A Medical Device Daily

The Yawkey Foundation, named after the late Tom and Jean Yawkey, has awarded $30 million, the largest gift in its history, to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Boston) to help underwrite construction of the Yawkey Center for Cancer Care, a state-of-the-art outpatient facility proposed to be developed on Brookline Avenue, at the heart of Dana-Farber's campus.

The Yawkey contribution is the second largest single gift made to Dana-Farber's fundraising campaign, "Mission Possible: The Dana-Farber Campaign to Conquer Cancer," which seeks to raise $1 billion to accelerate the pace of cancer research, promote the translation of scientific advances into new life-saving therapies, and expand Dana-Farber's ability to provide its signature patient- and family-centered care.

"We're immensely grateful for the Yawkey Foundation's generous support for this project, and for Dana-Farber and our mission," said Edward Benz Jr., MD, president of Dana-Farber. "More than 50 years ago, Tom and Jean Yawkey and our founder Dr. Sidney Farber shared a vision of one day conquering cancer."

The Yawkey Foundation's gift extends the Yawkeys' commitment to the Jimmy Fund, which the Yawkeys adopted as the official charity of the Boston Red Sox, which they owned from 1933-2002. The Red Sox-Jimmy Fund partnership has generated millions of dollars in support for cancer care and research at Dana-Farber.

As proposed, the Yawkey Center for Cancer Care will house many of Dana-Farber's adult clinical services, as well as translational research space and patient and family services. The 275,000 square foot building, to be constructed near the intersection of Brookline Avenue and Jimmy Fund Way, will include 100 exam rooms, 150 infusion beds, and a new, patient-friendly front entrance for Dana-Farber. It also will consolidate many of Dana-Farber's clinical services into a more open, accessible space and provide a new, modern entrance into the renowned institute. The building is expected to be ready for occupancy in early 2011.

In contract news:

• The National Institutes of Health has awarded an $850,000 Fast-Track Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant to Fluential (Sunnyvale, California) to develop and evaluate an advanced two-way speech translation system to enable hospital nurses to communicate with their Spanish- and Cantonese-speaking patients.

Fluential will create the speech translation system using S-MINDS, the technology platform the company has developed for the U.S. military. The system will provide hospital nurses with immediate access to medical interpretation for their most common patient interactions.

In Phase 1, which will be completed by June of this year, Fluential's system will enable nurses to complete common tasks with their Spanish-speaking patients, including checking patients' vital signs, assessing their pain, and conducting a respiratory assessment. Phase 2 will be completed by the end of next year and will enable a comprehensive range of nurse-patient interactions in both Spanish and Cantonese.

• Nanogen (San Diego), developer of advanced diagnostic products, reported that it has obtained a U.S. Government Service Administration schedule contract applying to the company's NanoChip 400 microarray instrument and reagents.

The contract enables Nanogen to be listed on an approved GSA schedule and sell its NanoChip products directly to government agencies such as the NIH, military hospitals and Veteran's Administration hospitals.

The NanoChip 400 instrument is an automated multiplexing platform that laboratories use to detect genetic sequences. Tests can be performed using reagents supplied by Nanogen, or laboratories can develop a variety of "homebrew" assays. The NanoChip instrument employs Nanogen's core microarray technology, which utilizes microfluidics and electronic technology to automate sample handling and detection of results.