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Pfizer collaborates with Private Access to address concerns regarding research and clinical trials

Recognizing that patient participation in clinical trials is the key to progress in medical research, Pfizer Inc announced today that it has entered into a collaboration with Private Access, the innovator in privacy-enhanced search technology, to create a new online community aimed at increasing clinical trial awareness and participation. The site will be the first to focus on patient privacy rights to connect patients, physicians and researchers with tailored information, tools and technology that will lead to more informed decisions about patient care, including clinical trial participation industry-wide.

20 Aug 2009

Vanderbilt enters Chemical Biology Consortium as a Chemical Diversity Center to develop cancer treatment drugs

Vanderbilt University has been selected as one of 10 centers in the nation to participate in the Chemical Biology Consortium (CBC), a major new initiative to facilitate the discovery and development of new agents to treat cancer.

20 Aug 2009

New tool for scientists - light used to manipulate cell movement

One of the biggest challenges in scientists' quest to develop new and better treatments for cancer is gaining a better understanding of how and why cancer spreads. Recent breakthroughs have uncovered how different cellular proteins are turned 'on' or 'off' at the molecular level, but much remains to be understood about how protein signaling influences cell behavior.

19 Aug 2009

Discovery of mechanism that allows hepatitis C virus to remain in the body for decades

A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) shows that the virus blocks the actions of a specific ion channel in the cell membrane that would usually trigger apoptosis - the cell's self-destruct programme - and in doing so, has evolved another way of protecting itself from being eliminated from the body.

19 Aug 2009

Researchers reveal new ways to detect the hidden biases of medical research

A study by researchers at the University of Leicester has revealed new ways to spot whether medical research has hidden biases. Writing in the prestigious British Medical Journal, Santiago Moreno and his colleagues demonstrate how to spot 'publication bias' in the reporting of clinical trials which potentially form the basis of Government and NHS health policies.

19 Aug 2009

Boehner blasts PhRMA on deal with White House

KHN reports that Minority Leader John Boehner is taking issue with "the drug industry's decision to agree to $80 billion in concessions to the White House."

19 Aug 2009

Boehner blasts Phrma on deal with White House

The drug industry’s decision to agree to $80 billion in concessions to the White House was short-sighted, will hurt drug manufacturers and their customers, and "has all the markings of a deal gone sour," House Minority Leader John Boehner wrote Monday to his former colleague, Billy Tauzin, who now heads the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

17 Aug 2009

Biologist demystifies Acinetobacter baumannii

Tao Weitao, a researcher in the College of Sciences' Department of Biology at the University of Texas at San Antonio is making great strides in a project that was funded one year ago by the San Antonio Area Foundation. The professor in the South Texas Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases is researching Acinetobacter baumannii, a soil-dwelling bacterium that threatens the health of military personnel in the Middle East and can also infect their family members once the soldiers have returned home following battle.

17 Aug 2009

When cell death goes wrong - scientists gain new insights

Medical Research Council (MRC) scientists have made an important advance in understanding the biological processes involved when cells are prompted to die. The work may help scientists to eventually develop new treatments for the many common diseases and conditions which occur when cell death goes wrong.

13 Aug 2009

Smell and taste disorders can be treated

When flowers aren’t fragrant and spicy foods don’t zing, the senses may be impaired. But don’t assume that diminished senses of taste and smell are due to aging, says the August issue of Mayo Clinic Women’s HealthSource.

13 Aug 2009

Why GPs won’t take part in research

A group of researchers whose planned leg ulceration study was hamstrung by a physician recruitment rate of 2% have published the reasons why so many doctors turned them down. The qualitative information, featured in the open access journal BMC Medical Research Methodology, should be of use to those designing trials of their own.

13 Aug 2009

New understanding of role hyaluronic acid in skeletal growth

Investigators at Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham) and the University of Connecticut Health Center (U.C.H.C.) have gained new understanding of the role hyaluronic acid (HA) plays in skeletal growth, chondrocyte maturation and joint formation in developing limbs.

12 Aug 2009

Oxygen treatment may speed memory loss associated with Alzheimer's

A 65-year-old women goes into the hospital for routine hip surgery. Six months later, she develops memory loss and is later diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease. Just a coincidence? Researchers at the University of South Florida and Vanderbilt University don't think so. They suspect that the culprit precipitating Alzheimer's disease in the elderly women may be a routine administration of high concentrations of oxygen for several hours during, or following, surgery - a hypothesis borne out in a recent animal model study.

12 Aug 2009

Alcoholics display abnormal brain activity when processing facial expressions

Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have found that individuals who have a long history of alcoholism, but who have been abstinent for at least a month up to many years, showed abnormal brain activity when looking at facial expressions of others.

12 Aug 2009

Discovery of genetic mutations that increase risk of schizophrenia

In collaboration with colleagues from across Europe, researchers from the University of Copenhagen and the Mental Health Services in the Capital Region of Denmark have found mutations in the human genome that lead to an increased risk of developing schizophrenia.

11 Aug 2009

Experimental treatment for multiple sclerosis reverses disorder in mice

A new experimental treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS) completely reverses the devastating autoimmune disorder in mice, and might work exactly the same way in humans, say researchers at the Jewish General Hospital Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research and McGill University in Montreal.

11 Aug 2009

Integrated Medical Systems receives U.S. Army order for "suitcase" intensive care unit

Integrated Medical Systems, Inc., a medical technology systems integrator transforming critical care, announced that it has received a commitment for approximately $3.25 million in funding from the U.S. Army's Medical Research Material Command for acquisition and ongoing development of the company's MedEx 1000(TM) "suitcase" intensive care unit (ICU).

11 Aug 2009

Oxygen nanosensor could improve tumor imaging

A new material developed at the University of Virginia - an oxygen nanosensor that couples a light-emitting dye with a biopolymer - simplifies the imaging of oxygen-deficient regions of tumors. Such tumors are associated with increased cancer aggressiveness and are particularly difficult to treat.

11 Aug 2009

New class of molecules capable of blocking formation of tau protein fibrils

A new class of molecules capable of blocking the formation of specific protein clumps that are believed to contribute to Alzheimer’s disease pathology has been discovered by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. By assaying close to 300,000 compounds, they have identified drug-like inhibitors of AD tau protein clumping, as reported in the journal Biochemistry.

11 Aug 2009

'Nanobee' drug delivery to tumors

When bees sting, they pump poison into their victims. Now the toxin in bee venom has been harnessed to kill tumor cells by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The researchers attached the major component of bee venom to nano-sized spheres that they call nanobees.

11 Aug 2009