Laboratory News and Research

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Study provides novel information about clinical potential of anti-cancer antibiotics

Most of us have had a doctor prescribe an antibiotic for a stubborn bacterial infection, or for a cut that gets infected. However, prescribing an antibiotic to fight cancer? In fact, anti-cancer antibiotics have been used since the 1950s to successfully treat several forms of cancer, but often the side effects limit the duration they can be given to a patient.

30 Jun 2011

New technique can remove oil spill from soil

It is well known just how damaging oil can be to nature. It is also well known just how difficult it can be to clean up after a spill or contamination. Removing an oil spill or contamination from soil is hard and requires very different techniques to removing oil from water.

30 Jun 2011

Mary Ann Liebert peer-reviewed journal highlights advances in gene therapy for neurological diseases

Novel tools and methods for delivering therapeutic genes to cells in the central nervous system hold great promise for the development of new treatments to combat incurable neurologic diseases.

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

Genes in Tasmanian Devil give new hope to children with cancer

Cancer researchers have generated a genetic blueprint of the Tasmanian Devil genome, revealing cancer-associated genes that may answer important questions about adult and childhood cancer.

30 Jun 2011

Vaccines may be given in food in the near future

Soon children could be vaccinated with bacteria mixed in milk and people in the developing world given unprecedented access to immunisations under a scheme proposed by an Australian Nobel laureate, Barry Marshall.

29 Jun 2011

DiagnoCure, Signal Genetics enter commercialization collaboration for Previstage GCC Colorectal Cancer Staging Test

Signal Genetics, a privately held predictive genetic testing company focusing on oncology, and DiagnoCure, Inc., a life sciences company that develops and commercializes high-value cancer diagnostic tests, today announced a collaboration arrangement valued at US$13.3M over the first five years.

29 Jun 2011

DMI completes rHEALTH sensor reduced-gravity experiments for NASA FAST program

In September 2010, the DNA Medicine Institute (DMI) successfully completed reduced-gravity experiments on its rHEALTH sensor for the NASA Facilitated Access to the Space Environment for Technology (FAST) program. NASA recently followed that experiment with a $190,000 contract to DMI to analyze data from the parabolic flights.

29 Jun 2011

Mount Sinai gene therapy improves cardiac function in people with severe heart failure

Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have found in a Phase II trial that a gene therapy developed at Mount Sinai stabilized or improved cardiac function in people with severe heart failure. Patients receiving a high dose of the therapy, called SERCA2a, experienced substantial clinical benefit and significantly reduced cardiovascular hospitalizations, addressing a critical unmet need in this population.

29 Jun 2011

Diet sodas and artificial sweeteners may not be healthy alternatives

In the constant battle to lose inches or at least stay the same, we reach for the diet soda. Two studies presented June 25 and 27 at the American Diabetes Association's Scientific Sessions in San Diego suggest this might be self-defeating behavior.

29 Jun 2011

Researchers discover herpes virus-associated disease in monkeys

Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University have discovered a naturally occurring disease in monkeys that is very much like multiple sclerosis in humans - a discovery that could have a major impact on efforts to understand the cause of multiple sclerosis.

29 Jun 2011

GABA corrects both known causes of Type 1 diabetes

A chemical produced by the same cells that make insulin in the pancreas prevented and even reversed Type 1 diabetes in mice, researchers at St. Michael's Hospital have found.

29 Jun 2011

New concepts for how evolutionary change occurs

At a recent Kavli Futures Symposium, 19 experts from a diverse range of fields discussed the promise of using the lab to understand and exploit the evolution of organisms -- progress that may one day lead to new vaccines or other biotechnology products.

29 Jun 2011

Genetic tools that enable cell type-specific delivery hold promise for combating incurable neurologic diseases

Novel tools and methods for delivering therapeutic genes to cells in the central nervous system hold great promise for the development of new treatments to combat incurable neurologic diseases. Five of the most exciting developments in this rapidly advancing field are presented in a series of articles in the June issue of Human Gene Therapy, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc..

29 Jun 2011

Conventional Estrogen Receptor measurement methods may result in 10-20% false negative rate

A team of Yale Cancer Center researchers has confirmed that between 10-20% of breast cancers classified as Estrogen Receptor (ER) negative are really positive. Understanding when and why breast cancers may be misclassified has important implications for treatment and outcomes for women diagnosed with breast cancer. Its findings are published online in the June 28 Journal of Clinical Oncology.

28 Jun 2011

454 Life Sciences launches new GS FLX+ System for high-throughput sequencing

454 Life Sciences, a Roche Company, announced today the launch and immediate availability of the new GS FLX+ System, an instrument capable of generating extra-long sequencing reads up to 1,000 by in length.

28 Jun 2011

BPA “de-masculinizes” male mice: Study

Laboratory studies have shown that male mice who are exposed in the womb to bisphenol A, or BPA, a chemical compound found in some hard plastics and can linings, appear to be less masculine and less attractive to females once they mature. This raises controversies that human boys could be similarly affected. The findings were published Monday on the website of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

28 Jun 2011

Data from microarrays co-developed by OGT to be presented at ECC 2011

Oxford Gene Technology (OGT), provider of innovative clinical genetics and diagnostic solutions to advance molecular medicine, has announced details of its upcoming workshop at the European Cytogenetics Conference 2011, held in Porto, Portugal (2–5 July).

From Oxford Gene Technology 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

Scientists discover how bacteria invade heart tissue and cause endocarditis

Scientists have discovered the tool that bacteria normally found in our mouths use to invade heart tissue, causing a dangerous and sometimes lethal infection of the heart known as endocarditis.

28 Jun 2011