Mutation News and Research

RSS

Lotus Tissue Repair to develop DEB protein replacement therapy with $26 million Series A financing

Lotus Tissue Repair, Inc. today announced the closing of a $26 million Series A financing led by Third Rock Ventures. Proceeds of the financing will be used to advance the company's proprietary recombinant collagen type VII (rC7) technology as the first and only protein replacement therapy in development for the treatment of dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (DEB), an orphan disease that causes devastating skin blisters, morbidity and early mortality.

30 Jun 2011

Glia plays key role in preventing progression of Rett Syndrome symptoms

A paper published online today in Nature reveals that glia play a key role in preventing the progression of the most prominent Rett Syndrome symptoms displayed by mouse models of the disease: lethality, irregular breathing and apneas, hypoactivity and decreased dendritic complexity.

30 Jun 2011

TCGA examines ovarian serous adenocarcinoma tumors from 500 patients

An analysis of genomic changes in ovarian cancer has provided the most comprehensive and integrated view of cancer genes for any cancer type to date. Ovarian serous adenocarcinoma tumors from 500 patients were examined by The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Research Network and analyses are reported in the June 30, 2011, issue of Nature.

30 Jun 2011

STSI joins JAX consortium to develop targeted cancer therapies

The Scripps Translational Science Institute (STSI) of San Diego, Calif., has joined a national consortium of research institutions headed by The Jackson Laboratory (JAX) that is building a library of primary human tumors with the goal of developing highly targeted cancer therapies.

30 Jun 2011

Researchers develop way to uncover evolution of human cancer cells

A team of researchers led by scientists at the University of California, San Francisco has developed a way to uncover the evolution of human cancer cells, determining the order in which mutations emerge in them as they wend their way from a normal, healthy state into invasive, malignant masses.

30 Jun 2011

Acetylon to advance ACY-1215 drug candidate with $27M Series B Preferred equity investment round of financing

Acetylon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that it has completed a $27 million Series B Preferred equity investment round of financing.

29 Jun 2011

USPTO awards patent for key therapeutic ingredient in CNVN202 targeted molecular cancer therapy

Convergen LifeSciences, Inc. announced today that a United States Patent has been awarded by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office jointly to The University of Texas System Board of Regents and The Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

29 Jun 2011

Combination therapies inhibiting P7 could prevent spread of HCV

British researchers have identified specific resistance mutations for two classes of p7 inhibitor, which may explain their lack of effectiveness in clinical trials combined with current standard of care.

29 Jun 2011

Nimbus Discovery closes $24 million Series A financing

Nimbus Discovery LLC, a biopharmaceutical company using state-of-the-art computational technology to discover novel medicines against exciting but previously inaccessible disease targets, today announced the close of a $24M Series A financing.

28 Jun 2011

Protein c-JUN protects both tumour accelerating gene and tumour suppressor gene

The process of cell division is tightly regulated, as mistakes may lead to cancer. The so-called c-JUN protein has been fingered as causing tumours in both skin and liver. It has long been known to have a direct role in reducing the expression of a gene (p53) that leads to the death of abnormal cells and to activate transcription of a further gene (CyclinD1) that directly promotes cell division.

28 Jun 2011

Inefficiency of activation-induced deoxycytidine deaminase is good for the immune system

Why is antibody diversity important? Think about it like this, said Myron Goodman, who is an author on the paper: "Why don't you die when I sneeze? It's because you have a powerful immune system. And the way to get a decent immune system is for your body to have a way to respond to insults it has never seen before."

28 Jun 2011

Scientists discover origin of Barrett's esophagus

Dr Frank McKeon, Senior Group Leader of the Stem Cell and Developmental Biology at A*STAR's Genome Institute of Singapore, and Principal Investigator Dr Wa Xian at A*STAR's Institute of Medical Biology, together with their counterparts from the Harvard Medical School, the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, and the National University of Singapore, have made the striking finding that Barrett's esophagus work, published online in the journal Cell on 24 June 2011, is essential to developing therapeutics for esophageal cancer.

28 Jun 2011

Redefinition of cardiac hypertrophy term needed

The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Working Group on Myocardial Function is calling for a redefinition of the term cardiac hypertrophy which is currently used to describe changes to the morphology (structure) of the heart. Instead the position paper, published online today in the European Journal of Heart Failure, suggests that use of the general term myocardial remodelling should be preferred.

27 Jun 2011

New guide indicates when and how genetic testing is useful for inherited cardiac conditions

While genetic inheritance is known to play a role in the multifactorial development of most diseases of the heart, there are also a number of clearly diagnosed cardiac conditions which owe their development to quite specific genetic abnormalities. When these genetic disorders affect the integrity of the heart's muscle they are known as a "cardiomyopathy"; when the disorder affects the heart's "excitability", it is known as a "channelopathy".

27 Jun 2011

In vivo genome editing restores hemostasis in mouse model of blood clotting disorder

Using an innovative gene therapy technique called genome editing that hones in on the precise location of mutated DNA, scientists have treated the blood clotting disorder hemophilia in mice.

27 Jun 2011

Some HIV drugs can cause premature ageing

A class of anti-retroviral drugs commonly used to treat HIV, particularly in Africa and low income countries, can cause premature ageing, according to research published today in the journal Nature Genetics. The study shows that the drugs damage DNA in the patient's mitochondria - the 'batteries' which power their cells.

27 Jun 2011

Epilepsy may arise from complex mixture of altered ion channels

Imagine two flat screen televisions tuned to the same channel and sitting side-by-side. From a distance, their pictures are virtually the same, however up close, you can see subtle variations in the pixels - one blurred here, another dropped out there.

24 Jun 2011

Evolutionary-management strategies to limit spread of drug-resistant diseases

In the war between drugs and drug-resistant diseases, is the current strategy for medicating patients giving many drug-resistant diseases a big competitive advantage?, asks a research paper that will be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

24 Jun 2011

RIKEN researchers reveal mechanism for stress-induced epigenetic change

Researchers at RIKEN have uncovered a mechanism by which the effects of stress in the fly species Drosophila are inherited epigenetically over many generations through changes to the structure of chromatin, the material that makes up the cell nucleus.

24 Jun 2011

Study traces precursor of deadly esophageal cancers to leftover embryonic cells

The ultimate source of some cancers is embryonic cells. Research published in the June 24th Cell, a Cell Press publication, traces the precursor of deadly esophageal cancers to leftover embryonic cells found in all adults.

24 Jun 2011