BIOCRYST RAISES $750,000 IN FINANCING ROUNDBioCryst of Birmingham, Ala., on Tuesday said it has raisedmore than $750,000 in a second round of private financing.BioCryst uses three-dimensional molecular information todesign drugs that interfere with the progression of diseasessuch as diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, adult respiratorydistress syndrome and osteoarthritis.

MARROW-TECH TO EXPAND DERMAGRAFT TRIALS

Marrow-Tech Inc. of La Jolla, Calif., on Tuesday announcedexpanded clinical testing of its DermaGraft dermal skinreplacement. The company expects trials at eight major U.S.burn centers to begin by summer. Marrow-Tech began testingDermaGraft as a permanent skin replacement for burn patientsat University of California, San Diego's, Regional Burn Centerearlier this year.

GENELABS LICENSES HTLV-I TECHNOLOGY

Genelabs Technologies Inc. of Redwood City, Calif., will bring itsHTLV-I diagnostic technology to market in the Pacific Rimthrough a licensing agreement between its subsidiary, GenelabsAsia (Pte) Ltd., and Diagnostic Biotechnology (Pte) Ltd, both ofSingapore. All blood donated in the United States and Japan isscreened for HTLV-I, a human retrovirus associated with adultT cell leukemia/lymphoma and a form of myelopathy. Theagreement gives Diagnostic worldwide marketing rights, exceptfor Japan. The Genelabs test has not yet been approved for salein the United States or Japan.

ZYNAKIS, ISIS GET SBIRs

Zynaxis Cell Science Inc. and Isis Pharmaceuticals havereceived Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grantsfrom the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.Zynaxis of Malvern, Pa., has received a $500,000 Phase II SBIRto investigate radiolabeled cell-tracking molecules. Zynaxishopes to create imaging agents to observe metastatic tumorsites non-invasively in the lung.

Isis, of Carlsbad, Calif., has received a $50,000 Phase I grant toinvestigate the effect of chirality (left- or right-handedness) onmodified oligonucleotides. Oligonucleotides inhibit various stepsin the transfer of information in the genome to proteins.

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