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'Twist' gene plays a key role in the development of breast cancer

Working with mice, scientists at Johns Hopkins publishing in the December issue of Neoplasia have shown that a protein made by a gene called "Twist" may be the proverbial red flag that can accurately distinguish stem cells that drive aggressive, metastatic breast cancer from other breast cancer cells.

5 Dec 2009

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute receives 2009 MMRC Center of the Year Award

The Multiple Myeloma Research Consortium (MMRC) today announced that it has awarded the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and its clinical researchers, Kenneth Anderson, MD, and Paul Richardson, MD, with the 2009 MMRC Center of the Year Award.

5 Dec 2009

Radio units help in optimizing medical device management in hospitals

Have the blood supplies got too warm? Do they match the patient's blood group? In the future, these kinds of questions will be answered by intelligent radio nodes attached to blood bags. These radio units will also greatly facilitate device management in hospitals.

5 Dec 2009

Statins may help protect stem cell transplant patients from GVHD

Cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins are among the most prescribed medicines in the U.S. Now a new study by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center indicates that statins may protect stem cell transplant patients from one of the most serious complications of the life-saving cancer therapy: graft-versus-host disease, or GVHD. The findings are reported in the Nov. 4 first edition of the journal Blood.

5 Dec 2009

NCI awards $55.4 million, multiple-year contract to Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

The National Cancer Institute has awarded a $55.4 million, multiple-year contract to Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to become the nation's sole operator of its Cancer Information Service Contact Center.

5 Dec 2009

Health experts address treatment gap in epilepsy management at AES Annual Meeting

Substantial progress has been made over the last 15 years in the healthcare community's ability to diagnose and treat epilepsy and its complications. Yet this progress in epilepsy management has not reached most of the 50 million people around the world, including many of the nearly three million people in the United States who have the disorder.

5 Dec 2009

'Brain advantages' for effective business leadership

Business leaders are in charge-of people, of budgets, of production lines. Most leaders also believe that they are in charge of their greatest resource-their own brain. But how true is that? The more we understand about how the brain works, the clearer it becomes that often our brain kicks in before we do.

5 Dec 2009

Jenex reports closing of modified private-placement equity financing

The Jenex Corporation, a medical device company focused on the development and application of products based on its patented thermal therapy technology, today announced that on December 1, 2009 it closed a brokered private-placement equity financing. The offering is subject to receiving final acceptance from The TSX Venture Exchange.

5 Dec 2009

Scientists report cervarix vaccine offers protection against cervical cancer

The Cervarix vaccine provides protection against two types of human papillomavirus (HPV) for more than six years, US scientists have reported.

5 Dec 2009

New data from PharmAthene's anthrax vaccine program presented

PharmAthene, Inc., a biodefense company developing medical countermeasures against biological and chemical threats, announced today the presentation of new data from the Company's anthrax vaccine program showing that its lyophilized recombinant Protective Antigen (rPA) based anthrax vaccine is structurally stable and potent after 16 months at various temperatures up to and including 55 degrees C.

5 Dec 2009

DOE and USDA announce $600 million grants and loan guarantees to build new biorefinery projects

The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) today applauded the announcement of over $600 million in grants and loan guarantees to help build 19 new biorefinery projects to produce advanced biofuels and biobased chemicals from renewable feedstocks. The funding represents the largest single federal investment in advanced biorefineries to date.

5 Dec 2009

Number of new active TB cases increases from 2007 to 2008, WHO says

The WHO's Stop TB Department released data on Thursday at the 40th Union World Conference on Lung Health indicating that the number of new active TB cases worldwide rose from 9.27 million in 2007 to 9.4 million in 2008, Reuters reports. Experts, who were gathered for the conference in Cancun, Mexico, "called for more research funding to develop better diagnostic tests, vaccines and drugs for tuberculosis, which killed 1.8 million people around the world last year," according to the news service.

4 Dec 2009

Rituximab drug may reduce long-term complications of type 1 diabetes

New findings by UT Southwestern researchers suggest that a drug already used to treat autoimmune disorders might also help slow the destruction of insulin-producing cells in patients recently diagnosed with insulin-dependent (type 1) diabetes.

4 Dec 2009

Foreign Policy examines 'philanthrocapitalism' trend

Foreign Policy examines "a revolutionary idea for how to remake charity in the 21st century [that] is taking off: philanthrocapitalism." The magazine writes: "Unlike their colleagues in government bureaucracies and tried-and-true NGOs, the philanthrocapitalists are a nimble, business-minded stock."

4 Dec 2009

ACAMP hosts health and medical seminar

Today ACAMP hosted a health & medical seminar, explaining how technologies like nanotechnology, biomaterials and microfluidics can play a powerful role in the creation of innovative healthcare products that help promote health and improve the quality, cost and outcomes of patient care, while opening new markets for Alberta companies worldwide.

4 Dec 2009

Study shows smiles and scowls provide cues for gender identification

"Why is it that men can be bastards and women must wear pearls and smile?" wrote author Lynn Hecht Schafran. The answer, according to an article in the Journal of Vision, may lie in our interpretation of facial expressions.

4 Dec 2009

Fluxion Biosciences signs distribution agreement with DI Biotech and Novel Science

Fluxion Biosciences announced today that it has expanded its sales and service network into Asia. The company signed a distribution agreement for its BioFlux™ line with Korea-based DI Biotech. A second agreement with Novel Science covers sales of both the BioFlux and IonFlux™ platforms in Japan. Fluxion has also sold its first BioFlux 1000 system into China.

From Fluxion Biosciences 4 Dec 2009

Two examples of health innovations: A new pediatric specialty and a well-wired clinic

Newspapers report on doctors' efforts to develop new expertise to treat children who have been abused and neglected, as well as those to address a poor community's health needs with electronic health records.

4 Dec 2009

Health Policy Research Roundup

UCLA Center For Health Policy Research: Health Disparities Among California's Nearly Four Million Low-Income Nonelderly Adult Women - Using data from the 2007 California Health Interview Survey, the authors of this policy brief compare low-income women, ages 18-64, to others. The report finds the low-income women are four times more likely to report fair or poor health and are more likely to report a health condition that interferes with basic physical activities, such as walking or climbing stairs.

4 Dec 2009

Abnormal EEG waveforms in neurological disorder patients can now be better understood

The electroencephalogram (EEG) is widely used by physicians and scientists to study brain function and to diagnose neurological disorders. However, it has remained largely unknown whether the electrodes on the head give an exact view of what is happening inside the brain.

4 Dec 2009