Philanthropist Ted Stanley made a multi-year $650m commitment to fund genomic research at the Eli and Edythe L Broad Institute in collaboration with scientists around the world that may generate biological pathways and molecules that could reignite pharmaceutical company interest in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and other psychiatric conditions.

Biocortech was established in November 2001 to commercialize the fruits of the founders' research into the underlying causes of treatment-resistant forms of CNS diseases such as depression and schizophrenia. The company's aim is to develop effective therapies for these and other diseases associated with the pre-frontal cortex of the brain, such as bipolar disorder and cognitive and sexual disorders.

Avalon Pharmaceuticals Inc. hopes to harness the explosion of target information to identify promising drugs without having to rely first on finding new targets. It is employing its target-independent platform to look at the activities of compounds much earlier in the discovery process than conventional screening methods.

A preview of the emerging health care companies profiled in the current issue of Start-Up. This month's profile group, Protein Harvest, features profiles of Meristem Therapeutics; MPB Cologne GMBH; PhytaGenics Inc. and ProdiGene Inc. Plus these selected Start-Ups across Health Care: Gentris Corp.; HemoGenix LLC; Psychiatric Genomics Inc. and Zassi Medical Evolutions Inc.