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Advanced Life Sciences enters agreement with UBC to develop antimicrobial peptides

Advanced Life Sciences Holdings, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery, development and commercialization of novel drugs in the therapeutic areas of infection, oncology and respiratory diseases, today announced that the Company has entered into a sponsored research and option agreement with The University of British Columbia (UBC) to develop several antimicrobial peptides.

27 Jul 2010

Researchers collect venom from Antarctic octopus

Australian and international researchers have collected venom from octopuses in Antarctica for the first time, significantly advancing our understanding of the properties of venom as a potential resource for drug-development.

27 Jul 2010

Scientists develop carbon based nanoscale to detect single DNA molecules

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have developed a new, carbon-based nanoscale platform to electrically detect single DNA molecules.Using electric fields, the tiny DNA strands are pushed through nanoscale-sized, atomically thin pores in a graphene nanopore platform that ultimately may be important for fast electronic sequencing of the four chemical bases of DNA based on their unique electrical signature.The pores, burned into graphene membranes using electron beam technology, provide Penn physicists with electronic measurements of the translocation of DNA.

27 Jul 2010

PIK3CA, KRAS mutations in tumor can predict patients’ response to treatment: Research

Drugs such as everolimus that target the protein mTOR are used to treat several forms of cancer, but not all patients respond to the treatment. A team of researchers, led by Alberto Bardelli, at the University of Turin Medical School, Italy, has now identified a way to help predict which patients will respond to such drugs.

27 Jul 2010

Study on treatment needs of prostate cancer patients with low level PSA

Controversy has long existed over the benefit of the prostate specific antigen (PSA) test used to screen for the presence of prostate cancer, and there has been little study to document the risk profile of men who have a PSA level at or below what is considered 'normal.' New research published in the latest edition of Archives of Internal Medicine (Vol. 170, No. 14) by a team of investigators at The Cancer Institute of New Jersey (CINJ), further explores this population. The findings show that most men with prostate cancer who tested below the normal PSA level and had low-risk disease nevertheless underwent aggressive treatment. CINJ is a Center of Excellence of UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

27 Jul 2010

GenVec creates novel vectors for vaccine development

GenVec, Inc. announced that research regarding GenVec's efforts to create novel vectors for vaccines is appearing in Vol. 28, issue 35, pages 5691-5702 of Vaccine. The article, "Potent immune responses and in vitro pro-inflammatory cytokine suppression by a novel adenovirus vector based on rare human serotype 28," describes GenVec's efforts to identify and utilize novel adenovirus serotypes as vectors in vaccine development.

27 Jul 2010

Affymetrix releases new data for rapid design of custom arrays

Affymetrix, Inc.today announced that it has released an unparalleled data set based on extensive validation of novel SNPs from the 1000 Genomes Project. This data will give researchers access to more rare mutations for genome-wide association studies and will enable the rapid design of custom arrays for a variety of applications, including the validation of sequencing results.

27 Jul 2010

Later sunset, extended daylight exposure delays bedtimes in teenagers

In the spring, later sunset and extended daylight exposure delay bedtimes in teenagers, according to researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Lighting Research Center (LRC).Biologically, this increased exposure to early evening light in the spring delays the onset of nocturnal melatonin, a hormone that indicates to the body when it's nighttime, explains Mariana Figueiro, Ph.D., associate professor. This extended exposure adds to the difficulties teens have falling asleep at a reasonable hour.

27 Jul 2010

Human fat tissue can be reprogrammed to yield clinically useful stem cells: Research

Australian scientists from the Monash Institute of Medical Research have "reprogrammed" adult mouse fat cells and neural cells to become stem cells that can differentiate into a variety of different cells (pluripotency). The cells, called "induced pluripotent stem cells" are nearly identical to the naturally occurring pluripotent stems cells, such as embryonic stem cells, which are highly pluripotent, in short supply and their access restricted in the U.S.

27 Jul 2010

NIH awards BU $1.6M grant to target protein-protein interactions with synthetic organic drugs

An interdisciplinary team of Boston University professors is launching a project to develop new ways to target protein-protein interactions with synthetic organic drugs. Financed by a four-year $1.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, the goal is to develop new approaches for discovering "drug-like" small molecule inhibitors against challenging protein-protein interaction (PPI) interfaces.

27 Jul 2010

Consumers struggle to sort out many stem cell claims

NPR reports on the confusion among consumers about stem cell therapy. It's easy to find on websites and other advertisements claims of cures for practically every medical condition, but traditional American medical doctors say that so far stem cell therapy has been proven to work in only a few blood disorders.

27 Jul 2010

Scientists discover mechanism of herpes virus cell entry machinery

The mechanism by which a herpes virus invades cells has remained a mystery to scientists, but now research from Tufts University and the University of Pennsylvania reveals the unusual structure of a key member of the protein complex that allows a herpes virus to invade cells.The new map details an essential piece of the herpes virus "cell-entry machinery," providing scientists with a new target for antiviral drugs.

27 Jul 2010

Study analyses anesthetic effects on surgical site infections

A study appearing in the August 2010 issue of Anesthesiology found that patients receiving a total hip or knee replacement in Taiwan had a higher incidence of surgical site infections (SSIs) when general anesthesia was administered for the operation than when the same procedures were performed under epidural/spinal (regional) anesthesia.

27 Jul 2010

CPC partners with CU School of Medicine on stem cell research

A major research company with expertise in managing clinical trials is partnering with the University of Colorado's Anschutz Medical Campus to more efficiently bring the latest stem cell discoveries from the laboratory to the patient.

26 Jul 2010

Researchers discover potential method for neurodegenerative disease detection

New investigations, initiated by research workers at CIC bioGUNE and led by Dr. Aitor Hierro, have opened possibilities for making progress in the knowledge and prediction of neurodegenerative diseases such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), according to the journal of The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.This study opens the possibility of research in humans to detect this pathology before the symptoms arise.

26 Jul 2010

Vical's prophylactic Vaxfectin-formulated pDNA vaccine effective against HSV-2 in animal model

Vical Incorporated today announced that its prophylactic Vaxfectin®-formulated plasmid DNA (pDNA) vaccine against herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) protected mice against lethal challenge, provided sterilizing immunity and inhibited viral counts at both the primary and latent infection sites. The Vaxfectin® adjuvant substantially improved vaccine effectiveness. A related vaccine significantly reduced the recurrence of HSV-2 lesions in a therapeutic model using guinea pigs with latent infection.

26 Jul 2010

Analysis on link between visual number traits and abstract representations of correct letters

How does the brain link the visual basic traits of letters and numbers to abstract representations and to words? Scientists from the Basque Research Center on Cognition, Brain and Language have analyzed the influence of context on the visual recognition of a written word regardless of the format in which these letters may be displayed.We analyzed the influence of the context given by a word when linking the physical traits of its components to the abstract representations of letters,explains to SINC Nicola Molinaro, main author of the study and researcher of the Basque Research Center on Cognition, Brain and Language.

26 Jul 2010

Illumina launches TruSeq SBS Sequencing kit

Illumina, Inc. today announced the launch of its TruSeq SBS Sequencing kit that will enable high-quality paired end reads of 150 base pairs (bp), increase the output of high-quality base calls, and enhance throughput to greater than 95 Gigabases (Gb) of high-quality base pairs per run on Illumina's Genome Analyzer (GA) sequencing system.

From Illumina, Inc. 26 Jul 2010

Research reveals molecular basis of neural circuits

The basal ganglia is a series of highly connected brain areas localised deep in the cerebral cortex that recently has attracted interest of neuroscientists when it was linked to learning, and discovered to be affected in a number of disorders of the addictive and obsessive spectrum, but also in Parkinson's disease (PD). And now researchers think they have understood why as they found that neurons in this area signal the beginning and the end of voluntary actions. In fact, problems in these neurons could explain the "incapacity to stop" seen in obsession or compulsive behaviour, but also the problems in learning and control of movement characteristic of Parkinson's

26 Jul 2010

Asuragen reports collaborative study results of advanced PCR-based molecular profiling of FMR1 gene

Asuragen, Inc. announced today the results from two collaborative studies, one with the University of California Davis M.I.N.D. Institute and another with Rush University Medical Center, that demonstrate comprehensive molecular profiling of the Fragile X Mental Retardation (FMR1) gene using advanced PCR-based methods.

26 Jul 2010