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Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals Health System |
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CCIR News
from The Plain Dealer Medical Picture Gets Clearer Friday, August 19, 2005 Roger Mezger
Plain Dealer Reporter Drug and medical-device companies will benefit from some powerful new research tools that will be up and running in Cleveland by the end of September. Three bio-imaging instruments being installed at University Hospitals of Cleveland will add to the region's emerging status as a leading medical imaging center. They will help researchers peek inside cells, lab mice and humans to devise new ways to treat diseases and other ailments. The German-built devices, with a combined price tag of $7.2 million, belong to the Case Center for Imaging Research, a partnership between UH and the Case Western Reserve University medical school. The center, still under construction, will occupy 9,000 square feet of former storage space in a basement of University Hospitals. "This is really going to be a dynamite center," says Jim Scozzie, senior vice president of BioEnterprise Corp., the regional bioscience industry booster. Two of the scanners are designed to provide a detailed look at disease processes and implants inside live laboratory mice and rats. The third will be used to study brain function in humans, including causes of and treatments for drug addiction, Alzheimer's and dyslexia. Although academic researchers will be the primary users of the equipment, "we're trying to make it very accessible to outside companies," says Chris Flask, scientific director of animal imaging at the center. He expects some of the big drug and medical-device companies to be interested, as well as smaller local companies. Arteriocyte Inc. of Cleveland already has looked into doing some work at the center, says Don Brown, chief executive. The year-and-a-half-old company is developing a stem cell treatment intended to trigger new blood vessel growth in heart disease patients. Drugs or other treatments entering the bloodstream aim for specific targets in the body. Some can go off course, however, and wind up in other places. That's called biodistribution. Federal regulators want to know where substances go and what they do before allowing companies to sell their products. The standard way of studying biodistribution in lab animals requires killing and dissecting them, then looking at slides on a microscope. But with the center's imaging capability, the same live mouse or rat can be scanned at regular intervals to track the effects of stem cells or drugs. "You can get far greater amounts of data on far fewer animal subjects than you could in the past," Brown said. "And that's where the real cost benefit of this type of a technique brings value." Athersys Inc. of Cleveland is working on stem cell treatments for heart disease, stroke, tumors, diabetes and other conditions. The company also is developing drugs for cognitive disorders, asthma and obesity. Gil Van Bokkelen, chairman and chief executive, says he can see several ways his company might work with the imaging center. Advanced imaging systems are increasingly important in drug development, Van Bokkelen says. Having more-precise information about where stem cells or drugs go after they are injected into lab animals can lead to a better understanding of how to maximize their therapeutic benefits. Auburn Pharmaceuticals Inc., spun off last year by Ricerca Biosciences LLC of Concord Township, is another potential client of the imaging center. The company is testing an anti-cancer compound that makes some tumors more susceptible to radiation treatment. The Case center's new equipment might be helpful in some experiments, says Vince Zurawski, Auburn's president and chief executive. However, the company will decide on a case-by-case basis whether using the imaging center is the best option. The imaging center's range of capabilities puts it in a class with few rivals. "I wouldn't say anybody has anything superior," says Case's Flask. "It puts Case on a map with a lot of very big institutions right away." The imaging center will fill at least a half-dozen new staff jobs immediately, he said. Over the next couple of years, the center should attract about a dozen faculty members, along with their staffs, to Case. The new equipment also adds to the region's growing collection of sophisticated imaging equipment available to researchers. The Cleveland Center for Structural Biology, a cooperative venture of Case, UH, the Cleveland Clinic and Cleveland State University, already operates several powerful scanners. To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: rmezger@plaind.com, 216-999-4446
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