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Researchers report new way to help improve vaccines using molecules that direct the immune system

As the days get colder and shorter, we carve jack-o-lanterns and drink pumpkin spice lattes. But one fall tradition can actually keep you healthy: getting your flu shot. Like all vaccines, the flu shot trains the immune system to fend off infection, but some need help to produce the full effect.

29 Oct 2015

Yervoy approved for patients at high risk of developing recurrence of melanoma after surgery

Today the U.S. Food and Drug Administration expanded the approved use of Yervoy (ipilimumab) to include a new use as adjuvant therapy for patients with stage III melanoma, to lower the risk that the melanoma will return following surgery.

29 Oct 2015

Liposomal sizing and the Coulter principle: an interview with Professor Melvin E. Klegerman

For about the last 25 years, the cardiology group here have been developing a platform technology for both the diagnosis and treatment of atherosclerosis.

From Beckman Coulter Life Sciences - Particle Counting and Characterization 28 Oct 2015

Hiroshima University researchers report promising new avenue for treating hepatitis B

A promising new avenue for treating hepatitis B has been reported by researchers at Hiroshima University who have developed a new animal model of the disease.

28 Oct 2015

Amgen's IMLYGIC receives positive opinion from CHMP for treatment of melanoma

Amgen today announced that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use, the scientific committee of the European Medicines Agency, has adopted a positive opinion recommending that IMLYGIC (talimogene laherparepvec) be granted approval for the treatment of adults with unresectable melanoma that is regionally or distantly metastatic (Stage IIIB, IIIC and IVM1a) with no bone, brain, lung or other visceral disease.

23 Oct 2015

Asterias’ Phase 1/2a study evaluates dose escalation of AST-OPC1 for cervical spinal cord injury

Asterias Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NYSE MKT: AST), a biotechnology company focused on the emerging field of regenerative medicine, today announced that its Data Monitoring Committee has reviewed the initial safety data from all three patients in the first cohort and has recommended dose escalation to the second cohort.

20 Oct 2015

Research finding points towards developing effective malaria vaccine

In a recent breakthrough to combat malaria, a collaboration of Indian and American scientists have identified a malarial parasite protein that can be used to develop antibodies when displayed on novel nanoparticles. This approach has the potential to prevent the parasite from multiplying in the human host and also inhibits transmission through mosquitoes. The finding points towards developing a powerful malaria vaccine in the hope of eradicating this debilitating and often fatal disease.

20 Oct 2015

Special CD4+ T cells appear to inhibit cancer growth, enhance tumor-killing powers of other immune cells

The key to immune-based cancer therapies lies in the ability to exploit some weakness within the tumor and its environment or to elude cancer's offenses. Writing in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers led by a group from the Roswell Park Cancer Institute Center for Immunotherapy have shared new insights about a subset of T cells that appear to do both those things, inhibiting cancer growth at the same time that they enhance the tumor-killing powers of other immune cells.

19 Oct 2015

Native Antigen Co. announces the launch of a new range of Dengue Virus-Like Particles

Virus-Like Particles (VLPs) represent an increasingly important technology for use in vaccine development and serology. VLPs consist of protein shells comprising outer proteins specific to the virus in question.

16 Oct 2015

TxCell reviews its manufacturing strategy to focus on R&D and strategic partnerships - its core, high added value businesses

TxCell SA, a biotechnology company developing innovative, personalized T cell immunotherapies using antigen specific regulatory T-cells (Ag-Tregs) for severe chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, announces today that it is operating a strategic review that should result in the outsourcing of all existing and future clinical and commercial manufacturing operations to contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs).

15 Oct 2015

Researchers find protein that plays crucial role in development of allergic airway inflammation

Allergies are becoming more commonplace, particularly in industrialised coun-tries. In addition to hay fever, allergic asthma is currently considered to be one of the most widespread allergies. UFZ researchers and their colleagues from the University of Leipzig have recently been successful in finding a protein that plays a critical role in the development of allergic airway inflammation.

12 Oct 2015

EMA completes review of proposed amendment to OncoGenex's Phase 3 AFFINITY trial protocol

OncoGenex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that the European Medicines Agency has completed its review of the proposed amendment to the company's Phase 3 AFFINITY protocol and statistical analysis plan.

8 Oct 2015

Genocea announces positive data in Phase 2 trial evaluating GEN-003 for the treatment of genital herpes

Genocea Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GNCA), a biopharmaceutical company developing T cell-directed vaccines and immunotherapies, has announced positive results from a planned interim analysis of data collected six months after dosing from its ongoing Phase 2 dose optimization trial evaluating GEN-003 for the treatment of genital herpes. At its best performing dose of 60 µg per protein / 75 µg of Matrix-M2TM adjuvant, GEN-003 demonstrated a statistically significant 58 percent reduction from baseline in the viral shedding rate (p < 0.0001), the primary endpoint of the study.

7 Oct 2015

Oncolytics completes Phase II trial enrollment for REOLYSIN in prostate cancer

Oncolytics Biotech Inc. today announced that enrollment has been completed in a randomized Phase II study of REOLYSIN in patients with recurrent or metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer (IND 209). The trial is being sponsored and conducted by the NCIC Clinical Trials Group (NCIC CTG) at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario.

6 Oct 2015

Researchers identify role of microglia during early stages of Alzheimer's disease

For the first time, researchers have determined how toxic tau fibrils spread by the help of brain immune cells called microglia during the early stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The discovery of this new pathway may lead to a therapeutic target for AD, one that has not been previously identified.

5 Oct 2015

HLA-DPB1 regulatory region genotype predicts acute GVHD

Analysis of a HLA-DPB1 regulatory region variant has shed light on the risk of acute graft-versus-host disease in patients undergoing haematopoietic cell transplantation from an unrelated donor.

1 Oct 2015

Generex agrees to acquire 51% equity interest in Hema Diagnostic Systems

Generex Biotechnology Corporation today announced that it has entered into a non-binding Letter of Intent (LOI) with Hema Diagnostic Systems, LLC (HDS), a Florida company that designs and manufactures proprietary infectious disease detection technologies.

30 Sep 2015

New study broadens understanding of how the immune system responds to flu virus

A new study of influenza infection in an animal model broadens understanding of how the immune system responds to flu virus, showing that the process is more dynamic than usually described, engaging a broader array of biological pathways. The researchers say their findings may offer key insights for designing more effective vaccines in general.

29 Sep 2015

Two-drug combination improves progression-free survival in patients with advanced melanoma

Patients with advanced melanoma skin cancer survive for longer without their disease progressing if they have been treated with a combination of two drugs, nivolumab and ipilimumab, than with either of these drugs alone. New results show that these patients also do better regardless of their age, stage of disease and whether or not they have a cancer-driving mutation in the BRAF gene.

28 Sep 2015

H7N9 influenza vaccine failure may be due to immune camouflage, study reveals

The avian influenza A (H7N9) virus has been a major concern since the first outbreak in China in 2013. Due to its high rate of lethality and pandemic potential, H7N9 vaccine development has become a priority for public health officials. However, candidate vaccines have failed to elicit the strong immune responses necessary to protect from infection.

25 Sep 2015