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Many couples misjudge partners' risk behaviors

While monogamy is often touted as a way to protect against disease, young couples who say they have discussed monogamy can't seem to agree on what they decided. And a significant percentage of those couples who at least agreed that they would be monogamous weren't.

21 Jan 2011

New research says EPO hormone can modulate immune response

New research reveals that a hormone best known for stimulating the production of red blood cells can modulate the immune response. The study, published by Cell Press in the January 27th issue of the journal Immunity, finds that erythropoietin has contrasting influences on infectious and inflammatory diseases and may be useful in the design of new therapeutic strategies.

21 Jan 2011

Scientists find ADAR1 enzyme protect against measles virus

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have found that a known enzyme in cells protects against measles virus, likely by altering the virus's genetic material, RNA. Cells lacking the enzyme become highly vulnerable to the virus's destructive effects. The enzyme also protects against several other respiratory viruses, including influenza A.

21 Jan 2011

BUSM receives NIH grant to explore how chronic inflammation can lead to systemic diseases

A team of researchers at Boston University School of Medicine have been awarded a five-year, $7.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to explore how chronic inflammation can lead to systemic diseases.

20 Jan 2011

Akonni introduces TruTip kit for extraction of human genomic DNA from fresh, frozen whole blood

Akonni Biosystems, a molecular diagnostics company focused on providing rapid and highly scalable solutions for infectious and genetic disease testing, today announced the launch of a TruTip kit for extraction of human genomic DNA from fresh or frozen whole blood.

20 Jan 2011

Actor George Clooney contracts malaria

Oscar-winning actor George Clooney contracted malaria during a trip to Sudan earlier this month, but is now fully cured. Clooney, 49, had visited Sudan earlier and on this trip was helping draw attention to a historic referendum on independence for residents of the mainly Christian south.

20 Jan 2011

Routine rotavirus vaccine shows a significant drop in diarrhea cases: Study

A latest study has shown that the rotavirus vaccines have helped drastically reduce hospital visits around the world. Rotavirus can lead to fatal cases of diarrhea in children and causes half a million deaths in kids under five each year around the world. Developing countries are particularly at risk.

20 Jan 2011

FDA accepts Vertex's telaprevir NDA for six-month Priority Review

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted the New Drug Application (NDA) for telaprevir and granted the company's request for six-month Priority Review. Telaprevir is Vertex's lead medicine in development for people with genotype 1 chronic hepatitis C.

20 Jan 2011

FDA provides tentative approval under PEPFAR for Matrix's Lamivudine and Zidovudine NDA

Mylan Inc. today announced that its subsidiary Matrix Laboratories Limited has received tentative approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) for its New Drug Application (NDA) for Lamivudine and Zidovudine Tablets, 30 mg/60 mg.

20 Jan 2011

FDA grants Soligenix Orphan Drug Designation to RiVax for prevention of ricin intoxication

Soligenix, Inc., a late-stage biopharmaceutical company, announced today that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Orphan Drug Designation to RiVax™ for the prevention of ricin intoxication. RiVax™ is a proprietary vaccine that contains a recombinant subunit of the A chain of ricin toxin which induces ricin neutralizing antibodies in humans and animals.

20 Jan 2011

HIV-infected patients three times more likely to suffer strokes

While the overall hospitalization rate for stroke has declined in recent years, the numbers have jumped dramatically for patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), suggesting they may be up to three times more likely to suffer a stroke than people uninfected by the virus that causes AIDS.

20 Jan 2011

Scientists discover fundamental mechanism behind toxic protein aggregation in neurodegenerative diseases

Protein aggregation underlies several neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, Huntington's chorea or Parkinson's. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry (MPIB) in Martinsried near Munich, Germany, now discovered a fundamental mechanism which explains how toxic protein aggregation occurs and why it leads to a widespread impairment of essential cellular functions.

20 Jan 2011

BI refuses to offer increased access to AIDS drugs for low-income Americans

AHF issued the following: Despite a growing national AIDS drug crisis, pharmaceutical giant Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, has steadfastly refused to offer increased access to its lifesaving AIDS drugs or to respond in any way to repeated requests by AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the largest global AIDS organization, to do its part in creating a solution.

20 Jan 2011

Koronis' KP-1461 drug causes extra mutations to occur in HIV genome in HIV-infected patients

Recently published Phase 2a clinical trial results show that the frequency of specific, drug-induced mutations in the HIV genome can be significantly increased by administering KP-1461, a drug being developed by Koronis Pharmaceuticals based on its novel Viral Decay Acceleration (VDA) drug mechanism.

20 Jan 2011

Swiss HIV Cohort Study identifies simple method to determine time of infection

Identifying the time of HIV infection. Researchers of the Swiss HIV Cohort Study have identified a simple method to establish when a patient contracted the virus causing . The time of infection can be of importance for the treatment of the illness and it contributes to the understanding of the course of the epidemic.

20 Jan 2011

UMB enters license agreement with Bali BioSciences for new strategy to combat sepsis, HIV/AIDS

The University of Maryland, Baltimore's (UMB) Office of Technology Transfer has completed a license agreement with Bali BioSciences LLC, an early-stage company pursuing an unusual, yet clever, strategy to combat disease.

20 Jan 2011

QBC Diagnostics releases ParaLens Advance to provide benefits of LED fluorescence microscopy

QBC Diagnostics is pleased to announce the release of the QBC ParaLens Advance, a breakthrough product that can easily upgrade any compound light microscope for LED fluorescence microscopy.

20 Jan 2011

DARPA grants $5.6 million to Dana-Farber to develop viable countermeasures against unknown pathogen

Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have received a $5.6 million grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Army Research Office to develop transient immunity against known, unknown, naturally occurring, or engineered disease-causing pathogens.

20 Jan 2011

World Bank announces additional $5m grant to fight cholera in Haiti

The World Bank on Tuesday "announced a $15 million grant to Haiti to fight a persistent cholera epidemic," SAPA/Health24 reports. In a press release, the bank said it approved an additional $5 million to be added to a previously announced $10 million grant. "The funds, said the organisation in [the] statement, will go towards public campaigns to prevent infection and increase the capacity of Haiti's health ministry to deal with the emergency," the news service writes (1/19).

20 Jan 2011

WHO Director-General expresses concern over public mistrust of vaccines

During the WHO's executive board meeting Monday, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan expressed concerns over what she called a "'worrisome' public mistrust of vaccines, following signs of a tail-off in flu vaccination," Agence France-Presse reports (1/18).

20 Jan 2011

Disease/Infection News

Many couples misjudge partners' risk behaviors

New research says EPO hormone can modulate immune response

Scientists find ADAR1 enzyme protect against measles virus

BUSM receives NIH grant to explore how chronic inflammation can lead to systemic diseases

Akonni introduces TruTip kit for extraction of human genomic DNA from fresh, frozen whole blood

Actor George Clooney contracts malaria

Routine rotavirus vaccine shows a significant drop in diarrhea cases: Study

FDA accepts Vertex's telaprevir NDA for six-month Priority Review

FDA provides tentative approval under PEPFAR for Matrix's Lamivudine and Zidovudine NDA

FDA grants Soligenix Orphan Drug Designation to RiVax for prevention of ricin intoxication

HIV-infected patients three times more likely to suffer strokes

Scientists discover fundamental mechanism behind toxic protein aggregation in neurodegenerative diseases

BI refuses to offer increased access to AIDS drugs for low-income Americans

Koronis' KP-1461 drug causes extra mutations to occur in HIV genome in HIV-infected patients

Swiss HIV Cohort Study identifies simple method to determine time of infection

UMB enters license agreement with Bali BioSciences for new strategy to combat sepsis, HIV/AIDS

QBC Diagnostics releases ParaLens Advance to provide benefits of LED fluorescence microscopy

DARPA grants $5.6 million to Dana-Farber to develop viable countermeasures against unknown pathogen

World Bank announces additional $5m grant to fight cholera in Haiti

WHO Director-General expresses concern over public mistrust of vaccines

Leveraging the power of automation to boost research

Automating research - solutions and best practices

How can microdialysis benefit drug development

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