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Embryome Sciences announces $4M equity financing, changes name to ReCyte Therapeutics

BioTime, Inc. today announced a $4 million equity financing by its subsidiary, Embryome Sciences, Inc. Concurrent with the financing, Embryome Sciences will be renamed ReCyte Therapeutics, Inc. and will develop therapeutic products for cardiovascular and blood diseases. The new equity financing is being led by a $2.5 million investment by private investors and a $1.5 million investment from BioTime that valued ReCyte Therapeutics at a post money valuation of $60 million on a fully diluted basis.

4 Jan 2011

Peptide in blood and tissue inhibits growth of breast tumors

Researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center (WFUBMC) have discovered what may become a new weapon in the fight against breast cancer. For the first time, a peptide found in blood and tissue has been shown to inhibit the growth of human breast tumors in mice, according to a study recently published in the journal Cancer Research.

4 Jan 2011

Risk-adjusted TTR appears to improve anticoagulation control

Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine and the Bedford VA Medical Center believe that risk-adjusted percent time in therapeutic range should be used as part of an effort to improve anticoagulation control and thus improve patient outcomes.

4 Jan 2011

Fear of the fat promoted to curb obesity

The Australian Medical Association has recommended the use of graphic television advertisements in Victoria to warn people about the risks of eating fatty foods. Rising rates of obesity has prompted these extreme measures. The proposed ads in television and newspaper would cost $25 million and would show the effects of fat on the body’s internal organs. The AMA’s proposals are part of a submission calling for $63 million to fight obesity.

3 Jan 2011

Centre Partners completes sale of Kaz to Helen of Troy

Centre Partners Management LLC ("Centre Partners"), a leading middle market private equity firm with offices in New York and Los Angeles, today announced the completion of the sale of Kaz, Inc. ("Kaz" or the "Company") to Helen of Troy Limited. Kaz is an international leader in health care and home environment consumer solutions. The transaction is valued at $260 million subject to certain closing working capital and other adjustments.

3 Jan 2011

FDA authorizes Juventas' JVS-100 Phase II clinical trial for critical limb ischemia

Juventas Therapeutics, a clinical-stage regenerative medicine company developing novel therapies for cardiovascular disease, announces that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized commencement of a Phase II clinical trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of its lead product, JVS-100, for the treatment of critical limb ischemia (CLI).

3 Jan 2011

FDA grants orphan drug status for Senesco's SNS01-T in treatment of multiple myeloma

Senesco Technologies, Inc., announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted orphan drug designation for the company's lead drug candidate SNS01-T for treatment of multiple myeloma.

3 Jan 2011

Cyfluent Chart, Version 2.0 receives Complete EHR certification

Cyfluent, Inc. announced today that Cyfluent Chart, Version 2.0, is 2011/2012 compliant and was certified as a Complete EHR on Friday, November 12, 2010 by the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT®), an ONC-ATCB, in accordance with the certification criteria adopted by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. The 2011/2012 criteria support the Stage 1 meaningful use measures required to qualify eligible providers and hospitals for funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

3 Jan 2011

Golden Meditech obtains approvals for offering and listing of Taiwan Depositary Receipts

Golden Meditech Holdings Limited, Mainland China's leading integrated healthcare enterprise, is pleased to announce that the Company has obtained the approvals from the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the Taiwan Securities and Futures Bureau for its proposed offering and listing of Taiwan Depositary Receipts ("TDR") on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The Company will become the first Mainland Chinese healthcare enterprise to list its TDR on the Taiwan Stock Exchange.

3 Jan 2011

Genocea announces close of $35 million Series B venture financing round

Genocea Biosciences Inc., a vaccine discovery and development company pioneering a new class of T cell-based vaccines, today announced that it has closed a $35 million Series B round of venture financing, with new investors Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation (JJDC), Skyline Ventures and MP Healthcare Venture Management, Inc. (MPH) joining existing investors Polaris Venture Partners, Lux Capital Management, SR One, Cycad Group, Auriga Partners and Morningside Ventures.

3 Jan 2011

Hydrocephalus in Ugandan children linked to farm animals, previous bacterial infection

Hydrocephalus in Ugandan children and other developing countries is seasonal, linked to farm animals and in part, caused by previous bacterial infection, according to an international team of researchers from Uganda and the United States, who believe that the best approach to this problem is prevention.

3 Jan 2011

Tips to prevent a hangover

Dr. Andrew Yacht, director of the division of general medicine and vice chair of medicine for education at Maimonides Medical Center in New York City said, “Alcohol clearly causes hangovers, but why it causes hangovers isn’t very well understood…Part of the suspected cause is dehydration and an electrolyte and hormonal imbalance. Some of the symptoms may be caused by low blood sugar. Or, it may be that the direct toxic effects of alcohol are causing the symptoms.”

2 Jan 2011

Team care to help multiple chronic conditions

According to a new study patients with multiple chronic diseases like diabetes mellitus and heart disease are at higher risk of depression that can render medication ineffective. Lead researcher Dr. Wayne J. Katon and colleagues at University of Washington in the study found that patients who received care from nurses who worked with patients and physicians to manage the care for depression and diabetes and heart disease had better outcomes. The study was published in the Dec 30, 2010 issue of New England Journal of Medicine.

2 Jan 2011

Fungus may provide clue about human response to changes in circadian rhythm

Humans are not the only species ruled by a circadian rhythm. Even simple organisms like moulds are governed by an inner clock. Studying red bread mould may teach us how our own internal clock works. This is exactly what the Centre for Organelle Research at the University of Stavanger, Norway is doing.

30 Dec 2010

Health and Safety Watch tracks over 500 food and product advisories and recalls in 2010

This year Health and Safety Watch tracked more than 500 advisories and recalls issued for food and products in Canada. The events included everything from the recent Quaker Canada cereal bar recall due to the possible presence of peanuts, to big ticket items such as GE dishwashers recalled due to possible fire hazards.

30 Dec 2010

Loyola University offers tips to avoid the misery of New Year's hangover

Exercise and B vitamins can help cure a hangover, but coffee won't help. These are among the tips that Loyola University Health System family physician Dr. Aaron Michelfelder offers to avoid the misery of a New Year's hangover.

30 Dec 2010

Low levels of microbe-killing molecules improve survival rate of people with CGD

Investigators at the National Institutes of Health have observed that the survival rate of people with a rare immunodeficiency disease called chronic granulomatous disease is greatly improved when even very low levels of microbe-killing molecules are present.

30 Dec 2010

Researchers to identify gene variants that cause ischemic stroke

Researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine are coordinating an international team of scientists working to identify genes or gene variants that may make a person more likely to have a particular type of stroke called an ischemic stroke.

30 Dec 2010

FDA approves Endo's FORTESTA Gel for low testosterone

Endo Pharmaceuticals today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved FORTESTA Gel for the treatment of low testosterone, or 'Low T,' also known as hypogonadism. Symptoms associated with Low T include erectile dysfunction and decreased sexual desire, fatigue and loss of energy, mood depression, regression of secondary sexual characteristics and osteoporosis.

29 Dec 2010

FDA stops pain drug trial over safety concerns

Johnson & Johnson revealed Tuesday this week that a clinical trial of its experimental pain drug, fulranumab, has been stopped after the Food and Drug Administration expressed concerns that patients taking the drug could suffer increased joint damage.

29 Dec 2010