At 03:22 AM 1/9/2005, you wrote: >FROM: Medical Letter on the CDC & FDA > January 9, 2005 > >SECTION: EXPANDED REPORTING; Pg. 94 > >HEADLINE: PARKINSON DISEASE; >Biotech firm gets NIH grant to study environmental causes of Parkinson >disease > > RxGen, Inc., a private biotechnology company, announced that the >National >Institutes of Health (NIH) has funded phase 1 of the company's Fast Track >SBIR >grant for $1.1 million to uncover genomic markers of Parkinson disease. > > RxGen is using genomics and bioinformatics technologies and knowledge >of >primate models of Parkinson disease to profile in vivo brain RNA >expression >patterns following exposure to compounds known to cause the neuronal >injury and >dopamine depletion associated with Parkinson disease. > > RxGen's plans to profile toxins such as rotenone, >tetrahydroisoquinolone, Has anyone studied thre effects of the usages >OF DDT >ithiocarbamate, and Paraquat, which have been implicated as possible >environmental causes of Parkinson disease. This grant will enable RxGen >to >examine critical pathways of injury and neuroprotection specific to >dopaminergic >neurons, which may set the stage for developing therapeutic >interventions. > > The NIH SBIR funding will help RxGen advance its internal research >and >development programs associated with predictive toxicology and central >nervous >system drug discovery. RxGen's predictive toxicology technology program, >PrimaTox, was recently funded by the NIH through a separate Fast Track >SBIR >award of $1.4 million. > > RxGen has access to a primate facility with 27 years of experience in >research pertaining to Parkinson disease and other neurodegenerative >conditions >and related therapeutic strategies. > > RxGen, Inc. is focused on the development of therapeutics for >neurodegeneration, memory loss, obesity and other central nervous system >disorders using animal models of human disease and leading genomics and >bioinformatics. > > This article was prepared by Medical Letter on the CDC & FDA >editors from >staff and other reports. Copyright 2005, Medical Letter on the CDC & >FDA via >NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net. > >---------------------------------------------------------------------- >To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] >In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn