Liver News and Research

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Donor liver quality: an interview with Dr Eric Orman

Liver transplantation is a surgical procedure in which a liver (or part of a liver) is removed from a donor and placed into a recipient. Although some transplants use a portion of the liver of living donors, the vast majority of donors are deceased.

6 Feb 2013

More than £6M funding awarded to enhance development of biopharmaceuticals

More than £6M of funding has been awarded to enhance the development of biopharmaceuticals. In total £6.5M will fund 12 projects to deliver commercially important results, such as industrial-scale production of antibodies, stem cell preservation at room temperature, biopharmaceutical production using microbes and commercial scale stem cell therapy.

6 Feb 2013

DHA more effective than EPA in preventing liver inflammation and fibrosis

Research at Oregon State University has found that one particular omega-3 fatty acid has a powerful effect in preventing liver inflammation and fibrosis - common problems that are steadily rising along with the number of Americans who are overweight.

6 Feb 2013

Viracor-IBT Laboratories signs definitive agreement to purchase assets of Cylex

Viracor-IBT Laboratories, Inc. announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement to purchase the assets of Cylex, Inc., a global life sciences company focused on the development, manufacturing and commercialization of in vitro diagnostic products intended to illuminate immunity in the area of transplant medicine.

5 Feb 2013

Synageva announces 12-week data from sebelipase alfa Phase I/II study on LAL Deficiency

Synageva BioPharma Corp. (Synageva), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing therapeutic products for rare diseases, today announced publication of the 12-week Phase I/II extension study data of sebelipase alfa in adults with lysosomal acid lipase deficiency (LAL Deficiency) in the online version and an upcoming print edition of Hepatology

5 Feb 2013

Gilead Sciences fourth quarter total revenues increase 18% to $2.59 billion

Gilead Sciences, Inc. announced today its results of operations for the fourth quarter and full year 2012.

5 Feb 2013

Interferon retreatment warning in HCV

Hepatitis C virus patients who do not respond to interferon should not receive further treatment with the drug, say the authors of a new Cochrane review.

4 Feb 2013

Indian medicines ‘promising’ for osteoarthritis care

Ayurvedic medicine may offer osteoarthritis relief, say Indian researchers who found traditional formulations to be equal to conventional drugs for the improvement of pain and knee function.

4 Feb 2013

New method for detecting cancer by measuring elasticity of tumours

As the first countries in the world, Norway and France will be testing a completely new method for detecting cancer. This is done by measuring the elasticity of tumours. The method is called elastography. You may as well learn this new word right away; in a few years, elastography may be as common as X-rays.

4 Feb 2013

Endothelial cells can trigger changes in cancer cells without direct contact

Blood vessels that supply oxygen and nutrients to tumors can also deliver something else - a signal that strengthens nearby cancer cells, making them more resistant to chemotherapy, more likely to spread to other organs and more lethal, scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center report online in Cancer Cell.

1 Feb 2013

Galectin submits GR-MD-02 IND application with FDA for treatment of liver fibrosis

Galectin Therapeutics, the leading developer of therapeutics that target galectin proteins to treat fibrosis and cancer, announced today that it submitted an Investigational New Drug (IND) application to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on January 30, 2013.

1 Feb 2013

Celsion's ThermoDox does not meet primary endpoint in Phase III HCC study

Celsion Corporation, a leading oncology drug development company, today announced that ThermoDox in combination with radiofrequency ablation (RFA) did not meet the primary endpoint of the Phase III HEAT Study in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), also known as primary liver cancer.

31 Jan 2013

Resonance Health receives FDA marketing authorization for FerriScan R2-MRI device

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently announced the authorization of FerriScan R2-MRI to be marketed as an imaging companion diagnostic device for the safe and effective use of Exjade in patients with non-transfusion-dependent thalassemia.

31 Jan 2013

Interferon retreatment of chronic hepatitis C may be harmful

People with hepatitis C and chronic liver disease who relapsed or failed to respond to initial treatment are unlikely to improve on interferon retreatment. In fact, they may face an increased risk of dying sooner, and are likely to experience a variety of adverse effects, according to an updated systematic review published in The Cochrane Library.

31 Jan 2013

Finding medical applications for unused inventions: an interview with Gabriel Mecklenburg, Co-Founder of Marblar

Marblar is gamifying the process of technology transfer. We post technology on our platform in the form of a challenge, and the Marblar community then competes to uncover new problems these technologies could solve – thereby discovering new market applications for these technologies.

31 Jan 2013

Study shows how gut microbes conspire with poor diets to trigger childhood malnutrition

A study of young twins in Malawi, in sub-Saharan Africa, finds that bacteria living in the intestine are an underlying cause of a form of severe acute childhood malnutrition.

31 Jan 2013

IL-13 protein could be the key to development of fibrosis in Crohn's disease

New research has shown that a protein, known as IL-13, could be the key to the development of fibrosis in Crohn's disease. This breakthrough could help to advance new medicines to treat people suffering with the disease.

30 Jan 2013

Tributyltin exposure may cause ‘transgenerational obesity’

Research shows that offspring of mice exposed to low doses of the chemical tributyltin, used in paints, plastics, and other consumer products, have greater than normal body fat, liver fat, and fat-specific gene expression.

30 Jan 2013

FDA approves Genzyme’s KYNAMRO to treat homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia

Genzyme, a Sanofi company, and Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc., today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved its New Drug Application (NDA) for KYNAMROTM (mipomersen sodium) injection.

30 Jan 2013

Genzyme receives FDA approval for Kynamro to treat homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Kynamro (mipomersen sodium) injection as an addition to lipid-lowering medications and diet to treat patients with a rare type of high cholesterol called homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (HoFH).

30 Jan 2013