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New British technologies are transforming healthcare and saving lives

New British technologies are transforming healthcare and saving lives

Innovative projects including: smart-phone test and tracking systems for infectious diseases; fibre optic probes that can monitor people's condition in intensive care; and in-home sensors that can relay patient information to doctors immediately, have benefitted from a -32 million investment. [More]
OUP blog discusses CDC'S advice on H7N9 while traveling abroad

OUP blog discusses CDC'S advice on H7N9 while traveling abroad

Health risks are real and ever-changing, especially while traveling abroad. The bird flu, for example, has been in the news recently for taking four more lives, bringing the total deaths to 31. [More]
New test determines which children with malaria are likely to develop cerebral malaria

New test determines which children with malaria are likely to develop cerebral malaria

Researchers at Michigan State University have identified a test that can determine which children with malaria are likely to develop cerebral malaria, a much more life-threatening form of the disease. [More]
Modifications in key epigenetic markers influence human embryonic stem cells

Modifications in key epigenetic markers influence human embryonic stem cells

Scientists have long known that control mechanisms known collectively as "epigenetics" play a critical role in human development, but they did not know precisely how alterations in this extra layer of biochemical instructions in DNA contribute to development. [More]
ITM researchers develop, test a combination of tools to diagnose SN-TB

ITM researchers develop, test a combination of tools to diagnose SN-TB

Researchers at the Institute of Tropical Medicine have successfully developed and tested a combination of simple clinical, radiological and laboratory tools to diagnose smear-negative tuberculosis. [More]
Antidepressants can increase risk of C. difficile infection in depressed patients

Antidepressants can increase risk of C. difficile infection in depressed patients

Adults with depression and who receive certain types of anti-depressants have an increased risk of developing Clostridium difficile, a costly and serious hospital-associated infection, according to a new University of Michigan Health System study. [More]
Scientists identify TR4 protein that drives the formation of pituitary tumors in Cushing's disease

Scientists identify TR4 protein that drives the formation of pituitary tumors in Cushing's disease

Scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have identified a protein that drives the formation of pituitary tumors in Cushing's disease, a development that may give clinicians a therapeutic target to treat this potentially life-threatening disorder. [More]
Idera to present data from Phase 2 trial of IMO-3100 in patients with psoriasis at IID 2013

Idera to present data from Phase 2 trial of IMO-3100 in patients with psoriasis at IID 2013

Idera Pharmaceuticals today announced presentation of data from its randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 2 trial that showed improvements from baseline of up to 90% in Psoriasis Area Severity Index scores in patients with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis following four weeks of treatment with the Toll-like Receptor antagonist IMO-3100. [More]
New VLP vaccine candidate produced for H7N9 virus

New VLP vaccine candidate produced for H7N9 virus

Medicago Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing highly effective and competitive vaccines based on proprietary manufacturing technologies and Virus-Like Particles, today announced that it has successfully produced a new VLP vaccine candidate for the H7N9 virus that is responsible for the current influenza outbreak in China. [More]
New NTD Special Envoys to focus on eliminating NTD primarily on LAC region

New NTD Special Envoys to focus on eliminating NTD primarily on LAC region

Today, the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases, a major initiative of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, announced His Excellency, President Alvaro Arz- Irigoyen of Guatemala (1996-2000), His Excellency, President Ricardo Lagos Escobar of Chile (2000-2006) and former Pan American Health Organization Director Dr. Mirta Roses Periago as the organization's newest Neglected Tropical Disease Special Envoys. [More]
Cubist receives Fast Track designation from FDA for late-stage antibiotic candidate

Cubist receives Fast Track designation from FDA for late-stage antibiotic candidate

Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted the Company's late-stage antibiotic candidate ceftolozane/tazobactam (CXA-201) Fast Track status in the previously granted Qualified Infectious Disease Product indications, Hospital-Acquired Bacterial Pneumonia/Ventilator-Associated Bacterial Pneumonia and Complicated Urinary Tract Infections. [More]
Immunoglobulin fails to meet co-primary endpoints in Phase III clinical study, Baxter reports

Immunoglobulin fails to meet co-primary endpoints in Phase III clinical study, Baxter reports

Baxter International Inc. today announced that its Phase III clinical study of immunoglobulin did not meet its co-primary endpoints of reducing cognitive decline and preserving functional abilities in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease. [More]
Janssen enrolls patients in expanded access program for mantle cell lymphoma

Janssen enrolls patients in expanded access program for mantle cell lymphoma

Janssen Research & Development, LLC (Janssen) today announced patients are now enrolling in a multicenter, open-label expanded access program (EAP) in the United States for the investigational oral Bruton's Tyrosine Kinase (BTK) inhibitor ibrutinib, which is being jointly developed by Janssen and Pharmacyclics, Inc. [More]
Study provides additional data on why RV144 vaccine failed to protect more people

Study provides additional data on why RV144 vaccine failed to protect more people

Continuing analysis of an HIV vaccine trial undertaken in Thailand is yielding additional information about how immune responses were triggered and why the vaccine did not protect more people. [More]
Biocryst reports financial results for first quarter 2013

Biocryst reports financial results for first quarter 2013

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2013. [More]
Aeras receives grant to support the development of vaccines against TB, HIV and malaria

Aeras receives grant to support the development of vaccines against TB, HIV and malaria

Aeras, a nonprofit biotech advancing TB vaccines for the world, the University of Oxford and Okairos, a biopharmaceutical company specializing in T-cell vaccines, today announced a $2.9 million grant to Aeras in support of a collaboration among the three parties to support the development of vaccines against tuberculosis, HIV and malaria. [More]
Scientists generate map of H7N9 risk

Scientists generate map of H7N9 risk

A map of avian influenza (H7N9) risk is presented in Biomed Central's open access journal Infectious Diseases of Poverty today. The map is comprised of bird migration patterns, and adding in estimations of poultry production and consumption, which are used to infer future risk and to advise on ways to prevent infection. [More]
New approach could democratize viral surveillance, says UCSF scientist

New approach could democratize viral surveillance, says UCSF scientist

The tick-borne Lone Star virus has been conclusively identified as part of a family of other tick-borne viruses called bunyaviruses, which often cause fever, respiratory problems and bleeding, according to new research led by scientists at UC San Francisco. [More]
Researchers reveal how Ebola evades human immune response

Researchers reveal how Ebola evades human immune response

Researchers have discovered the mechanism behind one of the Ebola virus' most dangerous attributes: its ability to disarm the adaptive immune system. [More]
Increased accumulation of coronary artery calcium leads to heart attack risk

Increased accumulation of coronary artery calcium leads to heart attack risk

Patients with increasing accumulations of coronary artery calcium were more than six times more likely to suffer from a heart attack or die from heart disease than patients who didn't have increasing accumulations, according to a recent study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. [More]