changing the course of stroke - New Jersey Medical School ...

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New Company Launched
UNE 25, 2002
MARKED A MILE-
STONE for UMDNJ’s
technology transfer office
when BioDelivery Sciences
International, Inc. went public
using stock ticker BDSI
(NASDAQ). It is the
University’s first spin-off company
to go public. Raphael
Mannino, PhD, and Susan
Gould-Fogerite, PhD, both
associate professors of molecu-
6
J
PULSE SPRING 2003
lar biology at NJMS, are the
company’s founders.
Mannino is executive vice
president and chief scientific
officer of BDSI, and serves on
its board of directors. He is a
world leader in cochleate
technology and an expert in
applying artificial lipid-based
delivery systems to problems
in biotechnology, including
drug delivery, vaccine design
and gene therapy applications.
Cardiac Surgery
At UH Takes
Leap Forward
NJMS AND UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL (UH)
Gould-Fogerite, co-developer
of the cochleate technology,
is vice president of innovation/discovery
research at
BDSI and serves on its board.
The groundbreaking cochleate
technology was developed
by the partners while at
Albany Medical College and
NJMS and is licensed exclusively
to BioDelivery Sciences
International. Cochleate delivery
vehicles (Bioral TM ) repre-
have launched a state-of-the-art cardiac surgery
program through a new partnership with
Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center (CPMC). Columbia’s
cardiac surgery program is currently ranked as one of the best
in the U.S. Columbia surgeons performed the nation’s first robotically-assisted
atrial septal defect repair without a chest incision, and
CPMC is also the national training center for two of the three existing FDA trials of robotic cardiac
surgery. Its work in the use of LVAD (left ventricular assist device) has helped thousands of
patients with end-term heart failure. These and other innovations will now be available at UH.
Several Columbia faculty members have assumed leadership positions in the new program.
They include Barry Esrig, MD, chief of the division of cardiothoracic surgery at UH and Douglas
Jackson, MD, vice chair of critical care, anesthesiology, and director of the new Cardiothoracic
Surgery Intensive Care Unit (currently under construction). They join Michael Banker, MD,
director of cardiac surgery at UH. Administration of the new division will be provided by Eric
Rose, MD, chair of the department of surgery at Columbia.
Says NJMS Dean Russell T. Joffe, MD: “This affiliation provides enormous opportunity for
NJMS as well as University Hospital. The combination of the best of both schools allows us to
move quickly in broadening our clinical, education and research capabilities in the entire range
of the cardiac sciences.” ●
sent a new technology platform
for oral and systemic
delivery of molecules with
important therapeutic biological
activities.
They are stable phospholipid-divalent
cation precipitates
composed of simple,
naturally occurring materials.
Their unique multi-layer
structure is a large, continuous,
solid lipid bi-layer sheet
rolled up in a spiral, with no
internal aqueous space.
Therefore, the interior of the
cochleates is essentially free
of water and resistant to penetration
by oxygen. The structure
remains intact, even
though its outer layers may be
exposed to harsh environmental
conditions or enzymes.
This includes protection from
digestion in the stomach.
The partners hold nine
U.S. patents, two Australian,
and one issued in the major
European countries. ●
Susan Gould-Fogerite, PhD, and
Raphael Mannino, PhD
TOP: GETTY IMAGES; BOTTOM: PETER BYRON