Jun. 30--Biotech center gives $50K loans

DURHAM -- Two biotechnology companies spun out from research at local universities have each received $50,000 low-interest Company Inception Loans from the N.C. Biotechnology Center.

Agile Sciences, founded in 2007 by professors Christian Melander and John Cavanagh of N.C. State University, is using the funding to help develop organic compounds that can disperse biofilms, colonies of microorganisms that are up to 10,000 times more resistant to antibiotics and immune systems.

Pharmaceutical industry veteran Gabriel Cipau is using the other loan to commercialize a line of brain-disorder therapies spun out of Duke University research labs.

Cipau, president and CEO of NeuroScience Pharmaceuticals, said the new company focuses on developing neurosteroid drugs. Neurosteroids are hormones that affect nerve cells in the brain and body.

Neurosteroid drugs could potentially treat a range of conditions, including anxiety, depression, epilepsy and traumatic brain injury.

The firm is about to start testing its lead product, Pregnenolone, for the treatment of schizophrenia in two fully funded Phase II clinical trials.

Durham Regional offers new heel surgery

DURHAM -- Durham Regional Hospital now offers patients who suffer from a broken heel bone in four or fewer pieces a new minimally invasive surgical option with a technique called calcaneoplasty.

Calcaneoplasty involves a single, 0.5-centimeter incision, the insertion of a balloon into the bone and expansion of the balloon. This allows the bony pieces to shift back into place. Once the balloon is deflated, the empty cavity remaining in the bone is filled with a bone "putty" that stimulates bone growth. The surgery only takes about 20 to 30 minutes.

"Given these features, patients are able to undergo surgery much sooner after the injury and able to return to function much faster," said Selene Parekh, orthopaedic surgeon with North Carolina Orthopaedic Clinic and a member of Durham Regional's medical staff.

Hagan: $20M for health centers

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan's office announced Monday that 27 community health centers in North Carolina will be receiving a $20 million investment from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, as part of the bill's Capital Improvement Program.

The program supports construction, renovation and equipment updates at community health centers, allowing them to update health information technology systems and begin using electronic medical records that will streamline the health care process.

"With record numbers of North Carolinians out of work, our community health centers are more important than ever," Hagan said. "Our hardworking families will benefit from this investment in our state's health care infrastructure."

The Lincoln Community Health Center in Durham will receive $1,300,770. Carrboro's Piedmont Health Services will receive $1,531,035. Person Family Medical Center in Roxboro will receive $459,020.

In Raleigh, Wake Health Services and the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services will receive $928,300 and $586,105, respectively.

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