June 2003

Agency News
GOVERNOR, MAYOR: PFIZER CREATING 2,000 NEW JOBS FOR NYC ECONOMY
Company to Invest $1 Billion in NY Over Next 15 Years; Entire Workforce Retained

Governor George E. Pataki and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced that Pfizer Inc. has chosen New York City for a business consolidation and expansion project that will create 2,000 new jobs for the city economy and retain the 5,500 workers it currently employs in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

The world’s largest pharmaceutical company will invest up to $560 million to purchase and renovate 685 3rd Avenue and other facilities at its 42nd Street corporate headquarters campus. In addition, Pfizer expects to invest a total of $1 billion in New York over the next 15 years. TOP

NEW YORK — Cognia Corporation and the Columbia University Center for Advanced Information Management announced a collaborative effort supported by NYSTAR. The program fosters the continued close collaboration between Cognia's product development team, led by Dr. Brian Osborne, and the laboratory of Dr. Peisen Zhang, a research scientist at the Columbia Genome Center’s Bioinformatics Unit. The collaboration will result in the development of novel data clustering algorithms for the analysis of complex, highly structured biological, chemical, clinical, and medical data within Cognia Molecular(TM). Cognia Molecular(TM) is a precise and sophisticated management system for inputting, organizing, sharing and intelligently analyzing information on proteins, molecular complexes, genes, compounds, and their interactions. TOP

BRONX — Robert R. Alfano, director of the NYSTAR-sponsored Center for Ultrafast Photonic Materials and Applications at the City College of the City University of New York, and Wubao Wang were awarded a patent for a method and system for examining biological materials using low power continuous wave excitation Raman spectroscopy. The patent was assigned to the Research Foundation of the City University of New York. Details TOP

	Nobel Laureate Kurt Wüthrich, Ph.D., of ETH Zurich and the Scripps Institute, lecturing on NMR in structural and functional proteomics at the Future of Structural Biology Conference.

NEW YORK — Under the auspices of the NYSTAR-supported New York Structural Biology Center, and its member institutions, leading investigators gathered in New York on May 7-8 to discuss the future of structural biology at the Future of Structural Biology Conference. Some 400 researchers from the New York area and around the world attended the conference. Among the speakers was 2002 Nobel Laureate Kurt Wutrich from ETH in Zurich and the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. TOP

NEW YORK — The Industrial Technology Assistance Corp. will hold a Technology Transfer Conference on June 5 to present the resources, entrepreneurs, and businesses to accelerate and streamline the conversion from idea to marketable product. The goal of the conference is to help take emerging technology or business to the next level. TOP

High Technology
NEW YORK — It has been known for more than three decades that insulin receptors (proteins on the surface of cells to which insulin binds) are present in the brain, but their role was not known. Now, researchers at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine have discovered a function for the insulin receptor in the brain — it directs cells to the proper positions to create connections for communication. This discovery, reported in the April 18 issue of Science, may help explain insulin's roles in appetite control, learning, and memory. TOP

NEW YORK — What do the brain, ovaries, and nose have in common? According to new research from The Rockefeller University, in female mice these three organs, through the interaction of four genes, help orchestrate the complex behavior called social recognition. The findings, reported in the April 29 issue of PNAS Early Edition, help explain social interactions among female animals and may shed light on social phobias and disorders in humans. See Press Release TOP

	One frame from the movie that captures the final pathway followed by a protein as it exits the body cell that created it.

NEW YORK — For the first time, scientists have viewed — and recorded on camera — the final pathway followed by a protein as it exits the body cell that created it. Once released from a cell, a protein is free to perform its duties as a neurotransmitter, hormone, cell surface receptor, or one of many other functions outside of body cells every second of the day. A stunning movie, produced by a The Rockefeller University research team directed by Sanford Simon, Ph.D., head of the Laboratory of Cellular Biophysics and principal investigator of the study, captures this never-before-seen cellular event. See Press Release TOP

NEW YORK — For the past 50 years, scientists studying the tiny voltage-dependent ion channels that are responsible for all nerve and muscle signals in living organisms have been working like “a bunch of blindfolded art critics.” The Rockefeller University's Roderick MacKinnon, M.D., a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator; Youxing Jiang, Ph.D.; and their colleagues have removed the blindfold to reveal a masterpiece of nature's engineering — a voltage-dependent potassium ion channel with charge-triggered "paddles" responsible for opening and closing a passage for potassium ions to freely move through. Alttag MacKinnon See Press Release TOP

University Patents
BROOKLYN — Mark M. Green and Sung Yun Yang were awarded a patent for hydrogels and methods for their production. The patent was assigned to Polytechnic University. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Leslie S. Prichep was awarded a patent for a fetal brain monitor. The patent was assigned to New York University. Details TOP

NEW YORK — David Stern, Shi Du Yan, Ann Marie Schmidt, and Ira Lamster were awarded a patent for a ligand binding site of the receptor for advanced glycation endproduct (RAGE). The patent was assigned to Columbia University. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Bruce N. Cronstein and Edwin Chan were awarded a patent for Adenosine A2A receptor antagonists for treating and preventing hepatic fibrosis, cirrhosis, and fatty liver. The patent was assigned to New York University. Details TOP

NEW YORK — James S. Im, Robert S. Sposili, and Mark A. Crowder were awarded a patent for methods for producing uniform large-grained and grain boundary location manipulated polycrystalline thin film semiconductors using sequential lateral solidification. The patent was assigned to Columbia University. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Michael E. O’Donnell was awarded a patent for methods for amplifying and sequencing nucleic acid molecules using a three-component polymerase. The patent was assigned to the Cornell Research Foundation, Inc. and The Rockefeller University. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Ann Marie Schmidt and David Stern were awarded a patent for an isolated human EN-RAGE (extracellular newly identified RAGE-binding protein) peptide and method for determining whether a compound is capable of inhibiting the interaction of an EN-RAGE peptide with a RAGE (receptor for advanced glycation end products) peptide. The patent was assigned to Columbia University. Details TOP

NEW YORK — David Reich was awarded a patent for a method and device for preventing contrast solution-associated nephropathy. The patent was assigned to the Mount Sinai School of Medicine of New York University. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Daniel H. Rozin was awarded a patent for a method and apparatus for generating three-dimensional computer representations of objects. The patent was assigned to New York University. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Eric R. Kandel, Bina Santoro, Dusan Bartsch, Steven Siegelbaum, Gareth Tibbs, and Seth Grant were awarded a patent for an isolated nucleic acid molecule encoding a brain cyclic nucleotide gated ion channel (BCNG) protein and its use. The patent was assigned to Columbia University. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Paul B. Fisher was awarded a patent for nucleic acid encoding melanoma differentiation associated gene-9. The patent was assigned to Columbia University. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Jackson D. Coleman, Katherine W. Ferrara, Dustin E. Kruse, and Ronald H. Silverman were awarded a patent for a method and apparatus for assessing blood flow in tissue. The patent was assigned to the Cornell Research Foundation, Inc. and the University of Virginia Patent Foundation. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Samuel J. Danishefsky, Kenneth A. Savin, and Jonathan C. G. Woo were awarded a patent for a method for the modification of alcohols on polymer supports. The patent was assigned to the Sloan Kettering Institute for Cancer Research. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Stewart Shuman was awarded a patent for a method for molecular cloning and polynucleotide synthesis using a modified vaccinia DNA topoisomerase enzyme. The patent was assigned to the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Gene R. DiResta and John Henry Healey were awarded a patent for an apparatus, system, and method for reducing interstitial fluid pressure in tissue, particularly tumors, and enhancing delivery of a therapeutic agent. The patent was assigned to the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Arthur J. L. Cooper and John P. Blass were awarded a patent for a method of diagnosing (CAG)/Q expansion disorders in individuals. The patent was assigned to the Cornell Research Foundation, Inc. Details TOP

Grants and Donations
National Science Foundation Awards
NEW YORK — James R. Cochran of Columbia University was awarded a $96,673 NSF grant for continued mining of SCICEX (SCience ICe EXercise) geophysical data from the Arctic Ocean to address important questions related to the origin, structure, and development of the Amerasian Basin. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Eric Vanden Eijnden of New York University is the recipient of a $540,000 NSF CAREER award for research on developing new theoretical tools that will naturally lead to efficient algorithms suited for the numerical investigation of transition pathways required in realistic complex systems. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Carlo Lancellotti of the City University of New York's College of Staten Island was awarded a $72,455 NSF grant for research on N-body aspects in the kinetic theory of plasmas and gravitating systems. Details TOP

NEW YORK — James D. Webster of the American Museum of Natural History was awarded a $104,069 NSF grant for an experimental investigation of the solubilities of the volatiles water, carbon dioxide, sulfur, and chlorine in silicate magmas to determine how magmatic degassing influences explosive volcanic eruptions and the generation of many metallic mineral deposits. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Massimo Porrati, Georgi Dvali, and Alberto Sirlin of New York University were awarded a $115,000 NSF grant to study particle and quantum field theory. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Nicholas E. Geacintov, James W. Canary, and Young-Tae Chang of New York University were awarded a $148,824 NSF grant for the acquisition of an ion-trap mass spectrometer. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Chris H. Wiggins and Ilya M. Nemenman of Columbia University were awarded an $88,359 NSF grant to develop learning theory for genetic network inference. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Mu-Tao Wang of Columbia University was awarded a $116,917 NSF grant to study minimal submanifolds and mean curvature flows in higher codimensions. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Brian McElree of New York University was awarded a $265,559 NSF grant for psycholinguistic research on processes and knowledge structures used in language comprehension. Details TOP

National Institutes of Health Awards
NEW YORK — Alexandre Laudet of the National Development and Research Institutes Inc. was awarded a $554,946 NIH grant for research on predictors of 12-step program affiliation, program effectiveness, and related outcomes. DetailsTOP

NEW YORK — Dalton C. Conley of New York University was awarded a $76,500 NIH grant to research the relationships of parental wealth, race, and child development. Details TOP

NEW YORK — James A. Borowiec of the New York University School of Medicine was awarded a $360,521 NIH grant for acquisition of a Leica TCS SP2 AOBS Spectral Confocal Microscope. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Marylene Cloitre of the New York University School of Medicine was awarded a $210,990 NIH grant to adapt a cognitive-behavioral treatment developed for women with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) related to childhood abuse to treat sexually abused adolescent girls. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Andrew J. Darwin of the New York University School of Medicine was awarded a $270,000 NIH grant to study the extracytoplasmic stress response system encoded by the phage-shock-protein locus (psp) of Yersinia enterocolitica. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Jeffrey S. Friedman of the New York University School of Medicine was awarded a $225,148 NIH grant for detailed characterization of pathology, biochemistry, and protein/gene expression profiles in order to identify key molecular targets affected by the loss of superoxide dismutase 2 (SOD2) and how catalytic antioxidant therapy affects the pathogenetic profiles. Details TOP

NEW YORK — F. Nina Papavasiliou of The Rockefeller University was awarded a $279,508 NIH grant to research development of DNA double strand breaks (DSBs) and the molecular mechanism of the hypermutation reaction. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Charles M. Rice of The Rockefeller University was awarded a $252,188 NIH grant to use small molecules to study the biology of hepatitis C virus replication. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Ralph M. Steinman of The Rockefeller University was awarded a $138,009 NIH grant for acquisition of a FACS (Fluorescence-Activated Cell Sorter) calibur 4 color modular analytical flow cytometer. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Anne Vassalli of The Rockefeller University was awarded a $84,125 NIH grant for research on the mechanisms underlying odorant receptor gene choice and expression. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Eric C. Holland of the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research was awarded a $560,077 NIH grant to evaluate the efficacy of novel experimental therapeutics on genetically engineered mouse models of gliomas using magnetic resonance imaging. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Peter L. Faries of the Weill Medical College of Cornell University was awarded a $127,336 NIH grant to develop practical clinical applications for endovascular treatment of patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Peter D. Balsam of Barnard College was awarded a $288,732 NIH grant to study the relationship between temporal information processing and learning. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Rae Silver of Barnard College was awarded a $163,500 NIH grant to study the involvement of mast cells in immune response in the brain. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Ricardo C. Araneda of Columbia University was awarded an $81,750 NIH grant to study the physiological properties of the principal neurons in the accessory olfactory bulb. Details TOP

NEW YORK — George F. Atweh of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine was awarded a $339,000 NIH grant to study mechanisms of silencing gamma-globin genes, reversal by pharmacological therapies, and potential applications to the treatment of sickle cell disease. Details TOP

NEW YORK — James J. Bieker of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine was awarded a $339,000 NIH grant to identify the repressor responsible for normal silencing of the fetal globin gene and develop a transcriptional reagent able to reactivate this gene in the adult erythroid environment. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Philip D. Harvey of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine was awarded a $378,248 NIH grant to study the course and antecedents of functional decline in geriatric patients with schizophrenia. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Rolf Jessberger of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine was awarded a $296,625 NIH grant for research on the contribution of the protein SWAP-70 to mast cell biology. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Daichi Shimbo of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine was awarded a $154,845 NIH grant to investigate the biological mechanisms underlying the link between hostility and acute coronary syndromes. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Mary M. Sugrue of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine was awarded a $241,538 NIH grant to study the mechanism by which the tumor suppressor gene p53 regulates cell senescence. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Timothy H. Bestor of Columbia University was awarded a $286,130 NIH grant to study the biological functions of Dnmt2 (DNA methyltransferase-2) protein in normal cells and if the Dnmt2 gene is altered in neoplastic diseases of humans. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Steven J. Feinmark of Columbia University was awarded a $408,750 NIH grant to determine the mechanisms causing platelet-activating factor (PAF)-induced arrhythmias and to identify targets for antiarrhythmic therapy. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Mary V. Gamble of Columbia University was awarded a $361,208 NIH grant to research how nutritional regulation of one-carbon metabolism influences the progression from arsenic exposure to toxicity. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Henry N. Ginsberg of Columbia University was awarded a $408,750 NIH grant to study fatty acid regulation of liver lipoprotein assembly and secretion. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Ilan H. Meyer of Columbia University was awarded a $590,997 NIH grant to explore the effects of social stressors affecting minority populations, coping and social support resources, and minority identity characteristics on mental health. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Aaron P. Mitchell of Columbia University was awarded a $240,200 NIH grant to study the mechanisms by which fluconazole resistance arises in Candida albicans. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Paul B. Rothman of Columbia University was awarded a $367,875 NIH grant to study the function of IL-4 cytokines. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Ralf C. Zimmermann of Columbia University was awarded a $248,140 NIH grant to further define the role of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and its receptors VEGF-R1 and VEGF-R2 in cyclic folliculogenesis. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Vimla L. Patel of Columbia University was awarded a $134,443 NIH grant to develop a web-based on-line information and knowledge resource for mental health professionals. Details TOP

NEW YORK — George J. Christ of Yeshiva University was awarded a $1,305,526 NIH grant for research on the differential control of smooth muscle cell tone in physiologically distinct organ systems. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Paula E. Cohen of Yeshiva University was awarded a $300,600 NIH grant to study mammalian DNA repair proteins in meiotic recombination. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Ana M. Cuervo of Yeshiva University was awarded a $381,780 NIH grant for research on the physiological consequences of age-related chaperone mediated autophagy (CMA) reduction and if CMA activity restoration will reverse the abnormalities. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Ales Cvekl of Yeshiva University was awarded a $351,965 NIH grant to identify and characterize the regulatory regions controlling expression of the aA-crystallin protein in the lens epithelium and the lens fiber cells. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Teresa P. DiLorenzo of Yeshiva University was awarded a $293,920 NIH grant to study CD8 + T cells and the pathogenesis and molecular basis of type 1 diabetes. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Mark E. Girvin of Yeshiva University was awarded a $500,000 NIH grant for acquisition of a 600 Mhz nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer. Details TOP

NEW YORK — John M. Greally of Yeshiva University was awarded a $149,524 NIH grant for acquisition of a spectral imaging and fluorescence microscopy system. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Dhananjay K. Kaul of Yeshiva University was awarded a $326,295 NIH grant for research on two potential modulators of microvascular flow and vasoocclusion in sickle cell anemia. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Tamar H. Michaeli of Yeshiva University was awarded a $288,732 NIH grant to study the relationship between the insulin and cAMP signaling pathways and mechanisms underlying diabetogenic, metabolic perturbations in glucose homeostasis. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Moshe J. Sadofsky of Yeshiva University was awarded an $83,500 NIH award to study the function of the RAG1 protein N-terminal domain. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Ratna Sircar of Yeshiva University was awarded a $167,000 NIH grant to investigate the neurobehavioral consequences of juvenile alcohol exposure. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Elyse S. Sussman of Yeshiva University was awarded a $367,731 NIH grant to study the role of nonlinguistic auditory perception in normal speech development. Details TOP

NEW YORK — Jeffrey A. Ketterling of the Riverside Research Institute was awarded a $140,005 NIH grant to develop methods to use high frequency, high-resolution ultrasonic annular-array transducers for near real-time generation of 2-D images of the eye. Details TOP

Small Business Innovation Research/
Small Business Technology Transfer Awards
NEW YORK — Jennifer DiNoia of Intersystems Inc. was awarded a $100,000 NIH SBIR Phase 1 grant to develop and test a computer-mediated food record to measure fruit and vegetable consumption among urban, economically disadvantaged, African American adolescents. Details TOP

Meetings
NEW YORK — The NYSTAR-sponsored Industrial & Technology Assistance Corporation (ITAC) will be holding a Technology Transfer Conference on June 5 at Baruch College Conference Center in Manhattan. TOP

NEW YORK — The New York Venture Summit entitled Uniting: Venture Capital and Innovation will be held at Madison Square Garden in New York City on July 14-15. The conference will bring together venture capitalists, angel investors, executives of early stage and emerging growth companies, officials from incubators, investment bankers, successful entrepreneurs, premier service providers, and industry leaders. TOP