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G-CSF compound may activate virus, increases risk of infection: Research

Research conducted at Oregon Health & Science University's Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute may spur debate about the risks associated with administering a specific compound in some forms of bone-marrow transplantation. The research is published in the current edition of Cell Host and Microbe.

22 Sep 2010

George Higginson Professor to receive 2010 Warren Alpert Foundation Prize

Howard Green, a founding father of regenerative medicine and the George Higginson Professor of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School, will receive the 2010 Warren Alpert Foundation Prize for developing methodologies leading directly to permanent skin restoration therapy which is saving the lives of thousands of burn patients around the world.

22 Sep 2010

Telomere length associated with higher rate of relapse and lower overall survival in aplastic anemia patients

Among patients receiving immunosuppressive therapy for severe aplastic anemia (a condition in which the bone marrow is unable to produce blood cells), the length of telomeres (chromosome markers of biological aging) was not related to the response to treatment but was associated with a higher rate of relapse (return to low blood cell counts) and lower overall survival, according to a study in the September 22/29 issue of JAMA.

22 Sep 2010

Protein zyxin necessary for maintenance and repair of cell's cytoskeleton

Researchers at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah have discovered that a protein, zyxin, is necessary for the maintenance and repair of the cell's cytoskeleton, or internal framework, which serves as the muscle and bone of the cell. The research has implications for cancer, as well as other diseases, since alterations in the cytoskeleton are often associated with disease. The research was published in the Sep. 14, 2010, issue of the journal Developmental Cell.

22 Sep 2010

UC researcher receives NIDA’s Avant-Garde Award for cocaine addiction research

A University of Cincinnati (UC) researcher will receive $2.5 million over five years from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to support his work on a potential immunotherapy for cocaine addiction.

22 Sep 2010

Dr. Shlomo Melmed awarded 9th Endocrine Regulation Prize of the Fondation Ipsen

The international jury under the presidency of Professor Iain Robinson (National Institute for Medical Research, London, UK) awarded today the 9th Endocrine Regulation Prize of the Fondation Ipsen (20.000€) to Dr. Shlomo Melmed (Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, USA) during the annual congress of the ENEA (European NeuroEndocrine Association) in Liège (Belgium), for his translational approach to endocrinology. Shlomo Melmed is an internationally recognized endocrinologist and an authority on pituitary medicine.

22 Sep 2010

Synthetic lethality boosts effectiveness of molecularly targeted therapies against tumors

Molecularly targeted therapies can reduce tumors rapidly. However, not all tumors respond to the drugs, and even those that do often develop resistance over time. Looking for a way to combat the problem of resistance, researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center hypothesized that hitting already weakened cancer cells with a second targeted agent could kill them-but only if it was the right second agent.

22 Sep 2010

Zyxin protein is critical to maintain and repair internal framework

22 Sep 2010

Study demonstrates why targeted therapies do not work in majority of people

In order for targeted therapies against cancer to be effective, scientists need to understand upfront what related proteins in a signaling "network" makes a cancer cell resistant to a drug and selectively target them as well, say researchers at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and Fox Chase Cancer Center.

22 Sep 2010

Physical or psychological stress before cancer treatment may sabotage therapy

Patients who experience physical or psychological stress - including rigorous exercise - one or two days before a cancer treatment might be unknowingly sabotaging their therapy, new research suggests.

22 Sep 2010

Researchers explain how nerve cells transmit electrical signals

Billions of brain cells are communicating at any given moment. Like an organic supercomputer they keep everything going, from breathing to solving riddles, and "programming errors" can lead to serious conditions such as schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

22 Sep 2010

Rush University researchers identify potential new way to prevent Alzheimer's disease progression

Neurological researchers at Rush University Medical Center have found a new therapeutic target that can potentially lead to a new way to prevent the progression of Alzheimer's disease. The target called neutral sphingomyelinase (N-SMase) is a protein that when activated, can cause a chain of reactions in the cell leading to neuronal death and memory loss.

22 Sep 2010

QR Pharma and MUSC receive $220,000 SBIR grant to study Posiphen in AD transgenic mice

QR Pharma, Inc., a clinical-stage specialty pharmaceutical company committed to developing therapeutics with novel approaches for the treatment of cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease and the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) announced today that they received a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) phase I grant in the amount of $220,000 to study Posiphen® and its metabolites in cell culture and in transgenic Alzheimer mice.

22 Sep 2010

NIH awards UCSF $15.4 million to set up new National Center for Systems Biology

Cell biologists at UCSF have received $15.4 million from the National Institutes of Health to set up one of two new National Centers for Systems Biology, to study how cells respond to their environment - an emerging field of research that could revolutionize medicine by creating "smart cells" to deliver medications and other therapeutics more effectively.

22 Sep 2010

FDA grants orphan drug designation for MultiStem stem cell therapy

Athersys, Inc. announced today that MultiStem, Athersys' multipotent adult progenitor stem cell therapy, has been granted orphan drug designation by the U. S. Food and Drug Administration for the prevention of graft vs. host disease (GvHD).

21 Sep 2010

National survey highlights need for greater awareness on lymphoma

While general awareness of lymphoma remains high, a new survey released today by the Lymphoma Research Foundation (LRF) reveals significant knowledge gaps among Americans about the disease, which is the most prevalent form of blood cancer in the United States. Survey results showed a high number of adults (86 percent) remain unaware that there are 67 different types of lymphoma - 61 types of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and six types of Hodgkin lymphoma.

21 Sep 2010

NIGMS director wins 2011 ASBMB Public Service Award

The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology has named Jeremy M. Berg, director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, the winner of the nonprofit's 2011 ASBMB Howard K. Schachman Public Service Award. Berg will receive the award this evening at an ASBMB Public Affairs Advisory Committee meeting in Arlington, Va.

21 Sep 2010

immatics raises EUR53.8million in Series C financing round

immatics biotechnologies GmbH, a biopharmaceutical company developing advanced therapeutic vaccines that are active against cancer, announced today that it has raised EUR53.8million in a Series C financing round. The new funds will allow the Company to finance the ongoing development of immatics' existing pipeline of advanced therapeutic cancer vaccine candidates.

21 Sep 2010

Cytheris commences enrollment in CYT107 recombinant human Interleukin-7 clinical trial for HIV

Cytheris SA, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on research and development of new therapies for immune modulation, today announced that it has begun enrolling patients in INSPIRE 3, a Phase II clinical program evaluating the effect of repeated cycles of the company's investigative immune-modulator, recombinant human Interleukin-7 (CYT107), in the treatment of chronically HIV-1 infected patients classified as Immunological Non-Responders (INR) after at least 24 months of highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART).

21 Sep 2010

Prostate cancer - TRAIL is worth a trial

One of the human body's protective mechanisms initiated by the TRAIL protein is massively altered in prostate cancer cells - yet the same protein seems to improve the survival prospects of patients. These outstanding results of a cooperative venture between the Clinical Program on Urological Tumours at the Medical University of Vienna and Harvard Medical School, USA, have just been published. They show that the TRAIL protein opens up the prospect to a more accurate prediction of the disease's course, as well as the opportunity to identify a new intervention point for innovative therapies in advanced prostate cancer.

21 Sep 2010