Pathogen News and Research

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New insights into how adenovirus triggers an immune response

A Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine study could lead to improved gene therapies for conditions such as heart disease and cancer as well as more effective vaccines for tuberculosis, malaria and other diseases.

13 Oct 2011

U of U researchers receive NIH grant to uncover viral cause of MS

A team of investigators from the University of Utah has received a two-year, $275,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to fund novel research that may help to uncover a viral cause for the most acute and severe form of multiple sclerosis.

13 Oct 2011

Genetic mystery of bacterium causing ‘Black Death’ revealed

Between 1347 and 1351 - a period of just five years, Europe's Black Death wiped out about 30 million people - 30 to 50% of the population on the continent. Now geneticists have reconstructed the genome of the bacterium that caused the plague. It is found to be an ancient strain of a bacterium called Yersinia pestis very similar to the strain the exists today.

13 Oct 2011

USPTO issues patent to Oragenics' In Vivo Induced Antigen Technology

Florida-based nutraceutical company, Oragenics, Inc., announced today the issuance of patent number 8,034,571 from the United States Patent and Trademark office for In Vivo Induced Antigen Technology.

13 Oct 2011

Furiex announces publications and presentations about antibacterial drug JNJ-Q2

Furiex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced recent and upcoming publications and presentations about the novel investigational antibacterial drug JNJ-Q2.

12 Oct 2011

Progenra, Ono enter ubiquitin pathway research collaboration

Progenra, Inc. announced today that it has entered into a research collaboration with Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. Under the agreement, Progenra will collaborate with Ono to conduct assay development and high throughput screening by using Progenra's proprietary technology on multiple targets in the ubiquitin pathway.

11 Oct 2011

Antivirulence drugs may fight infection and suppress resistance

Antivirulence drugs disarm pathogens rather than kill them, and although they could be effective in theory, antivirulence drugs have never been tested in humans. A new study to be published in the online journal mBio- on Tuesday, October 18 reveals these drugs have the potential to fight infection while avoiding the pitfalls of drug resistance.

11 Oct 2011

NIH awards LSUHSC $9 million grant to develop pneumonia vaccine

Dr. Judd Shellito, Chief of the Section of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, has been awarded approximately $9 million in grant funding to develop a vaccine against Pneumocystis, an important cause of pneumonia in people with HIV infection. This potentially fatal illness is the most common serious opportunistic infection in people with HIV.

7 Oct 2011

Virginia Bioinformatics Institute releases upgraded ENISI software

Researchers with the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech have released an upgrade to the institute's ENteric Immunity SImulator (ENISI) software, which models immune responses to beneficial and harmful bacteria that enter the gastrointestinal tract of mice, pigs, and humans.

7 Oct 2011

Powerful HIV vaccine being tested on humans

Spanish researchers have developed a prototype of a vaccine against the AIDS-causing HIV virus that is “much more powerful” than those made to date.

29 Sep 2011

Phase I clinical trials reveal MVA-B preventive vaccine's immune efficiency against HIV

Phase I clinical trials developed by Spanish Superior Scientific Research Council (CSIC) together with Gregorio Mara--n Hospital in Madrid and Cl-nic Hospital in Barcelona, reveals MVA-B preventive vaccine's immune efficiency against Human's immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

28 Sep 2011

Columbia University receives CFI grant to investigate causes of chronic fatigue syndrome

The Chronic Fatigue Initiative (CFI) - a new privately funded research directive focused on chronic fatigue syndrome - announced a substantial grant to a Columbia University research team to investigate the role of pathogens in causing chronic fatigue syndrome. The pathogen discovery and pathogenesis program will be led by Drs. Ian Lipkin and Mady Hornig of the Center for Infection and Immunity.

28 Sep 2011

MicroDose initiates MDT-637 Phase 1 trial in respiratory syncytial virus

MicroDose Therapeutx, Inc. today announced that the first human subject has been dosed in a Phase 1 clinical trial of MDT-637, MicroDose's inhalable small molecule antiviral fusion inhibitor for the treatment of respiratory syncytial virus.

28 Sep 2011

Rotavirus vaccine saved 65,000 hospitalizations and $278 million in healthcare costs: Study

The latest research shows that since the 2006 introduction of routine inoculation against rotavirus -- a leading cause of diarrhea in infants and young children -- almost 65,000 fewer American children have been hospitalized and about $278 million in healthcare costs have been saved.

26 Sep 2011

EMA CHMP adopts positive opinion for DIFICLIR to treat C. difficile infection

Astellas Pharma Europe Ltd. (APEL) and Optimer Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has adopted a positive opinion for DIFICLIR (fidaxomicin) tablets for the treatment of adults suffering with a Clostridium difficile infection (CDI), also known as C. difficile-associated diarrhoea (CDAD).

23 Sep 2011

Two TGen students receive SRP grants for antibiotic resistance and Alzheimer's research

Two Arizona university graduate students working at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) have each received $50,000 grants from the Salt River Project.

23 Sep 2011

Cornell researchers identify how T. gondii controls host's immune system

Toxoplasma gondii parasites can invade your bloodstream, break into your brain and prompt behavioral changes from recklessness to neuroticism. These highly contagious protozoa infect more than half the world's population, and most people's immune systems never purge the intruders.

22 Sep 2011

ASU scientists receive USDA grants to combat food-related illness

Roughly 1 in six Americans are sickened every year by food-borne ailments, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The effects of these illnesses range from acutely unpleasant to lethal, and the problem may be getting worse, as our food supply becomes more global, with an increasing number of antibiotic-resistant pathogens.

21 Sep 2011

Positive data from NovaDigm's NDV-3 vaccine preclinical study on VVC

NovaDigm Therapeutics, a company developing innovative vaccines for fungal and bacterial infections, today announced the presentation of positive data from a preclinical study evaluating the efficacy its NDV-3 vaccine in a model of vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC), which is primarily caused by Candida albicans.

20 Sep 2011

Positive Phase 1 data for NovaDigm NDV-3 vaccine presented at 51st ICAAC

NovaDigm Therapeutics, a company developing innovative vaccines for fungal and bacterial infections, today announced the presentation of positive Phase 1 data for its NDV-3 vaccine program at the 51st Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC).

19 Sep 2011