Immunology News and Research

Latest Immunology News and Research

La Jolla Institute's new RNAi Center to focus on genetics behind myriad diseases

A major Center that will propel scientific efforts to pinpoint the specific genes involved in causing immune diseases, cancer and other diseases will be opened today at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology.

12 Aug 2011

ShangPharma achieves initial milestones for two oncology projects

ShangPharma Corporation, a leading China-based pharmaceutical and biotechnology research and development outsourcing company, today announced that it has achieved the initial milestones for two multi-staged projects in its biologics division, which portends strong growth for this segment in 2011.

11 Aug 2011

57 genes associated with multiple sclerosis

An international research team has found nearly 30 genetic risk factors that predispose to developing multiple sclerosis. It brings to more than 50 the total number of genetic clues to the disease. The research, published in Nature, will help identify risk factors and perhaps future treatments or even a cure, hopes the MS Society.

11 Aug 2011

Gene therapy to combat leukemia

In a medical breakthrough scientists have found that gene therapy could be used to cure leukemia. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania engineered patients' own pathogen-fighting T-cells to target a molecule found on the surface of leukemia cells. These genetically modified T-cells were grown outside of the body and infused back into patients suffering from late-stage chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), which affects the blood and bone marrow and is the most common form of leukemia.

11 Aug 2011

BIDMC researchers receive PCF Challenge Awards for novel prostate cancer study

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) researchers Martin Sanda, MD, and Steven Balk MD, PhD, have been awarded Challenge Awards of $1 million each from the Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) to lead two cross-disciplinary teams of investigators in their pursuit of new treatments for patients with advanced prostate cancer.

10 Aug 2011

Study finds key influential factors linked with risk of allergies in babies

Prenatal pet exposure, a mother's delivery mode and race are influential factors in a child's risk of developing allergies by age 2, according to a Henry Ford Hospital study.

9 Aug 2011

NIH awards Jefferson $4.8M grant to study vaccine to clear rabies virus from central nervous system

Thomas Jefferson University received a National Institutes of Health (NIH) $4.8 million grant to test a new rabies vaccine with the potential to cure the virus infection, even after it has made its way into a person's central nervous system (CNS). Today, if an unvaccinated person is infected with rabies and it spreads to the brain, there is little chance for survival.

8 Aug 2011

Researchers discover lack of oxygen in the lungs after mold invasion

Researchers led by Montana State University have found a surprising condition that occurs in the lungs after an invasion of a common mold that can cause deadly infections in humans.

6 Aug 2011

Idera second quarter net loss increases to $6.3 million

Idera Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today reported financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2011. Idera is a biotechnology company engaged in the discovery and development of DNA- and RNA-based drug candidates targeted to Toll-Like receptors (TLRs).

5 Aug 2011

New strategies for successful donor adult stem cell transplants in blood cancer patients

Findings by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers may suggest new strategies for successful donor adult stem cell transplants in patients with blood cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma.

5 Aug 2011

Entomologist to study how immune system responds to rickettsial infection

Summer for most people means time spent outdoors, which could also mean increased exposure to bugs and, possibly, arthropod-borne diseases, such as "rickettsial diseases" - infectious diseases spread by bacteria, which, generally, are transmitted by lice, fleas, ticks and mites.

5 Aug 2011

BD Biosciences, Fluidigm to co-host public seminars on isolation and analysis of single cells

Fluidigm Corporation announced today a collaboration with BD Biosciences, a segment of BD, to co-host a public seminar series on the isolation and analysis of single cells. Entitled A Powerful Technique for Single-Cell Analysis, the public seminar series will showcase cell isolation using the BD FACSAria III Cell Sorter and analysis using the Fluidigm BioMark HD System.

From BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) 5 Aug 2011

Novel DNA sensing pathway linked to increased susceptibility to malaria

Scientists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School have uncovered a novel DNA-sensing pathway important to the triggering of an innate immune response for malaria. Activation of this pathway appears to stimulate production of an overabundance of type-1 interferon by the immune system that may contribute to inflammation and fever in malaria patients and could play a part in susceptibility for the most common and lethal form of malaria known as plasmodium falciparum.

5 Aug 2011

Higher levels of B cells make women more prone to autoimmune diseases

Researchers at National Jewish Health have discovered a type of cell that may contribute to autoimmune disease and suggests why diseases such as lupus, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis strike women more frequently than men. The cells, a subset of immune-system B cells, make autoantibodies, which bind to and attack the body's own tissue.

5 Aug 2011

Study: Poorly controlled asthma doubles healthcare costs linked with disease

Poorly controlled asthma more than doubles healthcare costs associated with the disease and threatens educational achievement through a dramatic increase in school absence, according to researchers at National Jewish Health.

5 Aug 2011

Virginia Tech student receives prestigious award for cellular signaling receptor study linked to diabetes, obesity

Stephanie Nicole "Nikki" Lewis, a graduate student in the interdisciplinary doctoral program in genetics, bioinformatics, and computational biology at Virginia Tech, has been awarded the prestigious Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award for Predoctoral Research through the National Institutes of Health for her study of a cellular signaling receptor that is associated with chronic inflammatory diseases such as diabetes, obesity, and inflammatory bowel disease.

5 Aug 2011

Biotica acquires full rights to rapamycin analogue program from Pfizer

Biotica Technology Ltd. today announced that it has regained full rights from Pfizer Inc. to its rapamycin analogue program, including transfer of data and materials.

3 Aug 2011

Needle-free nanopatch vaccine delivery system

The needle-free nanopatch vaccine delivery system is coming soon after a consortium of investors put up $15 million for its development. The money will enable University of Queensland's Professor Mark Kendall to continue his work on the technology. It is described as the biggest breakthrough in vaccine delivery since the invention of the syringe more than 150 years ago.

3 Aug 2011

Compugen second quarter net income increases to $1.2 million

Compugen Ltd. today reported its results for the second quarter ending June 30, 2011.

2 Aug 2011

Lack of TLR1 surface expression linked with increased susceptibility to tuberculosis

Are you genetically predisposed to tuberculosis? Scientists may now be able to answer this question and doctors may be able to adjust their therapeutic approach based on what they learn. That's because new research presented in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology suggests that two frequent mutations in an immune system gene called TLR1 are responsible for cellular changes that ultimately make us less likely to resist the disease.

2 Aug 2011