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CNSI, MESA+ collaborate to expand nanotechnology projects

The California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA and the MESA+ Institute of Nanotechnology at the University of Twente in the Netherlands have signed a memorandum of understanding to use their combined intellectual and physical resources to collaborate on projects that apply nanotechnology to problems of global concern in health and the environment.

18 Sep 2010

CBC members, patient advocacy organizations offer support for PRIME Act

In a presentation today at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's Annual Legislative Conference Health Braintrust meeting, Faina Shtern, M.D., president and CEO of AdMeTech Foundation, unveiled overwhelming support from Congressional Black Caucus members and patient advocacy organizations for the Prostate Research, Imaging, and Men's Education Act of 2010.

18 Sep 2010

BARDA awards contract to Emergent BioSolutions for anthrax vaccine development

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) awarded a $51 million contract to Emergent BioSolutions, Inc., of Rockville, Md., for the development of a new anthrax vaccine using the protective antigen (rPA) to stimulate a protective immune response that neutralizes the anthrax toxins.

18 Sep 2010

Opiate usage increases in workplace and ER

More American workers and job applicants are testing positive for prescription opiates, according to U.S. general workforce data in the 2009 annual Drug Testing Index™ (DTI) released today by Quest Diagnostics Incorporated, the nation's leading provider of diagnostic testing, information and services. Results from more than 5.5 million urine drug tests reveal an 18 percent jump in opiate positives in the general U.S. workforce in a single year (2008 to 2009), and a more than 40 percent climb from 2005 to 2009.

17 Sep 2010

Prometheus, Tarrot announce exclusive agreement for Crohn's Disease treatment

Prometheus Laboratories Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical and diagnostic company, and Tarrot Laboratories, a business unit of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, today announced the execution of an exclusive research collaboration and license agreement. The collaboration will focus on identifying genetic or serologic markers associated with clinical responses to anti-TNF therapies such as Cimzia, Humira and Remicade utilized in the treatment of Crohn's Disease, and the subsequent development of diagnostic tests.

17 Sep 2010

PCF applauds new prostate cancer legislation

As hundreds of prostate cancer researchers, advocates and supporters Advance on Washington this week and push for more progress in fighting the disease, the Prostate Cancer Foundation applauds the prostate cancer legislation introduced on Tuesday by Senator Jon Tester of Montana.

17 Sep 2010

Pharma Lynx licenses NewCardio's QTinno automated cardiac safety solution

NewCardio, Inc., a cardiovascular diagnostic solutions developer, announced today that Pharma Lynx, a global contract research organization and a subsidiary of Diverse Lynx, has signed an MSA to license NewCardio's QTinno™ solution for use in Phase 1 studies. Pharma Lynx has particular expertise in oncology studies, including QTc studies involving both healthy subjects and cancer patients, and QTinno will add to Pharma Lynx's already robust capabilities, enabling it to deliver fully automated QTc studies to its sponsors.

17 Sep 2010

Roche Diagnostics introduces STAT immunoassays for cardiac biomarker testing

Roche Diagnostics announced today that it has introduced a complete battery of STAT immunoassays for cardiac biomarker testing on the cobas 6000 analyzer series, an integrated system designed for diagnostic labs with medium testing volumes.

From Roche Sequencing and Life Science 17 Sep 2010

Optical coherence tomography to penetrate intravascular ultrasound market: MRG

According to Millennium Research Group (MRG), the optical coherence tomography market will grow at an annual rate of almost 60% through 2015, spurred by physician adoption of this new technology that was launched in the US in May 2010.

16 Sep 2010

BioResonator signs new orders for glaucoma diagnostic product distribution

BioResonator signs new orders with several new distributors. As of one month, the company has the official CE approval required to sell their products throughout the European Union.

16 Sep 2010

New approach to evaluate risk of cardiovascular disease

A new approach to evaluating a person's risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, high blood pressure, or heart failure is reported this month in the International Journal of Data Mining, Modelling and Management. The technique uses fuzzy logic to teach a neural network computer program to analyze patient data and spot correlations that can be translated into a risk factor for an individual.

16 Sep 2010

Veracyte presents FNA clinical trial data at International Thyroid Congress

Veracyte, Inc., a molecular diagnostics company pioneering the emerging field of molecular cytology, announced that initial data from its large-scale, prospective, multi-center clinical trial were presented today at the 14th International Thyroid Congress, held in Paris, France.

16 Sep 2010

Researchers investigate nonanalytical reasoning conditions for diagnostic errors

Silvia Mamede, M.D., Ph.D., of Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands and colleagues investigated whether recent experience with clinical problems provokes availability bias (overestimation of the likelihood of a diagnosis based on the ease with which it comes to mind) resulting in diagnostic errors and whether reflection (structured reanalysis of the case findings) counteracts this bias.

16 Sep 2010

Ultrasonix Medical Corporation improves entire product line's warranty program to three years

Ultrasonix Medical Corporation, a leading developer and manufacturer of high quality diagnostic ultrasound imaging systems, is pleased to announce today that it is improving its standard warranty program to 3 years on its entire product line.

15 Sep 2010

Educational intervention likely to probe for contextual issues in standardized patient encounters

Fourth-year medical students who participated in an educational intervention were more likely to seek, identify and incorporate into care patient circumstances that may require variation from standard care, compared to students in a control group, according to a study in the September 15 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on medical education.

15 Sep 2010

Norgen Biotek launches three novel kits for urine sampling

Norgen Biotek Corp, a privately held Canadian biotechnology company focusing principally on advancing a powerful proprietary technology for application in sample preparation for nucleic acid (DNA, RNA and microRNA) and protein purification, today announced the expansion of its basket of urine-based sample preparation products by launching 3 new urine concentration, preservation and isolation kits.

15 Sep 2010

Compandia is now CompanDX

Compandia has announced a name change to CompanDX. The company is a biomarker discovery company providing services to the Pharma and Biotech sectors but increasingly, as a result of in-house R&D, is identifying biomarkers that may lead to new diagnostic services and products of its own. Andy Sutton CEO of CompanDX explained "we have grown the service side of the business over the last 9 months and are delivering biomarker discovery services to large pharma, small biotech and diagnostic companies.

15 Sep 2010

TriLink signs licensing agreement to use CleanAmp dNTPs in Biofortuna's PCR kits

TriLink BioTechnologies, Inc. announced that it has signed a licensing agreement with Biofortuna Ltd. (Biofortuna) for use of CleanAmp dNTPs in Biofortuna's freeze dried in vitro diagnostic PCR kits.

15 Sep 2010

RAB-1 monoclonal antibody study shows positive result for rabies

With the potential to save tens of thousands of lives each year, a new cost-effective rabies therapy developed by MassBiologics at the University of Massachusetts and the Serum Institute of India took an important step forward with positive results from a Phase 1 study. The recently completed study showed that a new monoclonal antibody (RAB-1) resulted in protective antibody levels in the serum of treated subjects equal to the current standard of treatment, which is often not available in the areas of the world hit hardest by rabies.

15 Sep 2010

20-20 Gene Systems launches L-IHC staining for biomarker identification in tumors

20/20 GeneSystems, Inc. announced today at ADAPT 2010, an industry meeting focusing on advancing personalized medicine, the commercial launch of their patented technology for biomarker identification in tumors and other tissue samples. 20/20 is currently offering the technology to industry and academic researchers under service contracts.

15 Sep 2010