TENANTS
Audubon Business and Technology Center is a 100,000 square foot, state of the art, research facility that is managed by Columbia University. Audubon Center was developed by Columbia University, the City of New York and the State of New York. It is designed to house early stage, private research and development companies in the Life Sciences industry. Audubon Center is located in Audubon Biomedical Science and Technology Park, a proposed 1 million square foot development at the eastern end of Columbia University Medical Center.
Audubon Biomedical Science and Technology Park is comprised of the Mary Woodard Lasker Biomedical Research Building, which houses the Audubon Business and Technology Center, and the Russ Berrie Medical Science Pavilion. The Berrie Pavilion houses a comprehensive diabetes center, genetics research and a research program in pediatrics. Work started on the third building in Audubon Park, the Irving Cancer Research Center, in the summer of 2001. The Irving Center will house research on cancer, genetics, and cell biology.
Columbia University Medical Center is comprised of more than 4 million square feet of space and is home to approximately 14,000 employees, including over 4,000 faculty and research scientists. The Columbia University Medical Center campus is home to Columbia University's College of Physicians & Surgeons and New York Presbyterian Hospital. The College of Physicians & Surgeons was the first U.S. medical school to grant the M.D. degree in 1770. In 1922, the medical school became part of the world's first academic medical center when it formed an alliance with Presbyterian Hospital. Columbia-Presbyterian is now part of a rapidly growing regional health network, The New York and Presbyterian Hospital Network includes 29 hospitals in the New York metropolitan area as well as 73 ambulatory care facilities and a number of specialty institutes, long-term care facilities, physician groups, and managed care entities.
TENANT PROFILES
DOCS-Intellison/Ironfan
DOCS Consortium is an association of two groups
DOCS - Digital Operator Consultant System, Inc. DOCS develops computer expert databases and related Intelligent Agents to enable physicians and technicians at the point of care to diagnose diseases by medical imaging using algorithms and processed knowledge from a database. DOCS Intelligent Agents are software programs which collect, process and present the medical professionals with the knowledge to help them make expert-like decisions. The Patented software upgrades ultrasound systems and users' expertise with a new inline "help" function backing the scanning and interpretation with real-time expert knowledge. The same software is fully compatible with CT, MRI, Nuclear Medicine and other applications. By bringing the expertise to the point of care, the software decreases the costs related to patient referral, second opinions, risk for liability and complications related to delayed diagnosis and invasive testing.
IRONFAN - International Registry of Fetal Anomalies The IRONFAN is an established International Registry of Fetal Anomalies based on a network of 50 leading Maternal Fetal Medicine and Radiology centers around the world. The IRONFAN Project is mapping the natural history of fetal diseases through an open world-wide scientific e-network for prenatal data acquisition and review.
Contact: Shraga Rottem, MD, D.Sc.
212-851-5419
GliaMed Inc.
GliaMed, Inc. is a biotechnology research and development company that has created a platform of compounds designed for the treatment of Multiple Sclerosis, Alzheimer's, Parkinson?s and other neurodegenerative diseases, as well as the treatment of malignant brain tumors, stroke and other brain and spinal cord trauma.
The therapies are based on work begun in 1988 by GliaMed?s founding scientists. This work demonstrates that an absolute interdependence exists between neurons?the cells that create and carry the messages in the brain and spinal cord (the central nervous system) - and glial cells (astrocytes and oligodendrocytes), the other major cell type in the CNS. These observations, and the identification and characterization of the genes and proteins that regulate this biology, are at the heart of the GliaMed technology.
Our intimate understanding of these biologies, along with the assay systems developed by the Company, allowed for the generation of a first wave of therapeutics designed to treat a range of neurodegenerative diseases, glial scarring and primary brain neoplasia. It is the GliaMed mission is to use our outstanding science to safely bring affordable treatments for neurodegeneration to the market place as rapidly as possible.
Contact: Dr. David E. Weinstein
(212) 543-0444
Health Management and Informatics Lab
Contact: Laura Chasen
(212) 543-0100
Hereditary Disease Foundation
Intra-Cellular Therapies, Inc.
ITI is an early stage biopharmaceutical company committed to the development of new drugs for neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders. Our approach is unique in that we are focusing on the mechanisms of intracellular signaling using a series of technologies developed in the laboratory of Paul Greengard at the Rockefeller University. Specifically our technology addresses diseases of the central nervous system that include Parkinson's Disease, schizophrenia, attention deficit disorder, alcohol and drug addiction, anxiety, depression, stroke, pain, epilepsy and Alzheimer’s Disease. ITI operates under an exclusive license to the intellectual property estate developed by Paul Greengard and his colleagues.
This intellectual property estate and underlying knowledge base provides a number of well-defined molecular targets to launch the company's drug discovery program. In addition, the company has developed a series of biochemical, electrophysiological and behavioral assays that can be used to evaluate the effects of potential lead compounds arising in the drug discovery process. These assays will be used by ITI for its own research and development efforts but can also be accessed by the biotech and pharmaceutical industry through collaborative arrangements.
Contact: Dr. Sharon Mates, Ph.D.
212-923-3344 ext. 201
Nephros, Inc.
Nephros, Inc. was founded in 1997 by Dr. Eric Rose, chairman of the Department of Surgery at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York, in association with a group of prominent private investors. It was created to develop medical devices and companion products in the End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) marketplace. The company is currently privately held.
Nephros has 9 employees with extensive experience in engineering, biological and chemical research, regulatory affairs and finance, particularly as they relate to the ESRD environment. In addition, the company calls on a team of distinguished consultants, advisors and contract support staff in nephrology, dialysis, general medicine, engineering, computer science, and associated domains. Nephros curently has 10 patents.
Contact: Norman Barta
(212) 781-5113
Oligomerix Inc.
Oligomerix Inc., founded in 2006, is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing proprietary targets for drug discovery for Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders based on neurotoxic protein oligomers (small soluble aggregates) as it is becoming apparent that the insoluble protein aggregates which are hallmarks of these diseases are not the primary disease-causing entities. The initial focus has been on developing soluble tau oligomers as a target for Alzheimer’s disease because soluble tau has recently been shown to cause neuronal loss and memory impairment in mouse models of dementia, and because tau oligomer formation correlates well with disease progression in people. The tau oligomer target is being used to develop highly sensitive and proprietary assays that the company will use for drug and biomarker discovery. Compounds inhibiting the formation of tau oligomers or disrupting tau oligomers are being selected and developed as candidates to inhibit neurodegenerative diseases. Antibodies against tau oligomers are being developed for drug discovery, for use in biomarker assays used to demonstrate drug efficacy, and to stage disease progression. Venture seed investment and government grants are funding these programs.
Contact: James Moe
212-568-0365 Ext. 18
Ortec International Inc.
Ortec International Inc. is a biomedical company focusing on tissue engineering. The company has developed Composite Cultured Skin(CCS), a natural replacement skin intended to be utilized for the treatment of severe burn patients, as well as for types of dermal ulcerations and cosmetic surgery. CCS is currently being evaluated in pivotal human clinical trials in a multi-center U.S. study, a subsection of which was recently reported on at the 1997 American Burn Association annual conference. CCS is also currently being evaluated at The Rockefeller University Hospital for the treatment of dermal ulcers in patients suffering from a rare disease, Epidermolysis Bullosa(EB).The company is also developing protocols for the use of CCS in plastic surgery and certain types of dermal ulcers.
Contact: Ron Lipstein
(212)740-6999
PROJECT A.L.S
Project A.L.S., Inc. is a non-profit organization that raises awareness and significant funds toward effective treatments and a cure for ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Project A.L.S. distributes funds raised through its charitable efforts to the most exciting ALS and related researchers worldwide.
In addition to fundraising, Project A.L.S. will continue to increase public awareness for ALS, which has remained under-funded and poorly understood since it was first described in 1869. It is our goal that the public come to recognize ALS for what it really is: a fatal neuromuscular disease that is not rare (ALS is diagnosed with roughly the same frequency as multiple sclerosis), that does not discriminate on the basis of age, gender or ethnicity, and for which there exists not one effective treatment.
Project A.L.S. intends to transform ALS – which progressively robs people of the right to walk, speak, swallow and breathe – into a matter of urgent national concern.
Contact: Project A.L.S.
(800)-603-0270 or (212)-969-0329.
Redox Pharmaceutical Corporation
Redox Pharmaceutical Corporation is a privately financed drug discovery and development company researching novel metallo-organic compounds for prophylactic and therapeutic uses. Redox Pharmaceutical Corporation patented a family of metallo-organic compounds with demonstrated effectiveness in antiviral, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory applications. First generation antiviral/anti-inflammatory applications are in preclinical testing for ocular and dermal herpetic infections. Incorporated in 1984, with an Israeli subsidiary at the Technion, Redox has been entirely U.S. based since 1994. Our leading compound, Doxovir, has both antiviral (Herpes Types 1 and 2, Adenovirus, Papillomavirus and HIV) and anti-inflammatory properties. It belongs to a family of superoxide scavenging compounds (the CTC series) that have demonstrated steroid-like activity in several animal models. Current product focus is on topical uses of first-generation agents for ophthalmic, genital and inflammatory conditions. An IND approval for ophthalmic application of Doxovir has been obtained and Phase 1 Clinical studies were completed in early 2003.
Contact: Dr. David Gershon
212-543-4530
Ribosomyx Technologies LLC
Contact: Dr. Takaaki Sato
Roar Biomedical, Inc.
Roar Biomedical, Inc. designs, manufactures and markets protein activity kits for clinical research and pharmaceutical drug discovery programs.
Roar's fluorescence-based, patented products include kits to measure the activity of chloesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP), microsomal [triglyceride] transfer protein (MTP), lecithin:cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT) and lipoprotein lipase (LPL).
In the drug discovery sector, the products are outfitted with Roar's proprietary screening platform, Spectral Interference Protection (SIP). Spectral interference (color quenching) limits the use of fluorescence spectroscopy in drug discovery. SIP provides the pharmaceutical industry with a new technique in high-throughput screening that eliminates the use of radioactivity.
Roar supports clinical studies at several research institutions. Future plans include a line of photometric assays utilizing a patent pending technique that increases sensitivity over conventional methods.
Contact: Marie Dagata
(212) 781-8336
The New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF)
The New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) is a non–profit organization dedicated to furthering human embryonic stem cell research. The mission of NYSCF is threefold:
1. To educate the public about the importance and potential benefits of human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research & somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT).
2. To support stem cell research through grants to scientists working with human embryonic stem cell lines in their own laboratories.
3. To establish collaborative, state-of-the art research laboratories supported entirely with private funds. Within these facilities, investigators collaborating with the pre-eminent medical institutions in New York and the Northeast will work on research directly focused on curing disease (i.e., translational research).
It is an ambitious plan: accelerating research to cure the major diseases of our time.
Contact: Susan L. Solomon
(917)-656-3290
