medical Research commented, “I believe that R-Ras opens up some entirely new possibilities for the treatment of vascular diseases and look forward to working with Vascular BioSciences on further development of this technology.”
About Vascular BioSciences & VBS Pharmaceuticals
Vascular BioSciences, a diversified biomedical company based in San Diego, California, provides solutions for vascular-based diseases in order to enhance and prolong human life.
Vascular BioSciences makes interventional catheters to obtain endoarterial biopsies, provides diagnostic services, and advances therapies in order to improve outcomes for vascular-based disease patients.
A newly formed majority-owned subsidiary, VBS Pharmaceuticals, has been created to provide a framework for Vascular Biosciences to engage in drug discovery and pharmaceutical development targeting vascular-based diseases.
About Burnham Institute for Medical Research.
Burnham Institute for Medical Research conducts world-class collaborative research dedicated to finding cures for human disease, improving quality of life, and thus creating a legacy for its employees, partners, donors, and community. The La Jolla, CA campus was established as a nonprofit public benefit corporation in 1976 and is now home to three major centers: the National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center, the Del E. Webb Center for Neurosciences and Aging, and the Infectious and Inflammatory Disease Center. Burnham today employs over 750 people and ranks consistently among the world’s top 20 research institutes. In 2006, Burnham established a presence at the University of California, Santa Barbara, led by Dr. Erkki Ruoslahti, Distinguished Professor. Burnham is also establishing a campus at Lake Nona in Orlando, Florida that will focus on diabetes and obesity research and expand the Institute’s drug discovery capabilities. For additional information about Burnham and to learn about ways to support its research, visit www.burnham.org.
San Diego, Calif., April 20, 2005 – Vascular BioSciences (www.vascularbiosciences.com) announced today that Erkki Ruoslahti, M.D., Ph.D., a member of Vascular BioSciences' (www.vascularbiosciences.com) Advisory Board, and co-founder of VBS Pharmaceuticals, has been awarded the 2005 Japan Prize in the category of cell biology. Dr. Ruoslahti shares the 50 million yen prize with Dr. Masatoshi Takeichi, Director of RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology in Kobe, Japan.
Dr. Ruoslahti was awarded the prize for “Fundamental contributions in elucidating the molecular mechanisms of cell adhesion.” Dr. Ruoslahti is being recognized for his pioneering contributions to the cell adhesion field, which include the discovery and molecular definition of the RGD peptide that interacts with integrin receptor sites during cellular attachment.
The Japan Prize is awarded annually in Tokyo in the presence of the Emperor and Empress of Japan to “people from all parts of the world whose original and outstanding achievements in science and technology are recognized as having advanced the frontiers of knowledge and served the cause of peace and prosperity for mankind.”
“We are delighted to see Erkki receive some of the recognition he deserves,” said David Mann, CEO and Chairman of Vascular BioSciences and VBS Pharmaceuticals. “Dr. Ruoslahti's original approach to scientific research has produced major advances in cell adhesion, vascular targeting peptide technology, drug discovery, nanotechnology, and tumor biology that merit considerable praise. We are proud to work with Dr. Ruoslahti in our collaborations to improve human health.”
For more on the Japan Prize: www.japanprize.jp