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bianca dellepiane
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- About me. Please write a brief description about yourself as many members will visit your personal page as you join, adding a profile picture is essential too so you can be featured *
- I am from Genoa, Italy, I lived in Venezuela and I came to Los Angeles at the end of the Eighties. I got an MBA from the University of Southern California then I worked for the County of Los Angeles in a program to promote internationalization within NAFTA and after that I worked for the Italian Trade Commission in Los Angeles as a trade officer.
In 2000 I opened an international business consulting agency "Promest USA" that combines content-based research with consulting expertise to assist foreign firms to export, collaborate or establish their subsidiaries in California. Promest USA also assist government agencies and other organizations to promote FDI's, create international training programs and facilitate scientific and business collaborations with the US.
In 2007, along with some friends, we decided to form the non-profit business association "Bridges to Italy" to operate for the benefit of scientific discovery and commercialization and international business education within the fields of innovation.
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- Advancing programs to improve Italy-USA scientific and business relations.
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University of Parma Researchers Lead International Team for Sequencing of B. Dentium
Bifidobacteria, one of the relatively dominant components of the human intestinal microbiota, are considered one of the key groups of beneficial intestinal bacteria (probiotic bacteria). However, in addition to health-promoting taxa, the genus Bifidobacterium also includes… Continue Posted on January 4, 2010 at 6:00pm —
Learn Anatomy with Hello Kitty!
Three prominent brands in today’s fashion and streetwear world, Dr. Romanelli, Hello Kitty, and MEDICOM TOY CO., have come together to release three vinyl figures in addition to an apparel capsule collection. Dr. Romanelli will work with Sanrio on three separate Hello Kitty figures that will be… Continue Posted on December 30, 2009 at 2:30pm —
THE US AWARDS ITALIAN RESEARCHER ON EPILEPSY STUDIES
Italian researcher Annamaria Vezzani (in the photo) - Director of Neurology at the Neurosciences Department of the Mario Negri Institute in Milan, has been awarded the prestigious Epilepsy Research Recognition Award - Basic Science Investigator, from the American Epilepsy Society. The award was given to her for the "studies on the role o… Continue Posted on December 24, 2009 at 1:48pm —
IL CARNEVALE DELLA FISICA
The Carnival of Physics has been launched this week by our Media Partners GRAVITA' ZERO along with the Spanish Gravedad Cero.
This ini… Continue
Posted on December 24, 2009 at 1:21pm —
Newron Raises 7.9m Swiss Francs in a Private Placement to International Institutional Investors
The subscription price was set at 18.00 Swiss Francs per share, represen… Continue
Posted on December 18, 2009 at 3:19pm —
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Below is the brief summary for my company. Feel free to forward it to your contacts.
Best regards,
Igor
Company: Alpha Cancer Technologies Inc. (ACT)
Address: 105 Hillmount Ave., Toronto, Ontario, Canada M6B 1X5
Contact: Igor A. Sherman, isherman@alpha-cancer.com, tel: 1-416-826-6626
Company Details: Year started: 2008; Current employees: 1
Management Team: Management team is comprised of Igor Sherman, Ph.D., CEO (Igor is formerly, Scientific Director Oncology, AstraZeneca and Director, Clinical Research, YM BioSciences Inc.), David Kennard, MRPharmS, MBA, PhD. (David is formerly, Founder and Principal of CRES Pharmaceuticals Ltd; Chief Operating Officer, SR Pharma plc now Silence Therapeutics plc and has extensive experience in managing and growing start-ups), Jennifer Seibert, M.Sc. (formerly manager of a portfolio of intellectual property assets for the University of Michigan). Team members have broad expertise in drugs, antibodies, oncology, cancer therapy, pharmacology, toxicology and business development and over 20 years experience developing cancer drugs and dealing with regulatory agencies, including FDA, EMEA, and Health Canada. This is a knowledgeable, aggressive team with “get results” philosophy.
Description/Company Overview: ACT is a biotechnology company developing products based on the unique targeting platform - alpha fetoprotein (AFP) conjugated cytotoxins. These products have the potential to improve cancer therapy for majority of patients by providing superior efficacy and much better safety and tolerability than currently used therapies. ACT believes that it is developing a disruptive technology that will displace most chemotherapy products for the majority of cancer patients – a multi-billion dollar market
Market Opportunity/ Customer Need: ACT products target tumours expressing AFP receptors. Over 80% of liver, prostate, breast, ovarian, pancreatic, stomach, colorectal, and germ cell tumors and some leukemias express AFP receptors. The size of the potential market is in excess of several billion dollars. Furthermore, AFP-conjugated toxins have been shown to overcome multi-drug resistance mechanism and can therefore be used to effectively treat patients that failed previous chemotherapy. These products clearly address an unmet need in cancer therapy and, if approved, will become a new standard of care.
Technology Solution: The technology is covered by several international issued patents (US, Canada, Europe, Japan, China) and a number of pending patents as well as by the extensive know-how. Patents cover the use of recombinant AFP-toxin conjugate for the treatment of cancer, methods of production of recombinant AFP and specific molecular structure of non-glycosylated AFP. The technology has been in-licensed from Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, pharmaceutical company based in Cambridge, MA.
Why is it better than what exists? Alpha fetoprotein (AFP) has the potential to be a class leading targeting agent because of its unique properties. AFP addresses all key hurdles that have limited full exploitation of the targeting concept: 1) AFP receptor has a uniquely optimal pattern of expression - high levels present on almost all cancers, near absence on most normal cells; 2) AFP is non-immunogenic since it is a normal human protein to which every human is exposed in utero, eliminating the risk of anaphylaxis and production of neutralizing antibodies; 3) AFP is taken up by cancer cells expressing the receptor and its uptake circumvents membrane pumps which are the most frequent reason for resistance to chemotherapy; 4) the AFP molecule has at least five potential binding sites for cytotoxins which will cut the amount of protein required (reducing cost and dosing volumes) and allow the use of conventional chemotherapies instead of potentially more dangerous very potent toxins such as ricin.
Current stage of development including risks already reduced.
ACT is a start-up, however many of the risks typical for start-ups are greatly reduced or mitigated.
In vitro proof of efficacy and ability to target chemotherapy-resistance tumours were shown.
Efficacy in animal xenograft model (mouse) demonstrated.
Manufacturing is currently done in an FDA approved facility and the recombinant human AFP has already undergone extensive clinical testing in humans.
In clinical tests recombinant human AFP was shown to be as safe as placebo.
Diagnostic test to select patients with tumours expressing AFP receptor is available and was shown to have over 95% specificity and sensitivity with zero false positive results (confirming absence of the receptor in normal tissues).
The use of a protein produced in a GMP facility conjugated with a generic chemotherapy drug reduces the risk of manufacturing issues which are usually significant for biologics.
Well understood mechanism of action and ability to target malignant cell using the mechanism that plays an important role in supplying nutrients to cancer cells reduces risk of failure due to lack of efficacy.
Furthermore, step-by-step clearly defined path to clinic provides for early readouts of efficacy data limiting risk of failure at a later stage. Ability to selectively target cancer cells results in significant reduction of the amount of cytotoxic drug needed for efficacy and a much wider therapeutic window than with standard cytotoxics. It is expected that effective treatment dose will contain 10 to 100 times lower amount of the cytotoxic drug than is currently used in clinical practice. This significantly reduces the risk of failure due to toxicity or due to an unexpected side effect.
Product Pipeline: Several conjugates of AFP and generic cytotoxics, including doxorubicin, paclitaxel, 5-FU, methotrexate, will be synthesized. These will be tested against a panel of cancer cells and 2 or 3 lead clinical candidates will be selected for further development based on in vitro efficacy and stability of the conjugates.
Current Alliances/Partnerships: N/A
Validation: In vitro proof of efficacy and ability to target chemotherapy-resistance tumours is available. Efficacy in animal xenograft model (mouse) shown. Recombinant human AFP has been tested in humans and was shown to be safe. Diagnostic test based on monoclonal antibody to AFP receptor demonstrated its presence on every cancer tissue studied to date, including : breast, lung, gastric, prostate, and leukemia. Zero false positive results for the test confirms the absence of AFP receptor on normal tissues.
Potential Risks and strategies to address these risks. One potential risk is that the conjugate will not be sufficiently stable in blood and some of the toxin will come off in circulation. To reduce this risk several linkers will be used at the initial synthesis stage and tested for stability in the whole blood. An alternative strategy may involve in-licensing of validated linkers from either Syntarga or Genentech. Both of these companies have linkers that have been tested and shown to be stable in blood while effectively unloading the toxin inside the cancer cells. Another possible risk is the toxicity due to presence of AFP receptors on normal cells. Literature review indicates that these receptors are not present on most normal cells including intestinal mucosa. However, presence of AFP receptors has been documented in peripheral mononuclear cells, certain testicular and ovarian cells and on hepatocytes of cirrhotic livers. Nevertheless, receptor density on those tissues is at least 1 or 2 orders of magnitude lower than on cancer cells, thus providing a reasonable therapeutic window. Ultimately, it is possible that patients who want to preserve their reproductive potential will need to consider cell banking to preserve viable sperm of eggs for the future. Planned clinical strategy will specifically address these issues.
My daughter was born in Rome at Ospetale Santa Bianka - an amaizing place with truly caring staff. Unfortunately her Italian is very rudimentary, we left Italy when she was 3 months old. But we have been coming back almost every year. This September my wife and I are going to Rome and then to Amlafi coast and Ischia.
Would have been great if I can meet with one or two Italian biotech companies interested in novel cancer treatments. My company is developing an innoveting targeted cancer therapies that could potentially cure most cancers with minimal side effects. The company is still in preclinical stage and I am looking for collaborators and possible investors. Any advice would be appreciated.
All the best,
Igor
si so dei lavori che stanno facendo in calabria ed ho anche avuto, un pò di anni fa, la fortuna di conoscere il Prof. Drioli che li dirige, ma che allora era all'Università di Napoli, all'epoca quando l'Istituto Donegani era ancora il Centro di Ricerca dell'ENI (mi sembra di ricordare).
Mi muovo in questo settore infatti, dal 1982 ed ho avuto importantissimi contatti ed occasioni, ma essendo al sud del sud e non avendo grandi capacità d'investimento, sono sempre rimasto relegato nel ruolo del piccolo "praticone". Ho cercato di mettere a frutto quello che ho potuto apprendere avviando, nel mio piccolo, la costrzione di uno speciale dissalatore agricolo e di questo ormai ne ho realizzati oltre 50 nella mia zona che è particolarmente interessata a problemi di siccità, di salinizzazione dei suoli e desertificazione.
La conoscenza che ho acquisito negli anni, della specifica tecnologia di dissalazione, mi permetterebbe oggi di apportare una serie di innovazioni migliorative al lay-out del mio dissalatore agricolo che risolverebbero problemi di tipo ambientale e ridurrebbero il fabbisogno energetico di tale impianto di almeno il 25-30%, ma per adesso non se ne parla proprio.
Scusami se ti posto in italiano, il mio inglese non è certo madrelingua!!!
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