On August 28, Sletten Cancer Institute at Benefis Healthcare became the first to provide CyberKnife® stereotactic radiosurgery in all of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Utah. CyberKnife® destroys malignant and benign tumors anywhere in the body, by using high-energy radiation with sub- millimeter accuracy and offers advances such as the ability to treat not only the head but the rest of the body; the ability to track tumors in real-time; and not requiring a head frame to be screwed into the patients skull. CyberKnife® is making possible effective new treatment possibilities in spine, lung, liver, pancreas, and prostate cancers.

Radiosurgery involves delivering high doses of focused radiation to a specific area in the body. Target location is determined using 3-D coordinates, such as a CT or MRI scan. Because of CyberKnife’s® precision, patients are treated with 1-5 “fractions,” or treatments, with a high-dose of radiation. In one week the patient is done with treatment. Patients at the Sletten Cancer Institute are able to stay at their Gift of Life Housing, provided free of charge by the Foundation.

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Computer Compliance Inc. announced that it will begin formally offering Process Analytical Technology (PAT) consulting services for pharmaceutical manufacturers in response to the FDA’s 2004 initiative. CCI has particular proficiency with integrating process control systems, manufacturing execution systems, SCADA, LIMS, and enterprise resource planning systems all in a real time environment. CCI's first experience with what was to become the PAT initiative dates back to 1998 in the field of radiopharmaceutical production. Using the FDA’s initiative as a guide, CCI has developed a four phase approach to a PAT implementation which includes Investigation, Development, Implementation, and Monitoring.

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C I V I C Design (Great Falls) has just started construction on the State of Montana's new Chemistry Facility in Helena and is also starting design on a Cornea Research Facility for the Lions Foundation, next to Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Institute in the South Lake Union District in Seattle.

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Physicians and clinicians from 9 countries and 32 states joined together for the sixteenth in a series of surgical valve workshops sponsored by The International Heart Institute of Montana Foundation in Missoula, Montana.

The four-day workshop addressed issues related to imaging heart valves and surgery for heart valves. Following live surgical demonstrations, formal lectures and interactive panel discussions, participants attended wet lab sessions demonstrating valvular repair and implantation techniques. The participant evaluations were very positive. In planning for Rocky 2007, mark your calendar for July 17-20, 2007.

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LigoCyte was selected as a finalist for the $10,000 Faegre & Benson Venture Showcase award, and presented at the BioWest Venture Showcase on August 23.

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McLaughlin Research Institute scientist Pin- Xian Xu has accepted an appointment as associate professor in the human genetics department at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. She also will work in the department of molecular cell and developmental biology at Mt. Sinai. In addition to continuing her research, she will teach in the masters and doctorate programs.

Newly arriving at at McLaughlin is Deborah E. Cabin, who is probing the causes of Parkinson's disease using mouse gene models. Cabin had been a post- doctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health's National Human Genome Research Institute in Bethesda, Md., before moving to Great Falls. She holds a doctoral degree from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Maryland.

A ceremony dedicating the site of Community Medical Center’s Montana Center for Women’s and Newborn Care was held at on August 23. The new facility will feature an updated newborn ICU (the only one in the region); four times the space; new imaging tools; dedicated cesarean delivery rooms; and many other advanced Tools such as telehealth. The facility is funded in part by a $1 million appropriation facilitated by Senator Burns and a $500,000 appropriation by Rep. Denny Rehberg for Community Medical Center’s Western Montana Telehealth Network.

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Golden Helix, Inc., headquartered in Bozeman, has been granted exclusive world-wide, royalty-bearing licensing rights to PBAT, a statistical software program that contains tools for the design and analysis of family-based association studies. PBAT implements methods developed by Christoph Lange, PhD, and Nan Laird, PhD, of the Harvard School of Public Health. The license granted to Golden Helix by Harvard University includes the right to use, copy and make improvements to the software as well as the right to sell licenses for commercial and non- profit research. The program offers an innovative two-step method of identifying and testing the most promising genes that may contribute to chronic and common diseases.

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The National Institutes of Health has awarded Montana State University's Center for Biofilm Engineering a $2.9 million grant to find new ways to heal chronic wounds. The money will allow the center to fund undergraduate research, hire more doctoral-level researchers and buy equipment for its investigation into the role biofilms play in chronic wounds. The money will be distributed over four years.

Previous center research has shown that bacteria in biofilms activate sets of genes that are dormant in free-floating bacteria. With their new genetic instructions, biofilm bacteria form complicated slimy communities that can be 1,000 times more antibiotic- resistant than free-floating bacteria.

The grant is in partnership with Dr. Randy Wolcott, Southwest Regional Wound Care Center, who offers an important clinical perspective, and the division of dermatology at the University of Washington's Department of Medicine, which brings expertise in the biology of wound healing to the project.

The NIH grant will represent the largest single medical research project at the center.

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Montana State University reached $103 million in research expenditures for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2006, creating a new record for the university. These expenditures indicate a campus's volume of research by tracking what faculty, students and staff actually spend from their grants. Last year's research expenditures totaled $98.4 million. Federal funding accounts for 87 percent of this year's total. The largest source of MSU research dollars is the Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the National Institutes of Health. Other major funders are the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

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The nation’s largest private supporter of science education, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, has awarded a $1.5 million grant to The University of Montana. The funding will go toward revamping the undergraduate curriculum in UM’s Division of Biological Sciences with additional math, computer science, “hands-on” experiential learning and components of communication studies and ethics, as well as providing resources to enable faculty members to design and participate in this new, innovative curriculum.

In addition, the funding will allow undergraduates with little or no research experience to work in laboratories alongside doctoral students, post-docs and faculty members “to learn how scientific research works in the real world.” Undergraduates also will be able to write proposals for their own independent research projects. They then will be required to present their work to the public in some form to gain experience in communication and outreach.

The Hughes grant will complement two other programs already in place at UM. The Montana – Ecology of Infectious Diseases program, funded by the National Science Foundation, supports training for University doctoral students. The Ecologists, Educators and Schools program allows UM graduate students to work with K-12 teachers to develop science exercises for kids. These three programs will be overseen by the new Office for Research and Educational Opportunities for Students, located in UM’s Division of Biological Sciences. The office will provide centralized organization and management of education and research training programs, as well as more efficiency and higher visibility to students.

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Montana BioScience Alliance update from the Executive Director:
On July 18, Montana BioScience Alliance held a roundtable at St. Patrick’s Hospital in Missoula. Dave Poulsen of the Montana Neuroscience Institute and the University of Montana gave an interesting presentation on his research and start-up company.

Thanks to Tim Descamps for making the arrangements for the meeting and the opportunity for the Montana BioScience Alliance to have a table at the Rocky Mountain Valve Symposium.

On August 23 and 24, the Montana BioScience Alliance had a strong presence at BioWest in Denver. BioWest is billed as the Rocky Mountain Region’s Premier Annual BioScience Conference and Expo. The Montana BioScience Alliance had a booth with copies of the directory and information from many of our member companies and organizations. Two technology posters were on display in the booth and at the Technology Transfer Poster Reception. The posters were: Development of a Novel Tissue Valve for Percutaneous Replacement of Diseased Aortic, Pulmonary and Vein Valves from the International Heart Institute, Missoula, Montana and a Technology Transfer poster from Montana State University. LigoCyte Pharmaceuticals of Bozeman, Montana presented during the Venture Showcase. As always, there was strong interest in Montana Research and Development opportunities.

Special thanks to John Verzuh of Computer Compliance, Bozeman and Tom Brown of Genectar, Whitefish for spending hours in the booth talking up Montana opportunities. John Verzuh also brought a booth from Computer Compliance, which really made our display.

In an effort to increase private equity investing in rural markets and to facilitate valuable introductions on behalf of both entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, TechRanch hosted the Big Sky Venture Capital Conference on August 24 and 25 in Big Sky.

The Conference featured 34 presenting companies including the following 13 from Montana: Bacterin International (Belgrade), Commercial Energy (CutBank), Connexa Softools (Bozeman), Dobeck Performance (Belgrade), Drake Water Technologies (Helena), Ideal Bite (Bozeman), Ligocyte Pharmaceuticals (Bozeman), Microbion Biosciences (Bozeman), Rocky Mountain Biologicals (Missoula), Sustainable Systems (Missoula), TransAria (Bozeman), US MedTrans (Helena), and Zdye (Bozeman).

The Conference agenda included an impressive list of speakers. Keynote speakers included Montana State University President Dr. Geoff Gamble and Founder of Right Now Technologies (NASDAQ: RNOW) Greg Gianforte. Jonathan Weber, former editor of the Industry Standard and Editor and Chief of New West, moderated a panel on venture capital in rural markets. Panelists included USVP General Partner Paul Matteucci; Stephane Dupont, Executive Vice President, National Venture Capital Association; Jeffrey Schutz, Managing Director, Centennial Ventures; Trevor Loy, Managing Partner, Flywheel Ventures; Mark Solon, Managing Partner, Highway 12 Ventures; and Kevin Barber, Partner, NWVA. Other speakers included TechRanch Executive Director John O’Donnell; Bob Grady, Managing Partner, Carlyle Group; Jamie Montgomery, Founder and CEO, Montgomery & Co.; Terry Moore, Chairman, Montana Board of Investments; and Carroll South, Executive Director, Montana Board of Investors.

More than 80 investors attended the event.

Additional information on the conference, its speakers, and the presenting companies can be found at www.bigskyventurecapital.com.

 

	Ideas Montana Medicine

The Montana BioScience Alliance roundtable will meet during breakout session at Ideas Montana Medicine at 2:45 pm on October 5th. We look forward to seeing you there.

The 2nd Annual Ideas Montana Medicine Conference will take place Thursday, October 5, 2006, from 12:15 to 12:45 pm at the St. Vincent Healthcare Mansfield Health Education Center. The focus of the conference will be successful research in Montana, funding of research, and the role of technology.

Mary Schweitzer, PhD, will give participants an inside look at her groundbreaking research of dinosaur DNA as the keynote lunch speaker. Schweitzer’s presentation, Tyrannosaurus Rex: A New Look at an Old Dinosaur, will focus on her discovery of soft tissue in the bones of a 68-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus Rex found near Jordan, Montana in March of 2005.

The conference is a gathering of researchers, biotechnology industry leaders, community leaders and entrepreneurs who share a common bond in the support of medical research and technology as a growing industry in Montana.
Event organizers are Northwest Research & Education Institute, United States Senator Max Baucus, St. Vincent Healthcare, Montana BioScience Alliance, Big Sky Economic Development Authority, and Montana State University Billings.

The conference is open to the public. The registration fee is $50 To register, or for more information, please call Helen Olness at 406.237.5300, or visit www.nwrei.org.

 

October 3-4, 2006
BIO Human Resources Conference 2006
Las Vegas, NV
For more information:www.bio.org/hr

October 18-19, 2006
BIO InvestorForum 2006
San Francisco, CA
For more information, visit the BIO website.

March 20-21, 2007
Invest Northwest® CEO and Investor Forum
Seattle, Washington
For more information, call the Washington Biotechnology & Biomedical Association at: 206.624.1967

May 6-9, 2007
BIO International Convention
Boston, MA