A 40,000-square-foot, $15 million medical office building is planned for the 4S Ranch area of San Diego. The new Class A office development, known as 4S Ranch Medical Plaza, is located at the northwest corner of Camino Del Norte and Dove Canyon Road in the middle of the east Carmel Valley and west Rancho Bernardo communities.   

Alvarado Hospital is changing the way spine disorders are evaluated and treated in San Diego. The hospital's newly opened Advanced Spine Institute & Minimally Invasive Spine Center has brought together an exceptional team of experienced medical, surgical and rehabilitation spine specialists who meet regularly to evaluate, diagnose and develop treatment plans for individual patients.   

A soldier is inside an armored vehicle, driving through the streets of Fallujah as roadside bombs go off and the air is filled with smoke and flying debris. Except that this particular soldier is in San Diego, reliving his Iraq war experience through a virtual reality simulation intended to treat his post-traumatic stress disorder.   

For all great teams, the numbers tell the story. Poway-based Nexus Biosystems tipped-off in 2005, turned profitable in 2008 and is on track to double revenues in 2009.   

It isn't easy for parents to know their child probably won't live long enough to have a mid-life crisis.   

Gerald T. Proehl grew up in the Buffalo, N.Y., area, worked in the Southeast and then the Midwest before making his way to San Diego, where he is the CEO of Santarus, a $130 million specialty biopharmaceutical company.   

Don Jones understands the need to synchronize the relationship between humans and wireless technologies in the health and life sciences markets, and every step he takes to unite them is boosting his value in San Diego's business community.   

Vijay Samant is a man who likes innovation.   

President Obama's health care plan will present far-reaching changes. Tens of millions of Americans who lack health coverage today could be insured, while those happy with their coverage could keep it. Local health care providers, though, wonder if the changes can work.   

Cuts in federal funding to hospitals proposed by President Barack Obama would endanger the already struggling industry, the head of the American Hospital Association said Monday.   

Think your job's tedious? Try beheading 100 mosquitoes an hour.   

Merck & Co. and Schering-Plough Corp. will hold special meetings in August for their stockholders to approve their pending merger, which would make the combined company the world's second-largest prescription drugmaker.   

Wall Street analysts on Tuesday said Celgene Corp.'s (Nasdaq: CELG) developing arthritis drug apremilast has the potential to become a key competitor in a market full of blockbusters, following positive midstage study data on the experimental treatment.   

UC San Diego Medical Center experts are using innovative, minimally invasive technologies to tackle two hard-to-treat cancers: liver and esophageal cancer.   

Heart disease and stroke continue to be the nation's No. 1 and 3 killers, and 142 million American adults -- 66 percent of Americans -- are overweight. Physical inactivity is a major risk factor for heart disease, and is a comparable risk to other modifiable risk factors such as high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure and smoking. About 70 percent of the American population engages in no regular leisure-time physical activity, which is defined as light-moderate activity for more than 30 minutes, five times a week, or vigorous activity (like brisk walking) for more than 20 minutes, three times a week.   

The San Diego laboratory market consists of approximately 14 million square feet, with countywide vacancy at 9.2 percent, up from 8.6 percent at the end of the first-quarter 2009.   

California Western School of Law partners with the University of California, San Diego to offer a master's degree in health law, a unique program of study that equips legal, medical and health care professionals with the essential knowledge and skills to improve practice where health care and law overlap. Led by scholars from the UCSD School of Medicine and California Western, the program provides graduates with a more complete understanding of the best scientific, ethical, regulatory and management practices in both professions, with a goal of establishing compatible solutions in policy and practice. The program is co-directed by California Western's Bryan Liang, M.D., Ph.D., J.D., and Susan Channick, J.D., M.P.H, and Len Deftos, M.D., J.D., of UCSD.   

Within the life science industry, the definition of an "incubator" varies widely. For life science real estate, an incubator is a facility equipped with "ready to go" laboratory and office space designed specifically for early-stage biotechnology companies. Biotech incubators nurture fledgling companies toward advancing their science by providing the services and environment necessary to achieve success in the research, development and eventual commercialization of their products, including the cultivation of scientific collaboration with diverse, like-minded ventures located within its facility.   

The rush is on in Washington, D.C., and in statehouses across the nation to curb medical costs and to change how American health care is funded and delivered -- change sought by physicians, patients and payers alike.   

The insurance lobby won't be able to block a public health plan because most Americans realize they would be better off if the industry had competition, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Tuesday as congressional committees worked to shape legislation.   

   

San Diego-based Hollis-Eden Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq: HEPH) has appointed James M. Frincke as president and CEO, three months after the company dismissed its former CEO and founder Richard Hollis.   

   

Life Technologies Corp. will add about $100 million in revenue next year from selling its gene-analyzing tools to scientists receiving new U.S. medical research funds, Chief Executive Greg Lucier said.   

Shares of Ardea Biosciences Inc. (Nasdaq: RDEA) lifted more than 4 percent after the San Diego company announced positive results in clinical studies of lead candidate RDEA594.   

The U.S. House Veterans' Affairs Committee voted unanimously this week to send the Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act of 2009 to the full House. A vote is expected as early as next week.   

Illumina Inc. (Nasdaq: ILMN) unveiled a service program to provide personal genome sequencing for consumers.   

A biotechnology company developing early cancer screening tools took home $40,000 at the third annual UC San Diego Entrepreneur Challenge business plan competition.