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JDRF, Amylin collaborate to support metreleptin study for type 1 diabetes

The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) and Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that they entered into a research collaboration agreement to provide financial support for a clinical proof-of-concept study to investigate the effects of metreleptin, an analog of the human hormone leptin, in patients with type 1 diabetes. Researchers at The University of Texas (UT) Southwestern Medical Center will conduct the study.

17 Nov 2010

Swissmedic approves use of plasma components treated with Cerus' INTERCEPT Blood System

Cerus Corporation announced today that the Swiss regulatory body, Swissmedic, has approved the use of plasma components treated with Cerus' INTERCEPT Blood System.

17 Nov 2010

UMass, PolyMedix receive Phase 2 STTR contract to conduct test on antimicrobial compounds

PolyMedix, Inc., an emerging biotechnology company focused on developing new therapeutic drugs to treat infectious diseases and acute cardiovascular disorders, and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (UMass), have received a Phase 2 Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) contract in the amount of $750,000.

17 Nov 2010

Isis, Xenon enter collaboration to discover and develop antisense drugs for AI

Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc. announced today a new collaboration to discover and develop antisense drugs as novel treatments for the common disease anemia of inflammation (AI).

16 Nov 2010

Omron supports American Heart Association's educational initiatives for hypertension treatment

Omron Healthcare today announced support for the American Heart Association's broad-based healthcare awareness campaign that will educate providers on hypertension treatment recommendations, including home blood pressure monitoring and best practices for integrating this into their standard of care.

16 Nov 2010

Stem cells for stroke: Clinical trial commences

Researchers have started the world’s first clinical trial of stem cells to treat stroke victims in Glasgow. The trial is undertaken by ReNeuron, a Guildford-based biotech company and started this weekend with an elderly man receiving an injection of 2 million stem cells into his brain. It received final approval to go ahead this year.

16 Nov 2010

Urgent need for bowel cancer screening funding

Bowel Cancer Foundation chairman, Graham Newstead feeling frustrated at the federal government’s indecision on bowel cancer screening funds has expressed his dismay. He suggested that the government should ensure the future funding for the screening test that has saved an estimated 11,000 lives since screening was introduced in 2006.

16 Nov 2010

Anti-stroke blood thinner shows promise in large clinical trials

In new and extensive clinical trials an experimental blood thinner called rivaroxaban is at least as good at preventing strokes as the drug warfarin – that has been the most widely used agent for the past five decades in people with erratic heartbeats called atrial fibrillations. Researchers said this Monday that this drug also sharply reduces the risk of major bleeding that is seen with warfarin.

16 Nov 2010

Diuretic lessens risk of death from mild heart failure: Study

A new study shows that diuretic pill Inspra (generic – Eplerenone) cuts down the risk of death and hospitalization among people with mild heart failure. The drug that is widely used to treat advanced heart failure, also has value for people with mild disease, says lead researcher Faiez Zannad, of Nancy University in Nancy, France. The results were reported at the American Heart Association's annual meeting and published simultaneously online in the New England Journal of Medicine.

16 Nov 2010

Medical Acoustics receives UB CAT/NYSTAR grant

Medical Acoustics LLC, a commercial-stage medical device company which employs acoustic technologies for diagnostic and therapeutic medical applications, today announced that it has been awarded a UB CAT/NYSTAR grant.

16 Nov 2010

Study confirms healthy lifestyle has the biggest impact on cardiovascular health

Two large studies from Northwestern Medicine confirm a healthy lifestyle has the biggest impact on cardiovascular health. One study shows the majority of people who adopted healthy lifestyle behaviors in young adulthood maintained a low cardiovascular risk profile in middle age.

16 Nov 2010

UC San Diego researchers receive NIH grant to develop scaffolds

University of California, San Diego NanoEngineers won a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop the tools to manufacture biodegradable frames around which heart tissues functional blood vessels included will grow.

16 Nov 2010

FDA announces program to facilitate development of external defibrillators to treat abnormal heart rhythms

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced a program aimed at facilitating the development of safer, more effective external defibrillators used to treat abnormal heart rhythms through improved design and manufacturing practices. External defibrillators are medical devices designed to diagnose life-threatening abnormal heart rhythms and treat them by delivering electrical energy to the heart to restore its normal rhythm.

16 Nov 2010

New ELISA protocol for Midkine detection in blood serum

BioGenes GmbH, a supplier of GMP compliant immunoassay and antibody services, has developed and optimized the first ever fully validated ELISA protocol for Midkine detection in blood serum.

16 Nov 2010

Misonix to introduce OsteoSculpt for facial bone surgery at EACMFS Congress

Misonix, Inc., a developer of state of the art, ultrasonic medical device technology, which worldwide is used for acute health conditions, has announced its attendance and exhibition at the 20th Congress of the European Association for Cranial-Maxillofacial Surgery (EACMFS), which was held recently in Bruges, Belgium.

16 Nov 2010

New stem cell-infused patch improves heart function after myocardial infarction

University of Cincinnati (UC) researchers have found that applying a stem cell-infused patch together with overexpression of a specific cell instruction molecule promoted cell migration to damaged cardiac tissue following heart attack and resulted in improved function in animal models.

16 Nov 2010

Iron in plaque may predict risk of myocardial infarction

Plaque in a heart artery looks threatening, but cardiologists know that many of these buildups will not erupt, dislodge and block a vessel, causing a heart attack that can be fatal. Some will, however, and the challenge is to figure out atherosclerotic plaque that is dangerous and treat or remove it.

16 Nov 2010

Study finds significant variability in CPR quality between day and night

CPR quality is worse during in-hospital cardiac arrests occurring overnight than those that happen during the day, according to a new University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine study that will be presented at the American Heart Association's annual Scientific Sessions on November 14.

16 Nov 2010

New high-sensitive blood test may help predict risk of heart failure in older people

Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore report that a new, highly sensitive investigative blood test may help predict the risk of heart failure and cardiovascular death much earlier than previously possible in older people who do not have symptoms of heart failure.

16 Nov 2010

Children's Hospital pediatric immunologist collaborates with European gene therapy researchers to study WAS syndrome

A pediatric immunologist at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia collaborated with European gene therapy researchers who achieved marked clinical improvements in two young children with Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome, a very rare but often severe immunodeficiency disorder.

16 Nov 2010