Autoimmunity News and Research

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Autoimmune Disease is a condition in which the body recognizes its own tissues as foreign and directs an immune response against them.

Preclinical data from Teva's COPAXONE study on multiple sclerosis

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. today announced preclinical data demonstrating reparative and neuroprotective effects of treatment with COPAXONE (glatiramer acetate injection) in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) models.

21 Oct 2011

Women with MET genetic variant and autoantibodies more likely to have autistic children

A study by researchers at UC Davis has found that pregnant women with a particular gene variation are more likely to produce autoantibodies to the brains of their developing fetuses and that the children of these mothers are at greater risk of later being diagnosed with autism.

20 Oct 2011

SWHR hosts Capitol Hill briefing, The War Within: Women and Autoimmunity

50:1, 9:1, 2:1 these are just some ratios of autoimmune disease disparities between women and men. The Society for Women's Health Research (SWHR) hosted the Capitol Hill briefing, The War Within: Women and Autoimmunity, on Tuesday, October 11 to address these concerns.

13 Oct 2011

UCI study shows promise of metabolic therapy for autoimmune diseases

A glucosamine-like dietary supplement suppresses the damaging autoimmune response seen in multiple sclerosis, according to a UC Irvine study.

1 Oct 2011

Zymeworks announces completion of $8.1M financing

Zymeworks Inc., a privately held biotherapeutics company focused on the development of best-in-class antibody and next generation protein-based therapeutics, today announced the completion of a financing totaling $8.1 million.

22 Sep 2011

Discovery of a key protein’s role in cell clearance could impact future treatments of autoimmune diseases, obesity and atherosclerosis

The healthy human body is extremely efficient at cleaning house. Every day, we purge 100 to 200 billion dead or dying cells – a process called cell clearance, which is fundamental in our ability to maintain a healthy physiological balance and prevent a number of chronic diseases. Professional cleaning cells, called phagocytes, are responsible for ridding the body of dead, or ‘apoptotic,’ cells.

6 Sep 2011

UTHealth inaugurates new center for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases research

The University of Texas Health Science at Houston (UTHealth) announced the opening of a center devoted to researching and treating diseases associated with malfunctioning immune systems.

2 Sep 2011

Thermo Fisher acquires Phadia

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., the world leader in serving science, today reported that it has completed its previously announced acquisition of Phadia, a global leader in blood tests for the clinical diagnosis and monitoring of allergies and autoimmune diseases.

From Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. 24 Aug 2011

Phadia launches new allergy and autoimmunity testing instruments

Today Phadia, the global leader in allergy and autoimmune related diseases diagnostics, announced the launch of Phadia's new allergy and autoimmunity testing instruments; Phadia 2500 and Phadia 5000.

23 Aug 2011

Scientists identify 29 new genetic variants linked to multiple sclerosis

Scientists have identified 29 new genetic variants linked to multiple sclerosis, providing key insights into the biology of a very debilitating neurological disease. Many of the genes -implicated in the study are relevant to the immune system, shedding light onto the immunological pathways that underlie the development of multiple sclerosis.

11 Aug 2011

Novel DNA sensing pathway linked to increased susceptibility to malaria

Scientists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School have uncovered a novel DNA-sensing pathway important to the triggering of an innate immune response for malaria. Activation of this pathway appears to stimulate production of an overabundance of type-1 interferon by the immune system that may contribute to inflammation and fever in malaria patients and could play a part in susceptibility for the most common and lethal form of malaria known as plasmodium falciparum.

5 Aug 2011

Higher levels of B cells make women more prone to autoimmune diseases

Researchers at National Jewish Health have discovered a type of cell that may contribute to autoimmune disease and suggests why diseases such as lupus, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis strike women more frequently than men. The cells, a subset of immune-system B cells, make autoantibodies, which bind to and attack the body's own tissue.

5 Aug 2011

Biotica acquires full rights to rapamycin analogue program from Pfizer

Biotica Technology Ltd. today announced that it has regained full rights from Pfizer Inc. to its rapamycin analogue program, including transfer of data and materials.

3 Aug 2011

Phadia demonstrates ImmunoCAP Molecular Allergy testing at AACC 2011

Today, at the 2011 American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC) Annual Meeting and Clinical Lab Expo, Phadia, the global leader in allergy and autoimmune disease-related diagnostics, demonstrates how ImmunoCAP Molecular Allergy can help improve the diagnosis and management of food allergy.

26 Jul 2011

USPTO issues patent for Avila's targeted covalent drugs portfolio

Avila Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company developing targeted covalent drugs that treat diseases through protein silencing, announced today that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued Patent No. 7,982,036, "4,6-Disubstituted Pyrimidines Useful as Kinase Inhibitors."

21 Jul 2011

IMM researcher wins prestigious Early Career Bayer Hemophilia Award

Vanessa Oliveira, researcher at the Instituto de Medicina Molecular in Portugal won a prestigious and competitive Early Career Bayer Hemophilia Award. Oliveira will develop a strategy to reprogramme the immune system of hemophilia patients to avoid immune targeting of the most used clotting therapeutics.

14 Jul 2011

Positive top-line results from alemtuzumab Phase 3 trial on multiple sclerosis

Sanofi and its subsidiary Genzyme announced today positive top-line results from CARE-MS I, the first of two randomized, Phase 3 clinical trials comparing the investigational drug alemtuzumab to the approved multiple sclerosis therapy Rebif in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis.

11 Jul 2011

FDA grants Orphan Drug Designation for Accentia's Revimmune to treat two autoimmune diseases

Accentia Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Orphan Drug Designation to Revimmune, the Company's proprietary system-of-care based on high-dose administration of Cytoxan, for the treatment of two autoimmune disease indications, systemic sclerosis and autoimmune hemolytic anemia.

24 Jun 2011

JDRF, Selecta Biosciences partner to develop type 1 diabetes vaccine

The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) and Selecta Biosciences, Inc. announced today that they have established a research collaboration to support Selecta's development of a vaccine technology, which may subsequently help to better treat and potentially prevent type 1 diabetes.

9 Jun 2011

Thermo Fisher Scientific to acquire Phadia for €2.47 billion

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., the world leader in serving science, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Phadia, a global leader in allergy and autoimmunity diagnostics, from European private equity firm Cinven, for €2.47 billion (or approximately $3.5 billion) in cash.

From Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. 19 May 2011