CorDynamics

The Rare Disease Connection

In honor of RARE Disease Day on February 29th, CorDynamics was looking for a way to contribute, participate and make a difference.

Little did I know the ideal opportunity was right in my backyard. I would learn that I was connected to it in more ways than one.

Connection 1: My youngest son came home from school excited about “Dollar Denim Days” in honor of RARE Disease Day and in support of the Global Genes Project. The Spencer Loomis Elementary students would make and purchase denim ribbons as well as wear their favorite pair of jeans to school.

Connection 2: Two Hearts Rock, the non-profit organization we collaborated with in July for The Beat Batten & Rock Rare Disease concert given by Jesse Malin, was orchestrating the Dollar Denim Days event.

Connection 3: The proceeds would go toward research on Rett Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder of the nervous system and the devastating diagnosis given to Amelia “Emmy” Foster, the 3-year-old daughter of Colleen Foster, who was a former teacher kindergarten teacher at the school. My oldest son had been one of Mrs. Foster’s students.

Connection 4: Upon further investigation, I learned Rett Syndrome robs children of their verbal and motor skills and is often associated with a dangerous heart condition that CorDynamics regularly researches—long QT syndrome.

Connection 5: CorDynamics jumped on board and pledged to match the funds raised by Spencer Loomis Elementary students in their Dollar Denim Days fundraiser next week.

With millions of Americans suffering from rare diseases, these connections are everywhere—perhaps in your backyard too.

Make the most of February’s bonus day on the 29th…get connected to Rare Disease Day.

Theresa Gralinski, Marketing Director

February is National Heart Month

It’s National Heart Month! I think about my cardiovascular fitness a lot. Kind of hard not to when training for road races. But I also think about it because of the company I work for, cardiovascular health is our business. I always felt it ironic that I was constantly maintaining my heart health in order to never have to take the drugs that I am helping to develop, oh well!

I recently had my blood pressure and heart rate taken for a yearly health screening and I was very happy with the results. Blood pressure: 110/70 and Heart Rate: 60 (and that was after my morning cup of coffee, LOL)!

For the most part I have always had a high resting heart rate (between 70-80) and it wasn’t until last year when I started training for my first half-marathon that I noticed this start to change. My training had started to drop my resting heart rate. I have always read that increasing your heart rate during physical exertion would cause this but I didn’t really believe it until I lived it.

“According to the American Heart Association website, increasing your heart rate 2 and a half hours a week will have beneficial effects to your cardiovascular system.”

The physical activity doesn’t have to be running, it could be walking vigorously, riding a bike, swimming etc. Check out their website they have loads of heart healthy tips!

Happiness is good for your heart too!

Best Regards,

Melissa Fisher, CorDynamics Operations Manager

Telemetry Leads Lead Optimization

Eeny Meeny Miney Mo…Where Should My R&D Dollars Go?

Do you have compounds with promise, but not enough resources to investigate all of them? I know I did when I managed projects teams and it’s a daily concern for our current clients.

This is why lead optimization screening in drug discovery and safety assessment became a cornerstone of the CorDynamics services and capabilities offerings when we started the company 10 years ago.

GLP Telemetry Vs. Lead Optimization Telemetry

Determining which lead compounds to put your R&D dollars behind is even more imperative in today’s environment. Based on this premise, our team has taken the telemetry models we use for GLP examinations of test articles and transformed the concept to create physiologically relevant screening models for lead compounds early in preclinical development.

GLP

Typical GLP dog or non-human primate telemetry studies average around six to eight subjects per interrogation and include a full protocol and report. Clients go back to their project teams with high fidelity assessments of effects on blood pressure, heart rate, ECG (including QT interval) and other parameters.

Lead Optimization

At the point of lead compound selection, however, project teams are trying to identify the most promising compound for advancement—thus we often compare one compound to another by rank order.

As a result, it’s often not necessary to invest in eight subjects on a screening study, nor have a full protocol or report. With lead optimization in mind, we design customized telemetry studies:

>> Generates data detecting subtle changes in CV parameters (such as QT interval) for screening purposes.

>> Leveraged in five species: dog, non-human primate, rabbit, rat and guinea pig telemetry.

>> Requires fewer animal subjects.

>> Efficient results with minimal paperwork.

The Bottomline

Telemetry screening allows clients to save money, use less test article and get results back to their colleagues in few days.

We’ve always known that time is money. But I believe our industry is also learning that good science decisions help us make better business decisions.

Regards,

Dr. Michael Gralinski, CorDynamics CEO

Go “RED” for Women Day

Friday is “Go RED for Women Day!”

I’m Wearing Red on Friday.

I’ve always loved to wear red.

Maybe it stems from my time as an undergrad at the University of Wisconsin, where the school colors fly red and white and one of the favorite anthems is “Go Big Red.”

Or maybe, it’s because working for CorDynamics, I’m consumed with all things cardiovascular, have learned about heart disease and the startling statistics as they relate to women.

Do You Know These Heart Facts?

• Heart disease—including heart attacks and strokes—is the number 1 killer of women.

• Heart disease is the cause of death for 1 in 3 women.

• Women are dying at the rate of 1 per minute—many of whom never knew heart disease kills.

Many women think they are too young, too healthy or even too busy to have a heart attack. That’s what my petite, energetic mother thought when she had a stroke at 54. She fully recovered, and is now making 68 look like the new 40, thanks to those around her who knew the warning signs of a stroke and acted quickly.

Do You Know the Warning Signs of a Stroke?

• Sudden numbness or weakness of face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body.

• Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding.

• Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes.

• Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination.

• Sudden severe headache with no known cause.

So on National Wear Red Day, Friday, February 3, I’ll being wearing red, to raise awareness for heart disease and in honor of my mom. I hope you join me.

Go Big Red!

Theresa Gralinski, Marketing Director

FDA Orphan Drug Designation

There are currently about 7,000 orphans out there waiting to be adopted, to be supported, to be cured. Many of us don’t even know their names: Kawasaki. Porphyria. Pulmonary Arterial Disease.

Orphan Status is a designation given by the FDA to identify rare diseases with unmet medical needs but with potentially promising compounds currently being researched. Orphan drugs receive expedited FDA reviews and fast tracks to clinical trials, providing hope for cures, treatments or comfort.

>>>>>  Nearly 2,400 experimental compounds have orphan drug designations.

>>>>>  So far, only 367 of these orphan drugs have been approved by the FDA.

Experts agree, coordinated collaboration and resources on all fronts will be the key to finding a potential drug therapy for these orphan drugs. Collaboration is also essential for the rare diseases still searching for enough answers to even begin the orphan drug development stage.

You may ask, what can I do to help? What can my organization do?

Adopt An Orphan

• Pick an orphan disease with a compound in the works or a rare disease to adopt.

• Show your support and learn more about the disease, follow related organizations on Facebook or in the news.  One that we follow on Facebook is Two Hearts Rock and Global Genes Project.

• Donate your time, participate in a sponsored event, or fundraiser.

• “Wear That You Care” on World Rare Disease Day, February 29th. Wear “jeans” for “genes” and encourage your workplace, schools, and sport teams to do so too to raise awareness for the Global Genes Project.

At CorDynamics, we sponsored a fundraising event for Hope4Bridget and Batten Disease (a rare disease) as well as continue to work with our clients on promising compounds for the potential treatment of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (an orphan designated rare disease).

Working together, we will continue to adopt more of these orphan diseases and meet more unmet medical needs. To learn more about this issue and how you can help, jump into today’s blog hop sponsored by the R.A.R.E Project.

Dr. Michael Gralinski, CorDynamics CEO

The Short Story on Prolonged QT Interval

Over the course of my career, I’ve been asked the following questions many times:

1. What is QT Interval Prolongation?

2. Why does it matter?

QT Interval Prolongation is an increase in the time the heart normally takes to ‘reset’ itself electrically.

QT Interval Prolongation is a critical matter in drug development for several reasons.

• Drugs that increase QT interval can make the heart vulnerable to life-threatening arrhythmias.

• It is one of the leading causes for drug withdrawal over the last 20 years.

• Screening new compounds for QT interval prolongation early in development can save millions of dollars.

Is there more you’d like to know about QT Interval prolongation? The long story perhaps?

If so, get in touch. I’m happy to elaborate further.

Best Regards,

Dr. Michael Gralinski, CorDynamics CEO

Chicago Running: A Holiday Tradition

The holidays can be especially hard when trying to keep in shape. My holiday was no exception. It started with a wonderful and indulgent Thanksgiving, followed by a very Merry Christmas in England and ended with a Happy New Year’s Eve.

Traveling over Christmas made it especially hard for me to stay in shape. I was able to fit in one run while I was in England. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but one is better than none. Fortunately, I did a lot of walking in London, so I felt a little better about not sticking to a regular running schedule.

I was amazed at how few runners I saw while I was in England. My count ended at seven runners seen in the eight days that we were there—and my running partner and I were two of them! Many Chicagoans are dedicated runners so I’m used to seeing others running all the time. It never occurred to me that other cities or countries would be so different.

I have a few races I am hoping to take on this year. The Chicago Shamrock Shuffle will be my official kick-off to the 2012 running season on the 25th of March. (St. Patrick’s Day will be another holiday to hurdle.) Once again CorDynamics is sponsoring my race and my efforts to encourage those around me to stay heart healthy. With my goals set, I’m ready to shake off the holidays and to start off the New Year happy and healthy!

Happy Trails.
Melissa Fisher, CorDynamics Operations Manager

CorDynamics Sets 2012 Trade Show Calendar

The CorDynamics team is closing out a successful year and setting the stage for 2012. Closing one calendar and turning to a new one, some of the first dates to fill in are our trade show exhibitions.

For the first time, we’ll take our booth to the Experimental Biology meeting in San Diego April 21-25. As we continue to grow the drug discovery side of our business, I look forward to attending this event and meeting with colleagues focused on this exciting and important side of drug discovery.

In addition to EB, we’ll also be exhibiting at SOT, SPS and ACT.

• Society of Toxicology 51^st Annual Meeting

San Francisco, March 11-15

• 2012 Safety Pharmacology Society Annual Meeting

Phoenix, October 1-4

• American College of Toxicology 33^rd Annual Meeting

Orlando, November 4-7

If you’re going to be at any of these meetings, please put connecting with us on your calendar.

Best Regards and Happy New Year.

Dr. Michael Gralinski, CorDynamics CEO

Fielding Facts About Sudden Cardiac Arrest in Youth Sports

Sudden Cardiac Arrest is the leading cause of death in youth sports, according to the recent Youth Sports Safety Summit. It’s a frightening reality that many parents and coaches fear, but don’t necessarily understand.

Sudden Cardiac Arrest occurs when the heart’s normal rhythm becomes severely abnormal, compromising cardiac output. These arrhythmias can be generated by a number of triggers, including direct blunt trauma to the chest or exertion stress upon a previously unrecognized vulnerable heart.

Blunt trauma is often the result of an object such as a baseball or hockey puck striking a child in the chest during the very brief period of electrical vulnerability associated with each normal heartbeat—resulting in ‘commotio cordis’, a life threatening arrhythmia that often degenerates into fatal ventricular fibrillation. Appropriate protection equipment or alternate types of baseballs/pucks can reduce the morbidity and mortality of chest trauma in young athletes.

When sports participants experience arrhythmias during exertion stress, it is often associated with previously unrecognized conditions such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (a thickened left ventricle usually present via congenital route). Since the cardiomyopathy results in some compromised left ventricular function, an increase in hemodynamic demand places an extra burden on the abnormal heart muscle substrate. This extra burden renders the heart vulnerable to disturbances in electrophysiology, with an increased risk of severe arrhythmias. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy can be detected by ECG screening, with follow up echocardiography where warranted.

Since screening all children for heart pathophysiology is not practiced in our current health care system, directives from the summit encourage Coaches, teams and schools to implement a strong cardiac chain of survival:

• Recognize a cardiac emergency and call 911
• Early CPR
• Early defibrillation
• Early advanced cardiac life support

While we run electrophysiology studies to make sure drugs are safe and do not cause sudden cardiac death, we continue to learn more about the condition along the way.

You want may want to checkout www.parentheartwatch.org for more information.

Best regards,

Dr. Michael Gralinski, CorDynamics CEO