The new clinic, which is operated by the University of Illinois Chicago Center for Veterinary Medicine, takes a fresh approach to pet healthcare, beginning with its name: Furnetic. To allow the curious to see for themselves, two open house events are scheduled: Friday, July 31, from 2 to 7 pm and Saturday, August 1, from 9 am to 1 pm.

“We get that pet owners expect the highest quality medical care and service when it comes to their furry loved ones,” says Dr. Rosemary LoGiudice, director of the Chicago Center for Veterinary Medicine. “We are here to provide a working definition of excellence in veterinary practice, a place where patients and their people are treated with caring, respect, professionalism, and the very latest in veterinary knowledge.

“In that respect, we complement the other medical services offered in neighboring blocks. The Furnetic difference is that our patients can’t tell us where it hurts, and they show their appreciation with licks and purrs.”

In addition to serving neighborhood pet owners, the new practice encourages employees of the Illinois Medical District and the University of Illinois at Chicago to use the clinic. On the day of an appointment, owners can drop their pet off in the morning, and return to meet with the doctor and pick the pet up at the end of the work day.

The idea behind Furnetic is to establish a showcase where students from the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine, home of the state’s only professional veterinary doctoral program, can observe and become involved in a state-of-the-art practice in an urban setting.

The University of Illinois connection also provides instant access to more than 80 veterinarians at the college’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital, the state’s most comprehensive veterinary facility.

“Furnetic veterinarians will focus on primary care for pets—new puppy and kitten examinations, ongoing wellness care, spays and neuters, treatment for routine health problems, geriatric care, and so forth,” explains Dr. LoGiudice. “But if advanced diagnostics or specialized care is needed for our patients, we have the experts literally at our fingertips through teleconferencing as well as through periodic consulting offered on site.”

Indeed, the Chicago Center for Veterinary Medicine will bring veterinary experts to the Harrison Street facility to provide referral services in oncology and other veterinary specialties beginning this fall. The Center is also headquarters for recruiting, outreach, and public education activities.

To find out more or to make an appointment, please call 312.226.2588 or visit furnetic.com.

# # #

The College of Veterinary Medicine, part of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is the only veterinary college in Illinois and is a leader in veterinary and comparative biomedical education, scholarship, and public engagement in the University of Illinois system, in the state, in the nation, and around the world. Its programs and its graduates work to improve human, animal, and environmental health.

The Chicago Center for Veterinary Medicine, established in 2009 by the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine, is the first institution of its kind among U.S. veterinary colleges. The Chicago Center for Veterinary Medicine serves as the college’s metropolitan headquarters, providing general and specialty veterinary care, veterinary student and practitioner education, student recruitment, public outreach, recruitment of patients for clinical trials, and collaborative research with Chicago-area institutions.

Furnetic is a primary care teaching facility, located in the Chicago Center for Veterinary Medicine at 2242 West Harrison Avenue, designed to showcase the future of veterinary care and introduce students to concepts relating to the daily management of a modern urban vet practice.

Read release on furnetic.com

Beijing,
 China, 
June 
2, 
2009 
‐ GreatPoint 
Energy, 
Inc., 
the 
developer 
of 
hydromethanation, 
a 
proprietary 
process 
that converts 
coal, 
petroleum 
coke 
and 
biomass 
into 
clean 
natural 
gas,
 today 
was 
invited 
by 
the 
US 
Embassy 
in 
Beijing 
and 
the Treasury 
Department 
to 
join 
a 
clean 
energy 
roundtable 
discussion
 with 
Secretary 
of 
Treasury 
Geithner 
during 
his 
first 
visit to 
China
 as 
Secretary. 
Mr. 
Geithner’s 
visit 
paves 
the 
way 
for 
President 
Obama’s 
planned 
visit 
to 
China 
in 
November 
2009, where 
clean
 energy 
issues 
will 
be 
an 
important 
part 
of 
bilateral 
discussions.

read full article

WILMINGTON, MA, April 3, 2009 – Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (NYSE: CRL) announced today the signing of an agreement to acquire the business and assets of Piedmont Research Center, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of PPD, Inc. (NASDAQ: PPDI) for $46 million in cash.  North Carolina-based Piedmont Research Center (PRC) provides preclinical discovery services focused on efficacy studies in oncology and other therapeutic areas for pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients.  The acquisition is expected to be neutral to earnings per share on both a GAAP and non-GAAP basis in 2009.  The transaction is expected to close during the second quarter, subject to customary closing conditions.

read more…

GreatPoint Energy, a start-up with technology to convert coal to cleaner-burning natural gas, expects to open a demonstration plant in China in three years.

The plant would cost between $100 million and $200 million and be located at a coal-fired power plant operated by Datang Huanyin Electric Power. Most of the financing for the plant will come from Datang, one of the biggest single polluters on the planet, according to GreatPoint Energy CEO Andrew Perlman.

read more…

“We’ve built our brand and client base on delivering decision-enabling isolated heart and screening telemetry results in a matter of days,” says Dr. Michael Gralinski, CorDynamics CEO. “These inherently affordable models maximize return on outsourcing spending at a time when R&D budgets have been cut throughout the biotech and pharmaceutical industry.”

CorDynamics, Inc. is a comprehensive contract research organization and consulting group focused on examining the cardiovascular effects of emerging drug candidates. The company provides support with discovery and preclinical safety pharmacology studies along with lead optimization screening and consulting for more than 100 biopharmaceutical clients.

read more…

Read the Full Story Here

“Advancements in Therapies for Heart and Vascular Diseases” will include three interventional cardiologists’ perspectives on the future of medicine and how you may benefit from the latest treatment advances available at Rush.

Dr. Gary Schaer will discuss the emerging role of stem cells for heart disease. Dr. Jeffery Snell will discuss the use of gene therapy for peripheral heart disease, and Dr. Clifford Kavinsky will review treatment for congenital and structural heart disease. A question and answer session will follow the talks.

Specialists in the interventional cardiology program at Rush University Medical Center have led the way in the search for better nonsurgical methods for diagnosing and treating patients with heart and vascular diseases. Current clinical trials include Tamaris, ACCORD, and MARVEL. With a focus on patient care, Rush is dedicated to the development of new therapies and medical devices, as well as the expansion of scientific and medical knowledge. Join us to learn about the most recent cardiovascular clinical trials at Rush that are designed to expand the ability to fight heart disease.

Attendees will receive free parking in the Rush garage. Refreshments will be available for registered attendees.  To register, please call (888) 352-RUSH (7874) or visit the “Events and Classes” page at www.rush.edu.

Recent improvements to our sperm cryopreservation services have greatly enhanced post-thaw viability, which allows traditional in vitro fertilization (IVF) methods to be utilized to recover live offspring and has led to a significant reduction in both the time and expense associated with the reconstitution process.

Our enhanced sperm freezing process routinely delivers post-thaw two-cell development rates of nearly 40% for colonies on a B6 background and even higher rates for many mixed background lines, a five-fold improvement over traditional methods. With this improvement, Charles River can now guarantee the recovery of any line that meets our standard quality control parameters.

In addition, we are continuing to advance our assisted reproductive technologies, including laser-assisted IVF and intracytoplasmic sperm injection, in an effort to recover virtually any frozen sperm sample, regardless of quality. This advancement can help recover lines frozen via traditional methods or lines with exceptionally poor sperm quality due to genetic mutation. Charles River is unique in offering an enhanced sperm freezing method as well as advanced recovery techniques.

The improved sperm cryopreservation process now allows us to generate large numbers of reconstituted offspring from frozen sperm in as little as three and a half months. We can thaw the frozen sperm, collect oocytes from common B6, B6 hybrids, or other selected strains, and perform IVF using this new procedure to generate anywhere from a few breeder pairs to hundreds of offspring, allowing you to restart your studies quickly. In addition, we will permanently archive your valuable strains to help protect your colonies against unexpected events in the future.

For more information about our cryopreservation services and our full portfolio of products and services, please contact us at askcharlesriver@crl.com or 1-877-CRIVER-1 or visit www.criver.com.

Although heart disease affects both women and men almost equally, women often have different symptoms and respond differently to treatment than men do. “The Culture of a Woman’s Heart” is Rush’s annual event which discusses heart disease in women and the role ethnicity has in influencing risk factors.

This year’s keynote address, “Prescription for a Happy, Healthy Heart,” by Dr. Annabelle Volgman, cardiologist and medical director of the Rush Heart Center for Women, will be followed by break out sessions based on ethnicity for African-American, Asian, Caucasian, Latina and – new this year – Indian women. Blood pressure screenings will be provided for participants with results discussed in the breakout sessions, which will be led by a team of physicians, nurses and nutritionists.

Attendees will receive free parking in the Rush garage. Lunch will be served. All attendees will be entered into a free drawing for fun prizes.  To register, please call (888) 352-RUSH (7874) or visit the “Events and Classes” page at www.rush.edu.

About the Rush Heart Center for Women

The Rush Heart Center for Women is the first heart program in Chicago devoted exclusively to provide women a team with the experience to address their unique needs. At the Rush Heart Center for Women, women with heart problems are diagnosed and treated with great sensitivity and innovation by a team of cardiologists, nurse practitioners, nurses, nutritionists and cardiothoracic surgeons who are supported by the comprehensive resources of a world-class academic medical center. Women without overt heart disease are assessed and advised on how to prevent heart disease and stroke.

Andrew McKenna, Jr., of Chicago, is president of the Schwarz Paper Company, a national distributor of paper and packaging products, in Morton Grove, Illinois. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Notre Dame in 1979 and has been a business, civic and political leader in Illinois for more than 20 years. In the mid-1990s, he served   as chair of the Education Committees of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce and the Illinois Business Roundtable. He also chaired the Illinois Business Education Coalition. Since 2005 McKenna has been chairman of the Illinois Republican Party.

Alejandro Silva, of Chicago, is chairman and CEO of Evans Food Group, Ltd., the largest Hispanic-owned business in Chicago and the world’s largest pork rind snack manufacturer. Silva received his B.S. in food technology from Instituto Tecnologica y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey in Monterrey, Mexico, and his M.S. in food engineering from the National College of Food Technology in Weybridge Surrey, England. Silva is active in numerous civic and charitable organizations. He is chairman of the finance and budgeting committee for the Chicago Transit Authority. He is also chairman of the Chicago/Mexico Sister Cities Committee. He   serves on the executive committee of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, is president of the Mid-America Chapter, United States/Mexico Chamber of Commerce; and is a board member of the New America Alliance, the Renaissance Schools Fund and the Chicago Academy of Sciences. Silva is   a director of Privatebancorp, Inc., and earlier this year was elected to the board of directors of Walgreens as an independent director.

Executive recruiter Charles A. Tribbett III, of Chicago, is managing director of the Chicago office of Russell Reynolds Associates, where he oversees the CEO and Board Placement Services Practice. He is a graduate of Marquette University, where he received his B.S. degree in accounting in 1977, and earned his J.D. degree from the University of Virginia Law School in 1980. He serves on the Chicago Urban League board and is on the board of the Chicago Symphony. Fortune magazine has called Tribbett one of the 50 most powerful African American executives in America. In 2005, he was elected to the board of directors for the Northern Trust Company. He is also a member of the Dean’s Advisory Board of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Mary Severino Meyer, MS, RN, of Western Springs, Illinois, is the new president of the Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s (RPSL) Nurses Alumni Association, having assumed office in October. She is a graduate of Marquette University where she earned her B.S. degree in nursing. In 1994, she earned her Master of Science in nursing from Rush University. Earlier this year she completed a Postmaster’s Certificate in the Clinical Nurse Specialist Program and recently she passed the Adult Clinical Nurse Specialist Certification test. From 1999 to 2006, she was clinical coordinator for Northwestern Memorial Hospital’s Health Learning Center. Currently she is the clinical coordinator for medicine at Adventist Hinsdale Hospital. Meyer has been a vice president on the RPSL Nurses Alumni Association board for two terms and chairs its Young Alumni Task Force.

Jerald William Hoekstra, of St. Anne, Illinois, senior partner of Hoekstra Farms, LLC, was   elected as an annual trustee at Rush University Medical Center. He earned his degree from Southern Illinois University. Over the years, he has served on several voluntary boards. He is currently   vice chairman of Riverside Healthcare, which is affiliated with Rush as a member hospital of the Rush System for Health.  Hoekstra is also chairman of the Riverside Healthcare Governance Board, the Riverside Healthcare Finance Committee, St. Paul’s Lutheran Church and has also served as vice chairman of the Kankakee Community College Board of Trustees.

Susan Crown, of Chicago, has been a general trustee at Rush since 1986 and for more than 10 years chaired the Nominations and Trustee Planning (now Nominations and Governance) Committee. Since January 2006, she has chaired the Facilities Committee. She has been a member of the Executive Committee since 1988. She also currently serves on the Campaign Committee. Crown is vice president of Henry Crown & Company.

William M. Goodyear, of Chicago, has been a general trustee at Rush since 1995 and since 2004 has served as chairman of the Finance Committee. Prior to that time, he was a member of the combined Finance and Audit Committee. He has been a member of the Executive Committee since 2000. Goodyear is chairman and chief executive officer of Navigant Consulting, Inc.

Robert L. Heidrick, of Chicago, has been a general trustee at Rush since 2000 and since 2006 has served as chairman of the Nominations and Governance Committee. He has been a member of the Executive Committee since 2006 and is also active on the Corporate Campaign Committee and the Campaign Committee, as well as the Leadership Committee for the Rush Heart and Vascular Institute. Heidrick is the retired vice chairman and managing director of Global Industrial Practice for Spencer Stuart. He remains an advisor to the firm.

Donald G. Lubin, Esq., of Highland Park, has been a general trustee at Rush since 1977 and has been a member of the Executive Committee since 1978. He served on the Interinstitutional Affairs Committee, when it was active in the 1980s and 1990s; the Campaign for Rush Campaign Committee in the 1990s; and the Facilities Committee for the past ten years. From 2001 until May of 2008 he served as chairman of the Anchor Cross Society, and is currently active on the Nominations and Governance Committee and the Campaign Committee (including its predecessor the Leadership Gifts Committee). Lubin is a partner with Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP.

The Rush Board of Trustees consists of 90 individuals who serve voluntarily and who represent the community, corporate and non-profit business leadership. The Board is the ultimate decision-making body of Rush University Medical Center and provides general oversight and guidance to senior management of Rush.