Category Archives: AZBio News

Flinn Foundation selects 20 excelling Arizona students as 2021 Flinn Scholars

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Twenty of Arizona’s highest-achieving high-school seniors have been awarded the prestigious Flinn Scholarship and will receive a full ride at one of the state’s public universities.

Now in its 36th year, the Flinn Scholars Program is supported by the Phoenix-based Flinn Foundation in partnership with Arizona’s three state universities. The merit-based scholarship covers the full cost of tuition, mandatory fees, housing, meals, study abroad, and many other exclusive opportunities—a package valued at more than $120,000.

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Just Announced: Additional SME COVID-19 Relief

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As the country moves into a new phase of the vaccination effort – one where all adults are eligible for vaccinations – we want to ensure that you are aware of a new tax credit that President Biden announced today. The new paid leave tax credit will offset the cost for employers with fewer than 500 employees to provide full pay for when their employees get a COVID-19 vaccination or recover from that vaccination.

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Johnson & Johnson Single-Shot COVID-19 Vaccine Phase 3 Data Published in New England Journal of Medicine

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  • Single-dose vaccine prevented hospitalization and death across all study participants, 28 days after vaccination
  • Vaccine shown to be effective against severe/critical COVID-19 disease as early as seven days after vaccination, with efficacy continuing to increase eight weeks post-vaccination
  • Vaccine also shown to be consistently effective against symptomatic infection, including in South Africa and Brazil where there was a high prevalence of rapidly emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants

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Mayo study finds colon cancer driven by hereditary gene mutations in 1 in 6 patients

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ROCHESTER, Minn. — A new Mayo Clinic study bolsters evidence that colorectal cancer is often imprinted in family genes and passed on from one generation to the next.

In the study, published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, researchers within the Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine found 1 in 6 patients with colorectal cancer had an inherited cancer-related gene mutation, which likely predisposed them to the disease. In addition, the researchers discovered that 60% of these cases would not have been detected if relying on a standard guideline-based approach.

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Biodesign Professor Dr. Alexandra Lucas Wins Third Annual ASU Faculty Startup Challenge

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Serpass Biologics, Dr. Lucas’ startup, is developing a new class of immune-modulating biologics for autoimmune disorders. These can be used to treat and suppress excessive immune system responses in a wide range of diseases, including arthritic, cardiac, gastrointestinal, pulmonary and vascular disorders.

 The annual competition is run by Skysong Innovations, which works across the university to help researchers pursue commercial applications for their work.

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Fruit Flies and Cellular Demise – Zeroing in on the Causes of ALS

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New UArizona research has identified a previously unknown pattern of protein creation in the motor neurons, which are the cells that malfunction in patients with ALS. By restoring the missing proteins at one end of the cell, movement returns. Next, the team hopes to determine if the surprising over-production at the other end of the cell also has consequences.

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Arizona’s bioscience community reports on ‘a robust industry cluster’

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The Flinn Foundation hosted its annual bioscience event April 14 to share the impressive progress of Arizona’s growing sector nearly two decades since the launch of Arizona’s Bioscience Roadmap. 

The virtual event featured a keynote address by Tom Osha of Wexford Science and Technology and a mix of live presentations and videos showcasing the innovative and growing bioscience ecosystem throughout Arizona, including Flagstaff, metro Phoenix, and the Tucson and Yuma regions. Continue reading→