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Infrafrontier project expands to include six new partners

Helmholtz Zentrum M-nchen today announced that the Infrafrontier project, funded by the European Union, has been expanded to include six partners from Canada, the Czech Republic, Austria, France and Italy. The new partners will join the effort of the other 22 members of Infrafrontier in building up an international research infrastructure to improve open access to high-quality mouse models.

27 Mar 2010

LabCorp offers 21-marker genetic analysis for testing parentage/relationship

Laboratory Corporation of America® Holdings announced today that it is the first national laboratory to offer customers a 21-marker genetic analysis in combination with a double-blind process for parentage/relationship testing on every sample. The testing utilizes two kits developed for LabCorp by Promega Corporation of Madison, Wisconsin.

27 Mar 2010

Managing Technetium-99m shortage: MedSolutions provides advisory

MedSolutions, a leading provider of medical management services, has provided an advisory for payors and providers on options regarding the shortage of Technetium-99m (Tc-99m), a radioactive tracer isotope that is widely-used in nuclear medicine studies.

27 Mar 2010

Biophotonics: Light to cure disease

Biophotonics, or photomedicine, is a relatively unknown discipline, though it has existed for years now. You may have even benefited from it without realizing it. Some of the greatest advances of this field can be found in applications for the areas of oncology, dermatology, ophthalmology, surgery and cardiology.

27 Mar 2010

Presence of PARP protein in tumours can help predict their response to chemotherapy

The presence of the protein poly polymerase in tumours can help predict their response to chemotherapy, a German scientist will tell the seventh European Breast Cancer Conference in Barcelona tomorrow (Saturday 27 March).

27 Mar 2010

WinRho SDF for ITP: Cangene announces new safety information

Cangene Corporation, in consultation with Health Canada, is informing Canadian patients and healthcare professionals of important new safety information concerning the use of WinRho SDF (Rho (D) Immune Globulin (Human)) for the treatment of immune thrombocytopenic purpura, also called immune thrombocytopenia, or ITP. WinRho SDF belongs to a group of biological medicines derived from human plasma known as immunoglobulins. It is administered in hospitals by infusion through the veins.

27 Mar 2010

Genome sequencing of tumors biopsied from women with invasive breast cancer

Tumors biopsied from women with invasive breast cancer are having their genomes sequenced in an attempt to develop a DNA profile that one day may identify ahead of time the patients who will most likely respond to chemotherapy with an aromatase inhibitor. Aromatase inhibitors are a class of chemotherapeutic agents that block the production of estrogen in postmenopausal women.

27 Mar 2010

Dian Donnai receives March of Dimes/Colonel Harland Sanders Award for achievement in genetic sciences

A pioneering professor and investigator at the forefront of genetic services in the United Kingdom and who helped define rare genetic diseases is the 2010 recipient of the March of Dimes/Colonel Harland Sanders Award for lifetime achievement in the field of genetic sciences.

27 Mar 2010

Innovative biotechnology leading to better understanding of complex diseases

As recently stated in the Glenville Democrat, innovative biotechnology is leading to a greater understanding of complex diseases and better tools for diagnosing and treating conditions such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

27 Mar 2010

Fundamental step in immune system development discovered

Researchers at National Jewish Health have discovered a fundamental step in the development of the immune system, one that allows B cells to mature and fight disease by producing effective antibodies. Immunologist Roberta Pelanda, PhD, and her colleagues have demonstrated that immature B cells in the bone marrow must receive a positive signal before they can migrate to the spleen where they mature and are activated. In the March 15, 2010 issue of The Journal of Experimental Medicine, the researchers also reported that a protein known as Erk helps deliver that positive signal.

26 Mar 2010

Inflamed tissues linked to increased production of protein involved in pain signaling

Using a novel animal model to study craniofacial pain, researchers at Oregon Health & Science University's School of Dentistry have discovered that when tissues are inflamed, the nerve cells carrying pain information from the head to the brain produce in large quantities a protein involved in pain signaling.

26 Mar 2010

Genetic instability in people with Fanconi anemia: New proteins in FA DNA repair pathway may help explain

Identification of two new proteins in the Fanconi anemia DNA repair pathway may help explain genetic instability in people with Fanconi anemia and how otherwise healthy people are susceptible to cancer from environmentally triggered DNA damage.

26 Mar 2010

Anxiety may rise again, says Rutgers University dean

Poet W.H Auden dubbed the post-World War II nuclear era the "age of anxiety" and indeed, at the time, anxiety disorders were the most commonly diagnosed mental illnesses. Yet, by the 1990s, American psychiatry was "Listening to Prozac" and instead of obsessing about angst, it focused its attention on depression.

26 Mar 2010

Study finds 15-year outcomes of BCT and mastectomy similar

Two studies to be presented at the seventh European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC7) in Barcelona today (Friday) and tomorrow (Saturday), shed light on the treatment options facing women carrying the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genetic mutations which predispose them to breast cancer.

26 Mar 2010

Researchers develop new self-organizing neural networks for application in remote sensing field

Research developed at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid's School of Computing has brought us a big step closer to the application of self-organizing neural networks in the remote sensing field.

26 Mar 2010

Presence of protein PARP in tumours may help predict response to chemotherapy

The presence of the protein poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) in tumours can help predict their response to chemotherapy, a German scientist will tell the seventh European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC7) in Barcelona tomorrow (Saturday 27 March). Professor Gunter von Minckwitz, from the German Breast Group Forschungs GmBH, Neu-Isenburg, says that, contrary to current belief that PARP is associated with a limited number of tumours, he and his team found for the first time that PARP expression exists across all breast cancer subtypes, and that such tumours were highly sensitive to chemotherapy.

26 Mar 2010

Avid, Cardinal Health partner to detect Alzheimer's disease in living patients

Currently, Alzheimer's disease cannot be definitively diagnosed until after death, when a brain autopsy is performed on a patient and evidence of beta-amyloid plaque deposits in the brain – which are a characteristic pathology of the disease – can be found. Accurate diagnosis during life can be challenging, particularly in the early stages of Alzheimer's, when symptoms are mild and non-definitive. However, Avid Radiopharmaceuticals, Inc. and Cardinal Health are working together to change that.

26 Mar 2010

Evaluating potential of Ampligen and TLR3 agonists as cancer immunotherapeutics

Hemispherx Biopharma, Inc., announced today the publication of an editorial entitled "TLR3 agonists as immunotherapeutic agents," published in the March 15, 2010 edition of Immunotherapy (2010) 2(2), 137-140, co-authored by Jonathan S. Berek, MD, Chairman, Stanford University School of Medicine Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Christopher F. Nicodemus, MD, Chairman and Chief Scientific Officer, Advanced Immune Therapeutics, Inc., and HEB Consultant.

26 Mar 2010

Pravastatin benefits elderly carriers of KIF6 gene variant with prior vascular disease

Celera Corporation today announced the publication of data reporting that elderly (over age 70) carriers of the KIF6 gene variant with prior vascular disease received significant benefit from pravastatin (Pravachol®) therapy. Previous research has shown that a variant of the KIF6 gene, a member of the molecular motor protein kinesin family, is associated with up to a 55% increased risk of primary and recurrent coronary heart disease (CHD) events in the placebo arms of the clinical trials, and that this increased risk is virtually eliminated with statin therapy.

26 Mar 2010

Lung transplant patients may one day benefit from synthetic peptide, researchers report

Lung transplant patients may one day benefit from a synthetic peptide that mimics the body's natural ability to reduce excess fluid accumulation, Medical College of Georgia researchers report.

26 Mar 2010