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ChemGenex shares falter as FDA requests more data on new leukemia drug

ChemGenex Pharmaceuticals Ltd. Shares fell most in the last 16 years to AUD$0.44 following a concern raised by the US drug regulators – US FDA. The FDA requested on Monday for more uniform clinical test data before they review and consider approval of the company’s new leukemia drug.

23 Mar 2010

AARDA launches campaign on family AQ

In honor of the designation of March as National Autoimmune Disease Awareness Month by the U.S. Senate on March 4, 2010, the American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association (AARDA) wants to help you learn your family's AQ. AQ is a play on IQ that stands for Autoimmune Quotient. It's about knowing how likely you or a loved one is to develop an autoimmune disease, based on the prevalence of these diseases and your family history. The campaign features AARDA National Spokesperson and Actress Kellie Martin, best known for her memorable roles on "E.R." and "Life Goes On."

22 Mar 2010

Mayo Clinic co-led research finds first gene linked to lung cancer in "never smokers"

A five-center collaborative study that scanned the genomes of thousands of "never smokers" diagnosed with lung cancer as well as healthy never smokers has found a gene they say could be responsible for a significant number of those cancers.

22 Mar 2010

Caltech-led trial demonstrates feasibility of nanoparticles and RNAi-based therapeutics for treating cancer

A California Institute of Technology -led team of researchers and clinicians has published the first proof that a targeted nanoparticle-used as an experimental therapeutic and injected directly into a patient's bloodstream-can traffic into tumors, deliver double-stranded small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), and turn off an important cancer gene using a mechanism known as RNA interference (RNAi).

22 Mar 2010

Genetic study may help develop potential treatment strategies for stiff skin syndrome

By studying the genetics of a rare inherited disorder called stiff skin syndrome, researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have learned more about scleroderma, a condition affecting about one in 5,000 people that leads to hardening of the skin as well as other debilitating and often life-threatening problems.

20 Mar 2010

Turning microRNAs into novel drugs

Researchers around the globe are working on turning microRNAs, over 5,000 of which already have been identified, into novel drugs for a wide range of applications, reports Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN). These noncoding single-stranded RNAs act through binding to complementary mRNA sequences, thus preventing their translation into protein or accelerating mRNA breakdown, according to the March 15 issue of GEN.

20 Mar 2010

ELCA's 49-page draft social statement on genetics

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America released March 18 a 49-page draft social statement on genetics, a framework for discussion on a variety of current topics in the field including certain advances in medicine, reproductive cloning, human embryonic stem cells, and animal and plant genetic engineering.

20 Mar 2010

Major study shoots for personalized breast cancer drugs

Mutations in BCRA1 and BCRA2 genes are mainly associated with increased risk of breast cancer in women. Recently many other genetic variants have been found to be associated with breast cancer.

19 Mar 2010

Research group unveils new computational strategy for GWAS

In the ongoing quest to identify the genetic factors involved in disease, scientists have increasingly turned to genome-wide association studies, or GWAS, which enable the scanning of up to a million genetic markers in thousands of individuals.

19 Mar 2010

Researchers use optogenetics technology to troubleshoot neural circuits

Recently, brain researchers have gained a powerful new way to troubleshoot neural circuits associated with depression, Parkinson's disease and other conditions in small animals such as rats. They use an optogenetics technology, invented at Stanford University, that precisely turns select brain cells on or off with flashes of light. Although useful, the optogenetics tool set has been limited.

19 Mar 2010

Rates of breast cancer occurrences in Asian women rising among specific ethnic groups

Research scientists from the Cancer Prevention Institute of California (CPIC) released the results of a study of breast cancer in Asian women which examined their cancer rates by ethnicity, age and immigrant status. The findings challenge the notion that breast cancer rates are uniformly low across the population of Asian women and indicate rising rates of occurrences in specific ethnic groups. CPIC scientists studied Asian populations in California, the state with the largest and most diverse Asian population in the U.S.

19 Mar 2010

Survey unveils impact of gene regulation on human health

Researchers are only beginning to understand how individual variation in gene regulation can have a lasting impact on one's health and susceptibility to certain diseases. Now, an ambitious survey of the human genome has identified differences in the binding of master regulators called transcription factors to DNA that affect how genes are expressed in different people.

19 Mar 2010

Stiff skin syndrome cause found

18 Mar 2010

Broad application of bipolar diagnosis in children may do more harm than good

Troubled children diagnosed with bipolar disorder may fare better with a different diagnosis, according to researchers at The Hastings Center.

18 Mar 2010

Gene regulation rather than genes make us unique

Once the human genome was sequenced in 2001, the hunt was on for the genes that make each of us unique. But scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, and Yale and Stanford Universities in the USA, have found that we differ from each other mainly because of differences not in our genes, but in how they're regulated - turned on or off, for instance.

18 Mar 2010

StemCells granted UK patent covering true rat stem cells and genetically engineered rats

StemCells, Inc. announced today that the United Kingdom (UK) Intellectual Property Office has granted patent number GB2451523 with broad claims covering true (germline competent) rat stem cells and genetically engineered rats derived from these cells. The patented technology is expected to have significant utility to academic and pharmaceutical industry researchers by enabling them to create novel rat models for the study of human diseases. Both mice and rats are used by scientists to model various human diseases.

18 Mar 2010

BeaconEquity.com: AVI BioPharma's revenues for fourth-quarter of 2009 are $5.1M

BeaconEquity.com announces an investment report featuring biotech company AVI BioPharma Inc. The report includes financial, comparative and investment analyses, and pertinent industry information you need to know to make an educated investment decision.

18 Mar 2010

Health IT Now! Coalition panel discussion: Develop affordable access to broadband and healthcare

The Health IT Now! Coalition hosted a panel discussion today with the Federal Communications Commission and a panel of experts to discuss the FCC's National Broadband Plan and its proposals to develop affordable access to broadband and healthcare.

18 Mar 2010

ETP releases presentation highlights of 2010 Epilepsy Pipeline Update Conference

The Epilepsy Therapy Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to accelerating new therapies for people living with epilepsy, today released presentation highlights following its successful 2010 Epilepsy Pipeline Update Conference held in San Francisco. Sponsored by ETP, this conference brings together leading clinical investigators, emerging CNS companies and academic innovators with investors and business development partners to facilitate professional collaboration, funding and partnerships that will accelerate patient access to new treatments.

18 Mar 2010

Reversal of aging shown in human stem cells

A team of North American collaborators from both industrial research centers (Biotime Inc, Mandala Biosciences LLC and Sierra Sciences LLC) and academic institutes (Ontario Cancer Institute, Burnham Institute for Medical Research and The Scripps Research Institute) have demonstrated successful reversal of the developmental aging of normal human cells.

18 Mar 2010