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Researchers find connection between eye disease and arginase

Elevated levels of the enzyme arginase contribute to vascular eye damage and Medical College of Georgia researchers say therapies to normalize its levels could halt progression of potentially blinding diseases such as diabetic retinopathy.

19 Aug 2009

Custom-tailored anti-cancer drugs

Cancer remains a deadly threat despite the best efforts of science. New hopes were raised a few years ago with the discovery that the uncontrolled growth of cancer cells could be thwarted by blocking the action of proteasomes. Biochemists at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) have illuminated a reaction pathway that does just that, in collaboration with researchers from Nereus Pharmaceuticals, based in San Diego, California. In the current issue of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, they report insights that could potentially lead to the development of custom-tailored anti-cancer drugs.

19 Aug 2009

George Rehm and David Mahoney joins Adamas' Board of Directors

Adamas Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately held company, announced today that it has closed a $40 million Series D round of funding led by aeris CAPITAL AG and DAG Ventures. Earlier investors MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures and Northgate Capital also participated in the round. In conjunction with the financing, the company announced the election of George M. Rehm, Managing Partner of aeris CAPITAL AG, and David L. Mahoney, a private equity investor, to the company's Board of Directors.

19 Aug 2009

Aspirin improves survival after colorectal cancer diagnosis

Men and women who were diagnosed with colorectal cancer and began regular use of aspirin had a lower risk of overall and colorectal cancer death compared to patients not using aspirin, according to a study in the August 12 issue of JAMA.

18 Aug 2009

Protein Huwe1 may be an important factor in the development of brain cancer

Researchers from Columbia University Medical Center's Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center have identified a protein that activates brain stem cells to make new neurons - but that may be hijacked later in life to cause brain cancer in humans. The protein called Huwe1 normally functions to eliminate other unnecessary proteins and was found to act as a tumor suppressor in brain cancer.

17 Aug 2009

Sigma-Aldrich offers customizable synthetic extracellular matrix (ECM) for stem cell research

Sigma-Aldrich (Nasdaq: SIAL) today announced an agreement with Glycosan BioSystems for the sale of HyStem(TM), a fully customizable synthetic extracellular matrix (ECM) for stem cell research. HyStem offers researchers flexibility to tailor microenvironments for their cultured cells that mimic natural in vivo conditions, optimizing stem cell proliferation and differentiation. HyStem was developed by Glycosan BioSystems and will be sold by Sigma-Aldrich under a non-exclusive distribution agreement.

13 Aug 2009

Aspirin improves survival after colorectal cancer diagnosis

11 Aug 2009

STAT3 is required for proliferation and maintenance of multipotency in glioblastoma stem cells

In a study published online in advance of print in Stem Cells, Tufts researchers report that the STAT3 gene regulates cancer stem cells in brain cancer. Cancer stem cells have many characteristics of stem cells and are thought to be the cells that drive tumor formation. The researchers report that STAT3 could become a target for cancer therapy, specifically in Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a type of malignant and aggressive brain tumor.

11 Aug 2009

Need 'strong' USAID administrator, 'robust' agency, Lugar says in letter to the editor

In response to an article examining USAID's prospects, Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) writes in a Washington Post letter to the editor that the agency's "institutional atrophy and loss of expertise" has resulted in a "proliferation of aid programs across the government with little coordination or a common framework to evaluate what works and what doesn't."

11 Aug 2009

'Nanobee' drug delivery to tumors

When bees sting, they pump poison into their victims. Now the toxin in bee venom has been harnessed to kill tumor cells by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The researchers attached the major component of bee venom to nano-sized spheres that they call nanobees.

11 Aug 2009

Array Biopharma reports Q4 and full year 2009 financials

Array reported revenue of $5.5 million for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009, compared to revenue of $6.1 million for the same period in fiscal 2008. Array invested $21.3 million in proprietary research and development for the quarter to advance its seven wholly-owned drugs in clinical development and select discovery programs.

10 Aug 2009

Immune system protects cancer cells in first few days

During the very first few days of development of a cancer, our immune system recognizes cancer cells not as abnormal cells requiring eradication but as cells of the body that need to be protected. This result was obtained by the team led by David Klatzmann at the Laboratoire Immunologie (UPMC / CNRS / INSERM).

7 Aug 2009

Discovery of cells responsible for bladder cancer spread

Johns Hopkins scientists have tracked down a powerful set of cells in bladder tumors that seem to be primarily responsible for the cancer's growth and spread using a technique that takes advantage of similarities between tumor and organ growth. The findings, reported in the July Stem Cells, could help scientists develop new ways of finding and attacking similar cells in other types of cancer.

6 Aug 2009

Research looks at cellular stress response to low oxygen

Gary Chiang, Ph.D., and colleagues at Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham) have elucidated how the stability of the REDD1 protein is regulated. The REDD1 protein is a critical inhibitor of the mTOR signaling pathway, which controls cell growth and proliferation.

5 Aug 2009

World shortage of molybdenum may hinder nuclear medicine services

Problems with the world production and supply of molybdenum are leading to shortages of radioisotopes for nuclear medicine imaging tests, according to an editorial in the journal Nuclear Medicine Communications, official journal of the British Nuclear Medicine Society (BNMS).

5 Aug 2009

Discovery of novel tumor suppressor

4 Aug 2009

Discovery of novel tumor suppressor

La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology researchers studying an enzyme believed to play a role in allergy onset, instead have discovered its previously unknown role as a tumor suppressor that may be important in myeloproliferative diseases and some types of lymphoma and leukemia. Myeloproliferative diseases are a group of disorders characterized by an overproduction of blood cells by the bone marrow and include chronic myeloid leukemia. Lymphoma and leukemia are cancers of the blood.

3 Aug 2009

Growth factor enhances heart regeneration, improves heart function without need for cardiac stem cells

Injured heart tissue normally can't regrow, but researchers at Children's Hospital Boston have now laid the groundwork for regenerating heart tissue after a heart attack, in patients with heart failure, or in children with congenital heart defects.

24 Jul 2009

Caspase-8 protein plays an important role in proliferation and invasion of cancer cells

Scientists at Burnham Institute for Medical Research have found that the Caspase-8 protein, long known to play a major role in promoting programmed cell death (apoptosis), helps relay signals that can cause cancer cells to proliferate, migrate and invade surrounding tissues. The study was published in the journal Cancer Research on June 15.

24 Jul 2009

Discovery of key protein for tumor suppression in ER+ breast cancer

Researchers from the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson have identified a protein relationship that may be an ideal treatment target for ER+ breast cancer. The study was reported in the July 15 issue of Cancer Research.

15 Jul 2009