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Renowned researchers, scientists share advances in prevention, diagnosis, therapy

Leading researchers are gathering today for the 95th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), the premier multidisciplinary assembly, which features the latest developments in basic, prevention, translational and clinical cancer research. The meeting occurs from March 27 – 31, 2004 at the Orlando Convention Center, Fla.

27 Mar 2004

St. John’s wort may interfere with cancer-fighting drug’s ability to prevent relapse in leukemia patients

St. John’s wort, an herb thought to be a safe, natural remedy for mild depression, may interfere with a powerful cancer-fighting drug’s ability to prevent relapse in leukemia patients, a University of Florida pharmacy researcher will report March 27 at the annual meeting of the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics.

26 Mar 2004

A simple blood test could determine whether older women with diabetes would benefit from, or be harmed by, vitamin doses designed to protect their ailing hearts

A simple blood test could determine whether older women with diabetes would benefit from, or be harmed by, vitamin doses designed to protect their ailing hearts, according to researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.

26 Mar 2004

Researchers have successfully grafted human breast tissue into the mammary glands of mice

The last few years have witnessed critical advances in breast cancer therapies. Still, the disease afflicts one in eight American women, and scientists have yet to develop a living model with which they can study the intricacies of human breast-tumor behavior.

26 Mar 2004

p53 protein peptide stops cancer in its tracks

Researchers have dreamed of thwarting cancer by using proteins that halt cell growth and kill the tumor. In theory, the approach should work. In practice, however, scientists have not had an easy time of getting tumor suppressor proteins into cells where they can block growth effectively.

26 Mar 2004

A common antibiotic used to treat arthritis and acne shows promise for limiting the severity of spinal cord and brain injuries

When a fall, car crash, bullet, or knife crushes or cuts a spinal cord, the injury does not stop there. Rather, tissues continue to discharge toxic chemicals for hours, even days and weeks. These chemicals kill and disable nerve cells some distance away from the core injury, compounding the damage and making rehabilitation more difficult or impossible.

26 Mar 2004

Oral medication for diabetes a step closer

University of Toronto researchers have shown that "designer molecules" can interact with the body's insulin receptor, a step toward the development of an oral medication for diabetes. U of T professors Lakshmi Kotra, Cecil Yip, Peter Ottensmeyer and Robert Batey have created the first small molecules using the three-dimensional structure of the insulin receptor. A receptor is the site on the surface of a cell to which molecules with specific tasks, such as hormones, attach themselves. Insulin's task is to initiate the utilization of sugar in the blood.

26 Mar 2004

New computerized tool to assist surgeons in planning cryosurgery

Carnegie Mellon University's Yoed Rabin is leading an interdisciplinary research team in developing a new computerized tool to assist surgeons in planning cryosurgery, now being used to freeze undesired tissues in prostate cancer patients.

26 Mar 2004

Pregnancies that end in miscarriage or abortion do not increase a woman's risk of developing breast cancer

A Study coordinated by Cancer Research UK scientists has shown that pregnancies that end in miscarriage or abortion do not increase a woman's risk of developing breast cancer later in life.

26 Mar 2004

Supercomputer used to determine structures and functions of proteins

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory are proposing to use a supercomputer originally developed to simulate elementary particles in high-energy physics to help determine the structures and functions of proteins, including, for example, the 30,000 or so proteins encoded by the human genome. Structural information will help scientists better understand proteins’ role in disease and health, and may lead to new diagnostic and therapeutic agents.

26 Mar 2004

Bionomics files novel angiogenesis genes patent

Bionomics Limited has announced that it had filed a further international patent application that covers 496 proprietary angiogenesis drug targets. The international patent application applies to genes that Bionomics has identified using advanced technologies such as microarray and bioinformatics analyses. These technologies have enabled Bionomics to identify novel angiogenesis genes that have not been identified by other companies or research groups.

26 Mar 2004

Growth factor protein succeeds in growing new coronary arteries

Three patients of the UC Heart & Vascular Center have grown new coronary artery branches to increase blood flow to the heart after receiving a new growth factor protein (FGF1) in November 2003. All three patients showed improved blood flow to the heart twelve weeks following the injection.

26 Mar 2004

Children with sickle cell disease are living longer, dying less often from their disease

Children with sickle cell disease, an inherited red blood-cell disorder, are living longer, dying less often from their disease and contracting fewer fatal infections than ever before, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas report. Their study, which will appear in the June edition of the scientific journal Blood, is the first to evaluate survival rates of children receiving the most modern treatments for sickle cell disease. It's also one of the largest published sickle cell studies to date. Researchers followed more than 700 Dallas-area children with the disease over two decades.

25 Mar 2004

Joint Research Collaboration to Predict 3-D Protein Structures and Support Drug Discovery

IBM today announced that the University at Buffalo (UB) Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics, The State University of New York, will use IBM technologies and research expertise to study the structure and behavior of human proteins. The outcome of this research could lead to more targeted drugs to treat diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer's, AIDS and multiple sclerosis.

25 Mar 2004

Researchers turn off individual human genes to study their function

Researchers have produced vast libraries of short segments of ribonucleic acid (RNA) that can be used to turn off individual human and mouse genes to study their function. The libraries will be made widely available to laboratories studying human biology and disease. The researchers are optimistic that the libraries will become a powerful research tool for gene analysis and discovery.

25 Mar 2004

Stenting for Stroke Prevention is More Effective Than Surgery in Keeping Blood Vessels Open

Research presented in a six-hour symposium on carotid artery disease at the 29th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Society of Interventional Radiology showed carotid artery stenting to be safe and effective for highrisk patients. Currently, the standard of care for stroke prevention in patients with moderate to severely blocked carotid arteries is carotid endarterectomy surgery. The ARCHeR trials treated patients who were high-risk surgical candidates with carotid artery stenting with and without embolic protection, a device to capture debris that may break off during the procedure.

25 Mar 2004

Alfuzosin, new treatment for Acute Urinary Retention

The results of the ALFAUR (ALFuzosin in Acute Urinary Retention) study, announced today at the XIXth European Association of Urology (EAU) Congress in Vienna, Austria, indicate that the uroselective alpha1-blocker alfuzosin 10 mg once daily (OD) may have a beneficial effect in the management of male patients suffering from acute urinary retention (AUR), a sudden inability to pass urine that results in a painful distension of the bladder, requires immediate management with urethral catheterization and could necessitate surgical intervention.

25 Mar 2004

New Research Information on Tumor Necrosis Therapy

Researchers for Peregrine Pharmaceuticals presented today at the Strategic Research Institute’s Clinical-Stage Product Partnering Summit in La Jolla, CA a summary of clinical experience with Tumor Necrosis Therapy (TNT). The TNT technology is being developed in the U.S. and Europe by Peregrine under the trade name Cotara™. Over 200 patients have been treated with TNT world-wide and a TNT product has been approved to treat grade III or IV advanced lung cancer in the People’s Republic of China. A Cotara registration study for brain cancer has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and a Phase I colorectal cancer study is on-going at Stanford University Medical Center.

25 Mar 2004

Discovery of new gene sheds light on human brain development

With the identification of the gene responsible for a newly recognized type of mental retardation, researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) have also discovered what appears to be the key target in the evolution of the frontal lobes of the brain's cerebral cortex. The findings offer a key insight into the complex puzzle of human brain development - and the evolution of human behavior.

25 Mar 2004

A debate over the origins of what is sometimes called "junk" DNA has been settled

A debate over the origins of what is sometimes called "junk" DNA has been settled by research involving scientists at the Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology (CARB) and a collaborator, who developed rigorous proof that these mysterious sections were added to DNA "late" in the evolution of life on earth, after the formation of modern-sized genes, which contain instructions for making proteins.

25 Mar 2004

Research News and Research

Renowned researchers, scientists share advances in prevention, diagnosis, therapy

St. John’s wort may interfere with cancer-fighting drug’s ability to prevent relapse in leukemia patients

A simple blood test could determine whether older women with diabetes would benefit from, or be harmed by, vitamin doses designed to protect their ailing hearts

Researchers have successfully grafted human breast tissue into the mammary glands of mice

p53 protein peptide stops cancer in its tracks

A common antibiotic used to treat arthritis and acne shows promise for limiting the severity of spinal cord and brain injuries

Oral medication for diabetes a step closer

New computerized tool to assist surgeons in planning cryosurgery

Pregnancies that end in miscarriage or abortion do not increase a woman's risk of developing breast cancer

Supercomputer used to determine structures and functions of proteins

Bionomics files novel angiogenesis genes patent

Growth factor protein succeeds in growing new coronary arteries

Children with sickle cell disease are living longer, dying less often from their disease

Joint Research Collaboration to Predict 3-D Protein Structures and Support Drug Discovery

Researchers turn off individual human genes to study their function

Stenting for Stroke Prevention is More Effective Than Surgery in Keeping Blood Vessels Open

Alfuzosin, new treatment for Acute Urinary Retention

New Research Information on Tumor Necrosis Therapy

Discovery of new gene sheds light on human brain development

A debate over the origins of what is sometimes called "junk" DNA has been settled

A new way of characterising biomolecules eBook

How can microdialysis benefit drug development

Global and Local Efforts to Take Action Against Hepatitis

Addressing Important Cardiac Biology Questions with Shotgun Top-Down Proteomics

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