March 2010

The Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute provides this news brief for civic, corporate, political and scientific leaders to update you on the progress of the life sciences initiative in the Kansas City area. To unsubscribe, please contact Sharon Newman at 816-753-7700.

KCALSI announces new chairman and two Directors

KCALSI adds two new board members

MRI wins 5-year research contract

New hospital consent forms pioneered
at Saint Luke’s Hospital go nationwide

K-State professor discovers link between
oxygen levels and cancer

Burns & McDonnell donates $1 million
to KU’s Cancer Center

KCALSI’s Keith Gary appointed to
Workforce Investment Board

KBA approves $1.7M for construction, employment

KU Hospital expands building project

Teva gets Ratiopharm for $5 billion

International venture capital firm to set up office in KC

MidPoint Food & Ag Fund meets KBA milestone

New low-cost solar cells by 2012?

MU Establishes “Missouri Innovation Park”
in Blue Springs

KCALSI announces new Chairman

Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute announced Dr. L Patrick James of Quest Diagnostics as its new chairman of the board in March. Dr. James will succeed Irvine Hockaday Jr. who has served as chairman for the last five years. Dr. James expertise closely aligns with the region’s push to become a pharmaceutical research-and-development hub. More info

KCALSI adds two new board members

KCALSI added two new directors - Fred J. Logan, Jr., a partner with Logan Logan & Watson, L.C. law firm in Prairie Village and Dr. Stephen L. Reintjes is a neurosurgeon and the managing member of the Kansas City Neurosurgery Group, part of the Saint Luke’s Hospital Brain and Stroke Institute. More info

View a complete list of the KCALSI Board of Directors

MRI wins 5-year research contract

The U.S. Department of Defense awarded Midwest Research Institute a 5-year contract to provide chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive support services. MRI's contract is one of multiple awards made with an aggregate value of $485 million. More info

New hospital consent forms pioneered at Saint Luke’s Hospital go nationwide

Dr. John Spertus, a Saint Luke’s Hospital researcher, has designed a new consent form for heart patients that has clear, illustrated explanations of a common procedure called angioplasty (a treatment for patients with blockages in the coronary arteries supplying blood to the heart muscle), and individualized estimates of each patient’s risks and benefits from treatment. This form gives patients and doctors information they can use to weigh treatment options. Dr. Spertus has started his own company, Health Outcomes Sciences, to spread the consent forms to other hospitals and develop new ones. More info

K-State professor discovers link between
oxygen levels and cancer

Dolores Takemoto, a Kansas State University professor of biochemistry has found a correlation between the protein Coonexin46 and hypoxia. This discovery could lead to serious advancements in treating retinoblastoma cancers of the breast and colon. More info

Burns & McDonnell donates $1 million
to KU’s Cancer Center

Kansas City engineering, architecture and consulting firm, Burns & McDonnell, donated $1 million to establish a clinical high-risk prostate cancer prevention program at the University of Kansas. The firm hopes its donation will inspire others like it. The KU Cancer Center now has raised $38 million toward its $92 million goal it hopes to achieve before applying for National Cancer Institute designation in September 2011. More info

KCALSI’s Keith Gary appointed to
Workforce Investment Board

Missouri Governor, Jay Nixon, has appointed Dr. Keith Gary, Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute’s director of program development, to the Missouri Workforce Investment Board. The board serves as an advisory council to the Governor and the Division of Workforce Development on employment and training needs of Missouri businesses. Dr. Gary is appointed for a term ending March 2013. More info

KBA approves $1.7M for construction and new jobs

The Kansas Biosciences Authority approved a total of about $1.7 million in investments to help local entities with construction projects and personnel. Among those receiving aid include: Ceva Biomune and SAFC Biosciences of Lenexa, Kan., and the University of Kansas. More info

KU Hospital expands building project

The University of Kansas Hospital has decided to add another 26,000 square feet to its medical office building currently under construction. The $12 million addition will accommodate the hospital’s orthopedic surgery practice. The overall building project now stands at $85 million and roughly 209,000 square feet. More info

Teva gets Ratiopharm for $5 billion

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. purchased Ratiopharm, Germany’s second-biggest maker of generic medicines, in March after a nine-month battle with Pfizer Inc. The acquisition is Teva’s biggest since 2008. More info

International venture capital firm to set up office in KC

MPM Capital, a leading international life sciences venture capital firm, will open a new office in Kansas City, Kan. later this year. The firm will renovate the former Ronald McDonald House near The University of Kansas to provide offices for life sciences startups. MPM’s core markets are human biopharmaceuticals and medical devices. The Kansas Biosciences Authority hopes it will encourage migration from other funds as well. More info

MidPoint Food & Ag Fund meets KBA milestone

Last October the Kansas Biosciences Authority launched a $50 million program to lure more investments to the state’s life sciences industry. This past month MidPoint Food & Ag Fund, one of the eight firms selected by the program, announced it had raised more than the $25 million required by the KBA program to receive funding. More info

New low-cost solar cells by 2012?

Kansas City’s Midwest Research Institute is one of two groups that manage the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado. Last year, the NREL entered an agreement with RF Micro Devices to research ways to produce high performance solar cells in commercially viable volumes. This past month RF Micro announced it had created the industry’s first photovoltaic cell using high-volume, six-inch gallium arsenide. If testing continues to go as hoped, RF Micro expects to produce photovoltaic cells in high volumes as soon as 2012. More info

MU Establishes “Missouri Innovation Park”
in Blue Springs

University of Missouri has signed a lease agreement with the Blue Springs Economic Development Corporation and the city of Blue Springs to occupy space in the Heartland Building, located adjacent to I-70 on NE Coronado Drive in Blue Springs, Mo. The “Missouri Innovation Park” will enable MU researchers collaborate with scientific and commercial businesses in the research and private industrial Kansas City area communities. More info