Immune System News and Research

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Vibrio cholerae kills E. coli bacteria

Just over a year after the earthquake in Haiti killed 222,000 people there's a new problem that is killing Haitians. A cholera outbreak has doctors in the area scrambling and the water-borne illness has already claimed 3600 lives according to officials with M-dicin Sans Fronti-res (Doctors without Borders).

21 Jan 2011

Fat linked with DNA chemical changes may help identify risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes

Fat appears to associate with some distinctive chemical changes in the DNA - a finding that may help explain why obesity can increase the risk for chronic problems such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes, researchers report.

21 Jan 2011

New research says EPO hormone can modulate immune response

New research reveals that a hormone best known for stimulating the production of red blood cells can modulate the immune response. The study, published by Cell Press in the January 27th issue of the journal Immunity, finds that erythropoietin has contrasting influences on infectious and inflammatory diseases and may be useful in the design of new therapeutic strategies.

21 Jan 2011

Scientists find ADAR1 enzyme protect against measles virus

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have found that a known enzyme in cells protects against measles virus, likely by altering the virus's genetic material, RNA. Cells lacking the enzyme become highly vulnerable to the virus's destructive effects. The enzyme also protects against several other respiratory viruses, including influenza A.

21 Jan 2011

BUSM receives NIH grant to explore how chronic inflammation can lead to systemic diseases

A team of researchers at Boston University School of Medicine have been awarded a five-year, $7.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to explore how chronic inflammation can lead to systemic diseases.

20 Jan 2011

FDA grants Soligenix Orphan Drug Designation to RiVax for prevention of ricin intoxication

Soligenix, Inc., a late-stage biopharmaceutical company, announced today that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Orphan Drug Designation to RiVax™ for the prevention of ricin intoxication. RiVax™ is a proprietary vaccine that contains a recombinant subunit of the A chain of ricin toxin which induces ricin neutralizing antibodies in humans and animals.

20 Jan 2011

Clinical Immunology Research Laboratory at The Mount Sinai Medical Center receives Octapharma grant

Octapharma USA today announced the second grant recipient of the Octapharma 25th Anniversary Grants Program is the Clinical Immunology Research Laboratory at The Mount Sinai Medical Center. The Octapharma Grants program supports clinical or pre-clinical research focused on human protein therapies in hematology, immune therapy, intensive care and emergency medicine.

20 Jan 2011

NMDP selects Velos to supply new Product Fulfillment and CDR System

The National Marrow Donor Program announced today that it has selected Velos, a leading California health care software provider, to supply its new Product Fulfillment and Clinical Data Repository System.

20 Jan 2011

UMB enters license agreement with Bali BioSciences for new strategy to combat sepsis, HIV/AIDS

The University of Maryland, Baltimore's (UMB) Office of Technology Transfer has completed a license agreement with Bali BioSciences LLC, an early-stage company pursuing an unusual, yet clever, strategy to combat disease.

20 Jan 2011

Study validates MultiStem as potential stem cell therapy for spinal cord injury

Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and Athersys, Inc. announced a joint scientific study on spinal cord injury will be published today in the January issue of The Journal of Neuroscience.

20 Jan 2011

Endothelial cells may play a role in controlling cancer behavior: New study

MIT scientists have discovered that cells lining the blood vessels secrete molecules that suppress tumor growth and keep cancer cells from invading other tissues, a finding that could lead to a new way to treat cancer.

20 Jan 2011

Legionnaires’ disease scare in Bali: Australian tourists warned

Commonwealth chief medical officer Jim Bishop has warned Australians who have returned from Bali on an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease on the popular Indonesian resort island. The Australian health authorities knew of 11 cases of Legionnaires’ disease detected in Victorians and Western Australians after holidays in the Kuta area of Bali between August 2010 and January 2011.

19 Jan 2011

Malaria parasite caught in action on film for the first time

Australian researchers have managed to take pictures of microscopic malaria parasite as it invades a human red blood cell. This will provide a deeper understanding of the parasite’s behaviour and may help fight it. Up to 10% of the world’s population contract malaria every year and a million people, mostly pregnant women and children, die as a result of the parasite transmitted by infected mosquitoes.

19 Jan 2011

USPTO grants KL4 surfactant combination product patent to Discovery Labs

Discovery Laboratories, Inc. has been notified that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued U.S. Patent Number 7,863,241 titled "Compositions for Treatment and Prevention of Pulmonary Conditions." The patent provides broad coverage for compositions that employ a combination of certain pulmonary surfactants with a broad array of protease inhibitors, administered as either a liquid or aerosol, for treating pulmonary inflammation.

19 Jan 2011

Theraclone, Pfizer enter multi-year research and development collaboration

Theraclone Sciences, Inc., a therapeutic antibody discovery and development company, announced today that they have entered into a multi-year research and development collaboration with Pfizer. The collaboration will use Theraclone's I-STAR™ technology to discover broadly protective monoclonal antibodies against up to four undisclosed targets in the areas of infectious disease and cancer.

19 Jan 2011

National Jewish Health issued method patent for desensitizing B cells

National Jewish Health has been issued a US patent claiming a method to desensitize B cells by inactivating antigen receptors on their surfaces. The method, discovered by John Cambier, PhD, Chairman of the Integrated Department of Immunology at National Jewish Health, holds promise for treatment of B-cell mediated diseases, such as lymphoma and leukemia, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and rejection of organ transplants.

19 Jan 2011