SyStemix Inc. and Sandoz Pharma Ltd. announced that they agreedto provide partial funding for research conducted in the laboratoryof Irving Weissman at Stanford University School of Medicine.Terms were not disclosed.Research will focus on the molecular biology of the blood-formingsystem, a spokeswoman for SyStemix, told BioWorld. "We want tofind out what differentiates disease states from normal states at themolecular level," she said.Weissman, a founder of SyStemix, is professor of Pathology andDevelopmental Biology at Stanford, and chairman of the Palo Alto,Calif., company's scientific advisory board. Sandoz Pharma, withheadquarters in Basel, Switzerland, owns about 60 percent ofSyStemix.In 1993 SyStemix and Sandoz subsidiary, Sandoz PharmaceuticalCorp., formed a joint venture called Progenesys to research anddevelop human stem cell-based gene therapies for HIV infection.Also in 1993, Sandoz Pharma and SyStemix agreed to collaborateon the development and discovery of therapeutic agents todetermine pathogenic mechanisms of HIV, and on in vivo testing ofanti-HIV agents. _ Jim Shrine

(c) 1997 American Health Consultants. All rights reserved.