Wishard Memorial Hospital

Indianapolis-based Indigo Biosystems Inc., a scientific software provider, plans to add 63 jobs by 2015 as part of a $1.4 million expansion. The company, headquartered at 20 E. 91st St. in Woodland Corporate Park IV, now has about 30 employees and is hiring engineers, mathematicians, scientists and project managers. Using advanced algorithms, Indigo’s cloud-based software enables analytical laboratories to automate diagnostic tests performed on millions of patient samples every year. The company was founded in 2004 by Dr. Randall K. Julian Jr. as a project of the Lilly Ventures arm of drugmaker Eli Lilly and Co. Indigo became an independent company in 2008.

Health officials developing a statewide trauma system say Indiana needs more than the eight trauma centers it currently has, according to the Associated Press. The State Department of Health trauma prevention experts say only 58 percent of Indiana residents live within 45 minutes of one of Indiana's eight trauma centers certified by the American College of Surgeons. Three are in Indianapolis—at Wishard Memorial Hospital, Indiana University Health's Methodist Hospital and St. Vincent Indianapolis Hospital. There are also two each in Fort Wayne and Evansville and one in South Bend. Traumatic injuries are the top killer of Hoosiers under age 45, and injuries hospitalize more than 32,000 people each year. About 3,700 injuries resulted in death in 2009, the most recent data available.

The Indianapolis-based Regenstrief Institute has signed a five-year agreement with New Jersey-based drugmaker Merck & Co. Inc. to explore new methods for studying diseases and interventions for chronic conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis. Financial details of the collaboration were not disclosed. “With Merck’s depth of expertise and its global reach, we hope to develop and test new approaches to care, and advance successful models of health care broadly,” said Dr. Jon Duke, Regenstrief’s innovations officer. The two organizations think their work can improve drug development and the safety of medicines, as well as advance the personalization of medical treatments.