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Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a biologically important type of molecule that consists of a long chain of nucleotide units. Each nucleotide consists of a nitrogenous base, a ribose sugar, and a phosphate.

Cholesterol-lowering drugs could be alternative treatment for people who take statins

A new class of cholesterol-lowering drugs that target a recently discovered regulator of harmful cholesterol could be an alternative or complementary treatment for the 30 million people who take statins, after the first trial in humans confirms the technique’s feasibility and safety.

4 Oct 2013

Harvard University receives $3.5M grant to develop super-resolution microscopy technique

A team at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University has been awarded a special $3.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop an inexpensive and easy-to-use new microscopy method to simultaneously spot many tiny components of cells.

4 Oct 2013

J&J's Janssen Companies Launch A Trio Of Collaborations

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3 Oct 2013

CureVac collaborates with Janssen on development of influenza vaccine based on mRNA

CureVac, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company that has pioneered the development of a new class of therapies and vaccines based on messenger RNA (mRNA), today announced that it has entered into a collaboration and licensing agreement with Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Under the agreement CureVac will collaborate with Crucell Holland B.V. (a member of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies) on the development of an influenza vaccine based on CureVac's RNActive® technology.

3 Oct 2013

New agreement to expand scope of research project to evaluate MCT-485 for primary liver cancer

MultiCell Technologies, Inc. is pleased to announce the signing of a new sponsored research agreement with Anand Ghanekar, M.D., Ph.D, of the University Health Network's Toronto General Hospital expanding the scope of the research project to evaluate MCT-485 in animal models for the treatment of primary liver cancer.

2 Oct 2013

Moderna Therapeutics Scores Up To $25M DARPA Grant

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2 Oct 2013

Genetic discovery could take guesswork out of prescribing correct dose of drugs

The discovery of genetic differences affecting up to a third of the population could take the guesswork out of prescribing the correct dose of 25 percent of drugs currently on the market, researchers say.

2 Oct 2013

Sister stem cells display considerable differences despite having identical DNA

Scientists have used a brand new technique for examining individual stem cells to uncover dramatic differences in the gene expression levels - which genes are turned 'up' or 'down'- between apparently identical 'sister' pairs.

27 Sep 2013

Scientists unravel secrets of mechanism that snips our genes

Certain diseases such as cystic fibrosis and muscular dystrophy are linked to genetic mutations that damage the important biological process of rearranging gene sequences in pre-messenger RNA, a procedure called RNA splicing.

27 Sep 2013

Study indicates that RNA translation is dictated by translational hotspots

Protein synthesis in the extensions of nerve cells, called dendrites, underlies long-term memory formation in the brain, among other functions. "Thousands of messenger RNAs reside in dendrites, yet the dynamics of how multiple dendrite messenger RNAs translate into their final proteins remain elusive," says James Eberwine, PhD, professor of Pharmacology, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and co-director of the Penn Genome Frontiers Institute.

27 Sep 2013

New hepatitis virus reported by scientists was a false alarm

The report by scientists of a new hepatitis virus earlier this year was a false alarm, according to UC San Francisco researchers who correctly identified the virus as a contaminant present in a type of glassware used in many research labs.

27 Sep 2013

New ultra-specific test now available for prostate cancer

A new urine test for prostate cancer that measures minute fragments of RNA is now commercially available to men nationwide through the University of Michigan MLabs.

27 Sep 2013

Biosearch Technologies Acquires Majority Stake In Lightspeed Genomics

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26 Sep 2013

miR-31 in primary tumor cells predicts lymph node metastasis in NSCLC patients

Determining whether a patient's lung cancer has spread to nearby lymph nodes is critical for identifying the most effective therapy, but it usually requires surgery. A new study suggests, however, that measuring levels of a particular molecule in a sample of tumor tissue might accurately answer the question.

25 Sep 2013

New And Improved Method For Analyzing Single-Cell Gene Expression

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24 Sep 2013

Researchers develop new, improved technique for single-cell gene expression analysis

A team of researchers affiliated with Ludwig Cancer Research and the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden report in the current issue of Nature Methods a dramatically improved technique for analyzing the genes expressed within a single cell -- a capability of relevance to everything from basic research to future cancer diagn

23 Sep 2013

Human breast tumors transplant could be valuable tools in search for better treatments

Breast cancer that spreads to other organs is extremely difficult to treat. Doctors can buy patients time, but a cure remains elusive. Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown that human breast tumors transplanted into mice are excellent models of metastatic cancer and could be valuable tools in the search for better treatments.

20 Sep 2013

Study sheds new light on the dark matter of genome

Using technology he helped develop, Vanderbilt University scientist Bryan Venters, Ph.D., has shed new light on the "dark matter" of the genome and has begun to explore a possible new approach to treating cancer.

19 Sep 2013

Researchers identify likely molecular pathway that causes untreatable neurodegenerative diseases

University of Adelaide researchers have identified a likely molecular pathway that causes a group of untreatable neurodegenerative diseases, including Huntington's disease and Lou Gehrig's disease.

19 Sep 2013

Innovative platform improves diagnostics and detection of biomolecules

Separating target molecules in biological samples is a critical part of diagnosing and detecting diseases. Usually the target and probe molecules are mixed and then separated in batch processes that require multiple pipetting, tube washing and extraction steps that can affect accuracy.

18 Sep 2013