UCSB team to work with Pfizer
STEVE SINOVIC, NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
April 29, 2008 12:00 AM
A research team at UC Santa Barbara will do
"crucial analysis" over the next three years with a major
pharmaceutical company and three other universities to develop new
drugs to treat diabetes. The disease affects an estimated seven percent
of the U.S. population, including 2 million Californians and 14,000
individuals in Santa Barbara County.
About
125 people filled the lecture hall in the Marine Science Institute on
the UCSB campus to mark the launch of the $14 million Insulin
Resistance Pathway Project, funded by drug maker Pfizer. The effort
teams scientists from UCSB's Institute for Collaborative
Biotechnologies; Caltech; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology;
and the University of Massachusetts. Also taking part is a Bay Area
company called Entelos.
UCSB's portion of the
research grant is about $2 million. The work will result in the hiring
of about six doctorate researchers in the area of computational
biology. Additional funding is eyed in a second phase of data
gathering, research and development of drugs to more effectively treat
the medical disorder.
Locally, the work will
be led by Frank Doyle, professor of chemical engineering and associate
director of the Institute. The team, which will be housed at UCSB's
College of Engineering, "will be doing crucial analysis" to identify
targets for therapeutic action.
"The IRP
Project is a new paradigm in two respects," noted Dr. Doyle. "First, it
is a departure in the way fundamental research in human disease has
been done and then applied to the development of new therapies. Second,
the consortium also represents a sea change in how industry and
academia collaborate in research and product development in the
pharmaceutical area."
Preston Hensley, a
senior director for Pfizer, said the academic institutions will own the
intellectual property resulting from the research. Pfizer will take the
products of that research to develop drugs for those who are insulin
resistant -- an estimated 60 percent of patients who do not adequately
respond to currently available drug therapies.
The
collaboration was hailed by the top executive of the Sansum Diabetes
Research Institute, who sees clients benefiting from the project,
particularly in the area of clinical trials.
"Using
(high speed) computer technology to see where the roadblocks are in
treating insulin-resistant diabetics is an exciting proposition," said
Dr. Lois Jovanovic, chief executive officer of SRDI. "The Holy Grail is
searching in the cells for what's causing the resistance," said Dr.
Jovanovic. She said many people suffering from Type 2 diabetes have to
take other medication -- along with insulin -- in order to function.
"It's
a complicated disease. There's not just one defect," said Dr.
Jovanovic. She's hopeful the collaboration will include future clinical
trials for Sansum clients once new therapies are discovered.
Diabetes
is a disorder that affects the way the body uses food for energy. The
fifth leading cause of death by disease in the U.S., diabetes also
contributes to higher rates of morbidity -- people with diabetes are at
higher risk for heart disease, blindness, kidney failure, extremity
amputations, and other chronic conditions, according to the American
Diabetes Association. Direct medical and indirect expenditures in the
U.S. attributable to diabetes in 2003 were estimated at $132 billion,
according to the ADA.
e-mail: ssinovic@newspress.com
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