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Beta-Pro donates human pancreatic islet cells to diabetes researcher

The cellular services company Beta-Pro LLC, announced today that it donated more than 300,000 human pancreatic islet cells to nationally renowned diabetes researcher Raghavendra G. Mirmira, M.D., Ph.D., the Eli Lilly & Co. Professor of Pediatric Diabetes, Indiana University School of Medicine, Herman B.

23 Sep 2010

Weight-based taribavirin reduces anemia, increases sustained virologic response

Researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and 50 other centers found that weight-based dosing of taribavirin reduces rates of anemia while increasing sustained virologic response (SVR) in patients with chronic hepatitis C (HCV). Full details of this study are available in the October issue of Hepatology, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD).

23 Sep 2010

Anthera Pharmaceuticals closes financing transaction

Anthera Pharmaceuticals, Inc., today announced that it has entered into definitive agreements with certain accredited investors in connection with a private placement, or PIPE, financing transaction pursuant to Section 4(2) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Regulation D promulgated thereunder.

23 Sep 2010

Scientists develop new therapy for treatment of skin, lung cancer

Scientists at the University of Granada have developed a new therapy for the treatment of skin and lung cancer. This therapy involves the use of a suicide coliphage-gene (gene E) that can induce death to cells transfected with it.. Their studies have demostrated that this technique is not only effective in vitro (using tumour cell cultures), but also in vivo through the use of experimental animals in which tumours were induced.

22 Sep 2010

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

Results of custirsen Phase 2 trial for advanced prostate cancer published in Journal of Clinical Oncology

OncoGenex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today publication of results from a randomized Phase 2 trial in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. The trial results showed a survival benefit with the investigational agent OGX-011/TV1011 (custirsen) in patients with advanced prostate cancer. The median overall survival for patients who were treated with custirsen plus first-line docetaxel/prednisone was 23.8 months compared to 16.9 months for patients treated with docetaxel/prednisone alone.

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

Aeras and Crucell commence Phase II study of TB vaccine candidate in infants

Dutch biopharmaceutical company Crucell N.V. and the Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation today announced the start of a Phase II clinical trial in infants of the jointly developed tuberculosis (TB) vaccine candidate, AERAS-402/Crucell Ad35.

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

New research shows inner voice plays a key role in controlling impulsive behaviour

New research out of the University of Toronto Scarborough - published in this month's edition of Acta Psychologica - shows that using your inner voice plays an important role in controlling impulsive behaviour.

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