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Embryome Sciences announces $4M equity financing, changes name to ReCyte Therapeutics

BioTime, Inc. today announced a $4 million equity financing by its subsidiary, Embryome Sciences, Inc. Concurrent with the financing, Embryome Sciences will be renamed ReCyte Therapeutics, Inc. and will develop therapeutic products for cardiovascular and blood diseases. The new equity financing is being led by a $2.5 million investment by private investors and a $1.5 million investment from BioTime that valued ReCyte Therapeutics at a post money valuation of $60 million on a fully diluted basis.

4 Jan 2011

Peptide in blood and tissue inhibits growth of breast tumors

Researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center (WFUBMC) have discovered what may become a new weapon in the fight against breast cancer. For the first time, a peptide found in blood and tissue has been shown to inhibit the growth of human breast tumors in mice, according to a study recently published in the journal Cancer Research.

4 Jan 2011

Researchers report estrogen may increase movement of precancerous cells in oral cavity

Head and neck cancer is the sixth most common type of cancer and is on the rise in some demographic groups, including young women without any known risk factors. Now, researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center report that estrogen may increase the movement of precancerous cells in the mouth and thus promote the spread of the disease within the oral cavity.

4 Jan 2011

Lyophilized amniotic membrane in strabismus surgery can cause severe fibrosis

Postoperative adhesions are a major complication in strabismus surgery. Amniotic membrane has been used in the hopes of preventing these adhesions by forming a biological barrier during healing. In an article in the December 2010 issue of the Journal of AAPOS, a team of researchers from Cairo University have discovered that the new approach may also have the opposite effect.

4 Jan 2011

Genes determine susceptibility to depression

University of Michigan Health System researchers have found new evidence that our genes help determine our susceptibility to depression.

4 Jan 2011

First whole genome sequence of Parsi breast cancer woman

Avesthagen Limited has yet again established its position as a leader in the successful application of next gen technologies as it announces the completion of the first Parsi breast cancer whole genome sequence of a 74-year-old Parsi woman with a heritable form of breast cancer. The incidence of breast cancer in most populations is strongly linked to a genetic basis but little is known about the variants at the present time.

4 Jan 2011

Researchers identify new biological pathway that contribute to glaucoma

In a study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of researchers from the Kennedy Krieger Institute and four collaborating institutions, identified a new and unexpected biological pathway that appears to contribute to the development of glaucoma and its resulting vision loss.

4 Jan 2011

Fondation Leducq awards Penn Medicine researcher $6M grant for cardiovascular disease study

An international team of researchers led by Daniel J. Rader, MD, associate director of Penn Medicine's Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, has received a $6 million grant from the Paris-based Fondation Leducq to study the molecular genetics of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. The team's proposal, "Molecular Mechanisms of Novel Genes Associated with Plasma Lipids and Cardiovascular Disease," was selected to receive the award through the Fondation's Transatlantic Networks of Excellence Program.

4 Jan 2011

Aging linked to changes in eye sockets, jaw bones

What makes us look older? Wrinkles and sagging result not just from changes in the skin, but also from aging-related changes in the underlying facial bones, according to a report in the January issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).

4 Jan 2011

Study: Multitude of genes are linked to adult height

As much as 90 percent of variation in adult height may be caused by genetic inheritance, but a multitude of genes are involved. Most of these have yet to be discovered.

4 Jan 2011

FDA clears ACT's IND to treat AMD using hESC derived RPE cells

Advanced Cell Technology, Inc., a leader in the field of regenerative medicine, announced today that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared the Company's Investigational New Drug (IND) application to treat Dry Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) using retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells derived from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs).

3 Jan 2011

Quantum mechanics technique against flu

With the current outbreak of the flu season in Israel, hospitals are reporting overcrowding, and doctors are advising people who have not yet been vaccinated against flu to get their shots.

3 Jan 2011

Celera seeks FDA premarketing approval for KIF6 Genotyping Assay

Celera Corporation today announced that it has submitted a Premarket Approval Application (PMA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its KIF6 Genotyping Assay, a new molecular In Vitro diagnostic (IVD) test designed to detect a marker for risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) independent of traditional risk factors and aid clinical evaluation when statin treatment is being considered.

3 Jan 2011

Hydrocephalus in Ugandan children linked to farm animals, previous bacterial infection

Hydrocephalus in Ugandan children and other developing countries is seasonal, linked to farm animals and in part, caused by previous bacterial infection, according to an international team of researchers from Uganda and the United States, who believe that the best approach to this problem is prevention.

3 Jan 2011

Fungus may provide clue about human response to changes in circadian rhythm

Humans are not the only species ruled by a circadian rhythm. Even simple organisms like moulds are governed by an inner clock. Studying red bread mould may teach us how our own internal clock works. This is exactly what the Centre for Organelle Research at the University of Stavanger, Norway is doing.

30 Dec 2010

General anesthesia's similarities with and differences from sleep and coma

The use of general anesthesia is a routine part of surgical operations at hospitals and medical facilities around the world, but the precise biological mechanisms that underlie anesthetic drugs' effects on the brain and the body are only beginning to be understood. A review article in the December 30 New England Journal of Medicine brings together for the first time information from a range of disciplines, including neuroscience and sleep medicine, to lay the groundwork for more comprehensive investigations of processes underlying general anesthesia.

30 Dec 2010

Low levels of microbe-killing molecules improve survival rate of people with CGD

Investigators at the National Institutes of Health have observed that the survival rate of people with a rare immunodeficiency disease called chronic granulomatous disease is greatly improved when even very low levels of microbe-killing molecules are present.

30 Dec 2010

Interaction of light with circadian systems

In a new paper published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Aziz Sancar, MD, PhD, the Sarah Graham Kenan Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics in the UNC School of Medicine, and his colleagues have taken an important step in understanding the underlying molecular signals that influence a broad array of biological processes ranging from the sleep-wake cycle to cancer growth and development.

30 Dec 2010

Heart researchers find no evidence of toxicity in Longevinex

It was Paracelsus, the Renaissance physician who first said "the dose makes the poison." So, you can drink too much wine, or ingest too much resveratrol, but in an unprecedented study, heart researchers report they couldn't find a toxic dose for Longevinex-, a resveratrol-based dietary supplement.

30 Dec 2010

Researchers to identify gene variants that cause ischemic stroke

Researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine are coordinating an international team of scientists working to identify genes or gene variants that may make a person more likely to have a particular type of stroke called an ischemic stroke.

30 Dec 2010