Paul Greengard Discusses Neuroscience and Winning the Nobel Prize

In a recent video from the series Conversations with Giants in Medicine, Nobel Laureate Paul Greengard discusses his work in neuroscience and the Nobel Prize.

In 2000, Greengard was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, along with two other men. His work paved the way for treatments for Parkinson’s disease and other neurological disorders. He established base knowledge for neurotransmitters and slow synaptic transmission that many neuroscientists and neurologists use today.

In the video, Greengard says that he did not get the “bug” of doing scientific research from home because the environment growing up was anti-intellectual. He suspects that going to college was an act of rebellion. Greengard used the G.I. Bill in order to go to college because he served in the military during World War II. He says he studied mathematics and physics. He planned to go to graduate school in order to work in theoretical physics. He states that he changed his mind after the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

He says:

“Almost immediately after the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I felt that [theoretical physics] was not an area that I wanted to be very involved in, just because I thought there were better ways of spending my life than trying to destroy mankind.”

About that time, he learned about the then-nascent field of medical physics, or biophysics, and became interested in studying that. During this time, he says he decided it would be beneficial to learn about the underlying biochemical and molecular properties of nerve cells. He studied at John Hopkins University for his Ph.D before traveling to England and Holland for five years. He worked for nine years at a pharmaceutical company, which shaped the way Greengard did his research.

He explains:

“It gave me an education of the sort that one might’ve gotten in medical school. At the time I was ready to do advanced studies, I decided not to go to medical school because at that time, it was very much of a hands-on profession where the physicians really couldn’t do very much for the patients. They were brilliant clinicians but there were very limited repertoire of tools that they had.”

He says that his key advance to medical science was discovering that the nervous system responded to neurotransmitters the way the endocrine system responded to hormones.

He states:

“People said unkind things [about the discovery]. Like, ‘This is heretical and nonsense.’ The interesting thing about it was that because it was considered so unlikely to be true, I had basically 15 years… to develop this story. By the time people accepted it, my research group had laid a lot of the foundation of the molecular bases for neurotransmission. So we didn’t have this ultra-heavy competition.”

Greengard mentions that in his conversations with other Nobel Prize winners revealed that they, too, contributed an advance that nobody believed at first.

He explains:

“In many instances it was the same thing: They’ve done something very unconventional and nobody believed them for a while, and it was shown to be true. And if you think about it, it’s more or less the only way the thing could work. If you just did something that was very incremental, it wouldn’t be worthy of a Nobel Prize…. Occasionally there are different types of discoveries, but many of the discoveries that have been made were paradigm shifts where somebody did something that people didn’t accept because it was not consistent with a prevailing paradigm.”

CONSULTING FOR STRATEGIC GROWTH ANNOUNCES 2013 "TWO STOCK PICKS"

NEW YORK, January 2, 2012 - Consulting For Strategic Growth 1, Ltd. (CFSG1), an investor relations, corporate development agency specializing in domestic and international companies new to American financial markets, today continues its tradition of naming a "Stock Pick" from selected CFSG1 clients and announced today its first stock picks for 2013. With anticipation of strong positive growth in the coming year, CFSG1 is pleased to name Neostem (NYSE MKT: NBS) and Medifocus, Inc. (TSX-V: MFS, OTC: MDFZF) as its first stock picks for the New Year.   

CSFG1 has represented NeoStem, Inc. in various capacities since 2006 and has seen the Company grow under the leadership of its CEO, Dr. Robin Smith, MD, MBA, from a single focus business to an international biopharmaceutical company with multiple revenue streams. Today, Neostem is a clear leader in the development and manufacture of cell-based therapeutics with continued growth opportunities in the future.   

 

NeoStem Ranked Number 1 Fastest Growing Company in the Tri-State Region on Deloitte's 2012 Technology Fast 500(TM)

NEW YORK, Nov. 15, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NeoStem, Inc. (NYSE MKT: NBS) ("NeoStem" or the "Company"), an emerging market leader in the fast growing cell therapy industry, today announced it ranked number 1 in the Tri-State region and number 7 nationally on Deloitte's 2012 Technology Fast 500(TM), a ranking of the 500 fastest growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and clean technology companies in North America.

Dr. Robin L. Smith, NeoStem's Chairman and CEO, said "We are proud to be recognized for this achievement as we build NeoStem into a top tier biopharmaceutical company and thrilled to be honored alongside such fast-growing, successful companies such as Celgene, LinkedIn, and Google. On behalf of the entire NeoStem team, I would like to thank Deloitte & Touche, LLP for their recognition of our efforts." 

NeoStem is emerging as a market leader in the fast growing cell therapy industry. The Company's multifaceted business strategy combines a state-of-the-art contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) with a medically important cell therapy product development program providing for near- and long-term revenue growth opportunities. We focus on developing cell therapy products around a strong IP portfolio. These products target large markets such as cardiovascular disease, autoimmune disorders and regenerative medicine. 

In a challenging economy with risk adverse capital markets, we have fashioned a management team that is both flexible and opportunistic. PCT, acquired in 2011, expands our revenue growth and gives us unique insight into the clinical and commercial cell therapy manufacturing market while we simultaneously develop our own clinical products. This service business and pipeline of proprietary cell therapy products work in concert, giving us a competitive advantage that we believe is unique to the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. 

NeoStem is focused on organic growth and continuously evaluates strategic opportunities. We look forward to achieving success for our future patients, our PCT clients, employees and shareholders. 

About Deloitte's 2012 Technology Fast 500(TM)

Technology Fast 500, conducted by Deloitte & Touche LLP, provides a ranking of the fastest growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and clean technology companies -- both public and private - in North America. Technology Fast 500 award winners are selected based on percentage fiscal year revenue growth from 2007 to 2011. 

In order to be eligible for Technology Fast 500 recognition, companies must own proprietary intellectual property or technology that is sold to customers in products that contribute to a majority of the company's operating revenues. Companies must have base-year operating revenues of at least $50,000 USD or CD, and current-year operating revenues of at least $5 million USD or CD. Additionally, companies must be in business for a minimum of five years, and be headquartered within North America. 

About NeoStem, Inc. 

NeoStem, Inc. continues to develop and build on its core capabilities in cell therapy, capitalizing on the paradigm shift that we see occurring in medicine. In particular, we anticipate that cell therapy will have a significant role in the fight against chronic disease and in lessening the economic burden that these diseases pose to modern society. We are emerging as a technology and market leading company in this fast developing cell therapy industry. Our multi-faceted business strategy combines a state-of-the-art contract development and manufacturing subsidiary, Progenitor Cell Therapy, LLC ("PCT"), with a medically important cell therapy product development program, enabling near and long-term revenue growth opportunities. We believe this expertise and existing research capabilities and collaborations will enable us to achieve our mission of becoming a premier cell therapy company. 

Our contract development and manufacturing service business supports the development of proprietary cell therapy products. NeoStem's most clinically advanced therapeutic product candidate, AMR-001, is being developed at Amorcyte, LLC ("Amorcyte"), which we acquired in October 2011. Amorcyte is developing a cell therapy for the treatment of cardiovascular disease and is enrolling patients in a Phase 2 trial to investigate AMR-001's efficacy in preserving heart function after a heart attack. Athelos Corporation ("Athelos"), which is approximately 80%-owned by our subsidiary, PCT, is collaborating with Becton-Dickinson in the early clinical exploration of a T-cell therapy for autoimmune conditions. In addition, pre-clinical assets include our VSEL TM Technology platform as well as our mesenchymal stem cell product candidate for regenerative medicine. Our service business and pipeline of proprietary cell therapy products work in concert, giving us a competitive advantage that we believe is unique to the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. Supported by an experienced scientific and business management team and a substantial intellectual property estate, we believe we are well positioned to succeed. 

For more information on NeoStem, please visit www.neostem.com .  

CFSG1 and/or its principals have represented Medifocus, Inc. in various capacities since 2008, and have witnessed the Company's growth under the leadership of Medifocus's CEO, Augustine Cheung, from a clinical, trial level company with a single application to now possessing an approved therapeutic system. Medifocus is currently generating revenue and rapidly advancing its Phase III trial in its original asset.      

Medifocus Inc. Announces Update on the Prolieve(R) Acquisition and the Hiring of the Prolieve(R) Management Team

COLUMBIA, MD and TORONTO--(Marketwire - Sep 27, 2012) - Medifocus Inc. (OTCQX : MDFZF ) ( PINKSHEETS : MDFZF ) ( TSX VENTURE : MFS ) is pleased to announce the following update on the recently announced purchase of all the Prolieve® business assets from Boston Scientific Corporation (BSX). 

Prolieve® is approved by the FDA for the treatment of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH). Medifocus has successfully begun the transition from a research and development company to a revenue generating business. Medifocus has already begun selling and shipping Prolieve® from its Columbia, MD facility; thus will be reporting revenue in the current quarter for the first time in its history.

To fully capitalize on the Prolieve® business opportunity, Medifocus has hired key personnel to expedite the transition and future revenue growth. Mr. Kurt B. ONeill, CPA was formerly the Business Development Manager for the Prolieve® system at BSX and was hired by Medifocus as V.P. of Sales and Finance. Mr. Timothy P. Heyer, formerly the Prolieve® Business Manager and Rocky Mountain Mobile Services (RMMS) Manager at BSX, was hired by Medifocus as Director of Sales. Ms. Stacey Kjeldgaard, formerly Manager of the RMMS business unit at BSX was hired by Medifocus as the Administrative Manager for the Prolieve® System. Together they bring over 50 years of experience in the industry. 

Prolieve® is a patent protected device that utilizes intra-cavitary catheters to deliver a combination of microwave heating and balloon dilatation of the prostatic urethra which leads to the relief of BPH symptoms. Treatment with Prolieve® is a minimally invasive non-surgical in-office procedure which offers patients clinically documented immediate reduction of BPH symptom scores. Prolieve® is the only microwave device to be randomized to drug therapy during its pivotal trial. The BPH drug market is an $8 billion market and growing. BPH patients can be treated using Prolieve® in urologic offices throughout the United States. In addition, the Prolieve® treatment is also made available to physicians using a nationwide mobile service provider, Rocky Mountain Mobile Services, which was part of the asset purchase. 

Prolieve® was originally developed and commercialized by the current Medifocus management, product development, clinical and regulatory teams. The assets acquired by Medifocus include all Prolieve® hardware inventories, Rocky Mountain Mobile Services and its mobile distribution assets, as well as the intellectual property portfolio associated with the Prolieve® technology. The Prolieve® design is based on a platform technology from which other disposable microwave heating catheters for various deep seated anatomical sites can also be developed. 

About Medifocus 

Medifocus owns a patented microwave focusing technology platform (the Adaptive Phased Array ("APA") technology), which precisely targets and controls microwave energy to cause heating in cancerous tumors anywhere in the body reliably and repeatedly. The ability to target tumors with a precision controlled dose of heat can be used to destroy tumors at higher temperatures, to treat tumors in combination with chemotherapy and/or radiation at moderate temperatures for increased effectiveness and reduced toxicity and to trigger the targeted release of therapeutic drugs and genes at tumor sites at lower temperatures. While the core technology has been licensed from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Medifocus has further refined the precision of the microwave focusing and control ability and developed a commercial system dedicated exclusively for the treatment of Breast Cancer. With the acquisition of Prolieve®, Medifocus now owns in addition, a revenue generating commercial BPH heat treatment product generating cash flow to support the development and commercialization of other catheter based or APA based external focused heat systems for targeted thermotherapy of deep seated tumors anywhere in the body. Please visit www.medifocusinc.com  for more details.

About Boston Scientific 

Boston Scientific is a worldwide developer, manufacturer and marketer of medical devices that are used in a broad range of interventional medical specialties. For more information, please visit: www.bostonscientific.com .    

About Consulting for Strategic Growth 1, Ltd.

 Consulting For Strategic Growth I, Ltd. ("CFSG1") provides consulting, business advisory, investor relations, public relations and corporate development services to public and private companies. In connection with these services, CFSG1 prepares press releases, corporate profiles, and other publications on behalf of and regarding its clients. Certain statements contained in this press release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "believes", "expects", "anticipates", "plans", "estimates", "could" and similar expressions that convey uncertainty of future events or outcomes identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of CFSG1 or its clients to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. CFSG1 receives cash and/or restricted stock/warrants to purchase shares in the future. 

A Conversation with Dr. Thomas Starzl: A Giant in Medicine

In a recent video, Dr. Thomas Starzl of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center answers questions about his career as the “Father of Modern Transplantation.”

Throughout his career, Starzl invented techniques and models for managing heart blockages, performing transplants, and working with immunosuppressants. He performed the first successful liver transplant in 1967 and refined the use of immunosuppressive drugs. Due to his efforts over the last 50 years, thousands of patients with end-stage liver disease have been able to live long and active lives.

Starzl describes his career as beginning in 1945 after he was discharged from the navy. He used the G.I. Bill to go into medical school. He says that he pulled inspiration from his mother, who was a nurse and of whom he thought highly. In 1947, he received his BA and went off to medical school at Northwestern University. He explains why he dropped out of school for almost a year: to do “pure research” in neuroscience, in which he received his Ph.D. After joining John Hopkins, he delved into “another side alley of cardiac physiology.”

He says:

“After we had encountered complete heart block in some of the early heart operations, and needed to develop some way to deal with that complication, I developed a model of complete heart block in dogs, studied the complete physiology, figured out how to do pace making, and solved the problem.”

He then became interested in metabolism. He explains that he developed models of transplantation that involved either the liver alone or the liver with other abdominal viscera, and then became interested in transplantation biology. He says that the real opportunity in this field of clinical studies was to study rejection patterns in liver allographs for the first time. 

Starzl faced so much uncertainty about the nature of his research at the time that it was difficult to receive funding. He says that somehow he thought that everything would turn out all right, and that his greatest source of anxiety was actually the uncertainty of not knowing what to do.

He says,

“I referred to myself at one time as a missile searching for a trajectory. I was bursting with energy. I really wanted to do something that wasn’t conventional, that wasn’t bread and butter surgery as a means of making money; I wanted to do something important that would have a life of its own—that would endure. But what to do? I had come to be regarded as a dilatant, having gone through a Ph.D. in neuroscience and then a Ph.D. equivalent in working out the heart block problem, and now here I was wondering around, not pursuing either field. I just didn’t know what to do with myself.”

He went on to travel across the country and continue conducting clinical trials in order to work with liver transplants, realizing that a successful liver transplants and functions required healthy kidneys. He says he remembers his patients from clinical trials as if they were family members.

Watch the full interview below.

A Conversation with Dr. Jean Wilson, University of Texas Southwestern Medical School

Dr. Jean Wilson from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, speaks here with Ushma Neil of the Journal of Clinical Investigation (JCI). Dr. Wilson was the editor-in-chief of the JCI between 1972 and 1977. Before retiring, Dr. Wilson's research centered on both cholesterol metabolism and steroid hormone action and laid the groundwork for understanding male/female genital development. His studies of testosterone biology led to the first medical therapy for benign prostatic hyperplasia.

Ushma S. Neill obtained her Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Northwestern University studying pulmonary mechanics and used her Marshall Sherfield Postdoctoral Fellowship at Imperial College, London, to study vascular permeability. After 2 years as an editor at Nature Medicine, she joined the JCI in March 2003 as Executive Editor. In May 2012, Ushma became Director of the Office of the President of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

The Journal of Clinical Investigation is a top-tier venue for critical advances in biomedical research. The JCI has a 2011 Impact Factor of 13.069 and a 5-year Impact Factor of 15.430, placing it second in the category of Medicine, Research and Experimental. This along with free access to all of its research articles makes the JCI a prestigious, high-impact venue for authors seeking the broadest audience for their most important work.

The journal is headed by Editor in Chief Dr. Howard Rockman and an Editorial Board of peer scientists at Duke University Medical Center, the University of North Carolina, Duke-NUS, and Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute whose depth and experience ensure fair and competent peer review.

Journal of Clinical Investigation: A Conversation with Paul Marks by Ushma Neil

Paul Marks is recognized as a leader in the cancer field and as a world-class scientist, clinician, and administrator. He served as president and CEO of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) between 1980 and 1999 after serving as the dean (1970–1973) and vice president for Medical Sciences (1973–1980) of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons (P&S).

Marks led the discovery, testing, and recent approval of SAHA (suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid), the treatment for cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. SAHA and other histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors are now undergoing trials for a broad array of cancers.

The Journal of Clinical Investigation is a top-tier venue for critical advances in biomedical research. The JCI has a 2011 Impact Factor of 13.069 and a 5-year Impact Factor of 15.430, placing it second in the category of Medicine, Research and Experimental. This along with free access to all of its research articles makes the JCI a prestigious, high-impact venue for authors seeking the broadest audience for their most important work.

The journal is headed by Editor in Chief Dr. Howard Rockman and an Editorial Board of peer scientists at Duke University Medical Center, the University of North Carolina, Duke-NUS, and Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute whose depth and experience ensure fair and competent peer review.

Ushma S. Neill obtained her Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Northwestern University studying pulmonary mechanics and used her Marshall Sherfield Postdoctoral Fellowship at Imperial College, London, to study vascular permeability. After 2 years as an editor at Nature Medicine, she joined the JCI in March 2003 as Executive Editor. In May 2012, Ushma became Director of the Office of the President of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Journal of Clinical Investigation: A Conversation with Francis Collins by Ushma Neil

Ushma Neil of the Journal of Clinical Investigation continues her Conversations with Giants in Medicine with Francis Collins, a scientist who needs little introduction to the biomedical community. After getting his PhD in Physical Chemistry at Yale, and his medical degree at the University of North Carolina, Collins zeroed in on genetics as his area of concentration, and is noted for his landmark discoveries of disease genes, and later his leadership of the International Human Genome Project, which culminated in April 2003 with the completion of a finished sequence of the human genome. Since August 2009, Collins has served as the Director of the National Institutes of Health, the largest supporter of biomedical research in the world.

The Journal of Clinical Investigation is a top-tier venue for critical advances in biomedical research. The JCI has a 2011 Impact Factor of 13.069 and a 5-year Impact Factor of 15.430, placing it second in the category of Medicine, Research and Experimental. This along with free access to all of its research articles makes the JCI a prestigious, high-impact venue for authors seeking the broadest audience for their most important work.

The journal is headed by Editor in Chief Dr. Howard Rockman and an Editorial Board of peer scientists at Duke University Medical Center, the University of North Carolina, Duke-NUS, and Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute whose depth and experience ensure fair and competent peer review.

Ushma S. Neill obtained her Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Northwestern University studying pulmonary mechanics and used her Marshall Sherfield Postdoctoral Fellowship at Imperial College, London, to study vascular permeability. After 2 years as an editor at Nature Medicine, she joined the JCI in March 2003 as Executive Editor. In May 2012, Ushma became Director of the Office of the President of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Film Annex's Recent Guest, Dr. Robert J. Lefkowitz, Wins Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Dr. Robert J. Lefkowitz is an American physician-scientist best known for his work with G protein-coupled receptors as well as the recent recipient of the the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Back in April, Lefkowitz visited the Film Annex studios for an interview as part of the Journal of Clinical Investigation's Conversations with Giants in Medicine video series. He was joined in the JCI interview by Dr. Joseph Goldstein and Dr. Michael Brown, the duo that won the 1985 Nobel Prize in Physiology of Medicine for their discovery of the LDL cholesterol receptor and its role in the regulation of cholesterol metabolism.

In a NYTimes article about the prize, Lefkowitz was taken aback by the news: "I wear earplugs when I sleep, and so my wife gave me an elbow," he said. "And there it was, a total shock and surprise, as many before me have experienced." The win apparently changed Lefkowitz's plans for the day. "I was going to get a haircut," Dr. Lefkowitz said, "which if you could see me, you would see is quite a necessity, but I’m afraid that’ll probably have to be postponed."

You can watch Dr. Lefkowitz's JCI interview in the video below.

Interview with Chairman of UCSF Department of Medicine Dr. Lloyd Hollingsworth Smith, Jr.

Dr. Llloyd Hollingsworth Smith Jr., a Harvard University alumnus and chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, visited Film Annex’s studio for an interview with executive director of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Dr. Ushma Neill. The visit was part of the video series, Conversations with Giants in Medicine, which interviews Nobel Prize winners and renowned scientists and is produced in collaboration with JCI and hosted on its Web TV.

In the video, Smith discusses being chairman of the University of California’s medical school since the early 1960s. The university has the highest standards in patient care, teaching and research. Smith recalls medical school in Boston when he was 19 years old, as well as his experiences with the Navy as a young man.

“The remarkable thing was that the Pearl Harbor happened while I was a freshman [at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va.], and this remarkably altered the career and aspirations of all of us at that age,” Smith said. “I was 17 at the time and we were, quickly, later that year taken into uniform and told if we could be admitted into medical school, the Army—or Navy, in my case—would send you to whichever institution you were admitted to.”

He also spoke about getting the first artificial kidney to work in military medicine during the Korean War.

View the full interview below.