Thalassemia News and Research

Latest Thalassemia News and Research

Progenika to provide blood group genotyping reference laboratory services to ARUP

Progenika, Inc. today announced that it has entered into an agreement with ARUP Laboratories (ARUP) of Salt Lake City, UT, to provide blood group genotyping reference laboratory services to ARUP to determine patient red blood cell antigen profiles when serology has logistic and functional limitations.

22 Oct 2009

Schering-Plough to present data on boceprevir at the AASLD 2009 Annual Meeting

Schering-Plough announced that data on boceprevir, an investigational hepatitis C virus (HCV) protease inhibitor, will be reported in an oral presentation at the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) Annual Meeting in Boston, Oct. 30-Nov. 3.

19 Oct 2009

Schering-Plough receives FDA recommendation approval for PEGINTRON

Schering-Plough Corp. announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) recommended approval by a vote of six to four for PEGINTRON® (pegylated interferon alfa-2b) in the adjuvant treatment of patients with Stage III malignant melanoma.

6 Oct 2009

Research to develop small-molecule drug that blocks excess iron absorption

Excess iron in the body, if left unchecked, can form toxic deposits in major organs leading to serious conditions including heart failure, diabetes, liver cirrhosis, arthritis, and even infertility. Iron overload can be a consequence of a genetically mutated gene known as hereditary hemochromatosis, or a consequence of red blood cell transfusions, required as life saving treatments, for patients with diseases such as thalassemia.

25 Sep 2009

Vitamin K prevents age-related conditions

An important analysis conducted by Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute scientists suggests the importance of ensuring optimal dietary intakes of vitamin K to prevent age-related conditions such as bone fragility, arterial and kidney calcification, cardiovascular disease, and possibly cancer. Vitamin K is concentrated in dark green plants such as spinach or Swiss chard, and is either not present or present in only small amounts in most multivitamin pills.

18 Sep 2009

Olympic gold medalist Shannon Miller to campaign for Stemcyte

StemCyte, Inc., one of the world's preeminent cord blood banks, today announced that Shannon Miller, a 7-time Olympic Medalist and 9-time World Medalist, has signed an endorsement partnership agreement and will appear in a series of advertising and public awareness campaigns for the company.

5 Sep 2009

New treatment for vaso-occlusive crisis in sickle cell patients

GlycoMimetics, Inc. (GMI), a clinical-stage biotechnology company that is developing a new class of glycobiology-based therapies for a broad range of indications, today announced that a pilot study of the company’s lead candidate, GMI-1070, is underway in sickle cell patients. The first patients in this pilot study were treated at Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland in California.

4 Sep 2009

Children's Hospital Oakland converts to Masimo Rainbow SET Pulse CO-Oximetry technology

Masimo (Nasdaq: MASI), the inventor of Pulse CO-Oximetry(TM) and Measure-Through Motion and Low-Perfusion pulse oximetry, announced today that Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland has completed its system-wide conversions to Masimo Rainbow SET Pulse CO-Oximetry technology.

2 Sep 2009

InterMune receives $20 million event payment from Roche for initiating the Phase 2b trial of RG7227/ ITMN-191

Roche (SIX: ROG.VX; RO.S, OTCQX: RHHBY) and InterMune, Inc. (Nasdaq: ITMN) today announced that the first patient has been dosed in a Phase 2b study evaluating the hepatitis C virus (HCV) protease inhibitor, RG7227/ ITMN-191, in combination with PEGASYS(R) (pegylated interferon alfa-2a) and COPEGUS(R) (ribavirin). The study, to be conducted at 45 sites globally, will further define the safety and efficacy profile of RG7227/ ITMN-191, for a treatment duration of up to 24 weeks. Approximately 300 treatment-naive patients chronically infected with HCV genotype 1 - the most difficult to treat form of the virus - will participate.

20 Aug 2009

Mother's immune system may block fetal treatments for blood diseases

Pediatric researchers have resolved an apparent contradiction in the field of prenatal cell transplantation - a medical approach that holds future promise in correcting sickle cell disease and other serious congenital blood disorders. In a new study in animals, the researchers showed that the mother's immune response interferes with the offspring's earlier ability to tolerate transplanted donor cells.

17 Aug 2009

Woman's placenta new source for harvesting stem cells

A groundbreaking study conducted by Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland is the first to reveal a new avenue for harvesting stem cells from a woman's placenta, or more specifically the discarded placentas of healthy newborns.

23 Jun 2009

Hospital refuses admission to young adults with thalassemia and sickle cell disease

Young adults with thalassemia and sickle cell diease have been trying for up to 10 years to gain admission to the only adult hospital program in central and southwestern Toronto specialized to treat their blood disorders. Since 1999, the Toronto General Hospital (TGH) has restricted the inherited blood disorders program to 99 patients requiring blood transfusions. As a result, about 150 young adults with complex disorders receive blood transfusions at the Hospital for Sick Children but no adult services.

25 May 2009

Studies examine quality of care for hospitalized sickle cell disease patients

A study assessing the quality of care for patients with sickle cell disease in a variety of hospital settings was presented Saturday, December 6 during the 50th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology in San Francisco, CA.

8 Dec 2008

Breakthrough in sickle cell disease and thalassemia research

Researchers have identified a gene that directly affects the production of a form of hemoglobin that is instrumental in modifying the severity of the inherited blood disorders sickle cell disease and thalassemia.

5 Dec 2008

New advance in the treatment of sickle cell anaemia

Sickle cell anaemia is a genetic disease characterised by the sickling of red blood cells in patients suffering from hypoxia (around 100,000 cases in Europe and North America).

25 Nov 2008

Avoiding spleen removal for Cooley's anemia sufferers

Researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College may have discovered the precise role of a gene in one of the world's most common blood disorders, beta-thalassemia, commonly known as Cooley's anemia. Along with sickle-cell anemia, Cooley's anemia is the most commonly inherited disease in the world, affecting many people of Mediterranean descent, and 20 out of every 100,000 African-Americans. The World Health Organization estimates that between 50,000-100,000 children are born with the disease each year.

27 May 2008

Alpha thalassemia blood disease protects against malaria

Children with an inherited blood disorder called alpha thalassemia make unusually small red blood cells that mostly cause a mild form of anemia.

18 Mar 2008

Variation in the BCL11A gene linked to moderated symptoms of beta-thalassemia

Beta-thalassemia is a serious, potentially life-threatening disease that affects red blood cells, cells that carry oxygen via hemoglobin throughout the body.

4 Feb 2008

Discovery of protein that plays a key role in the recycling of iron from blood

Scientists working in the only lab at MIT doing hematology research have uncovered a protein that plays a key role in the recycling of iron from blood. Their work, described in the October 11 Journal of Clinical Investigation, could lead to new therapies for certain inherited blood disorders such as beta-thalassemia, a condition that causes chronic anemia.

12 Oct 2007

Discovery of novel cause of iron overload in patients with thalassemia

According to the study, thalassemia patients overproduce a protein called GDF15, which suppresses the production of a liver protein, hepcidin, which in turn leads to an increase in the uptake of dietary iron in the gut.

30 Aug 2007