Immune System News and Research

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Immune system genes linked to personality traits, mental illness and suicidal behaviour

Genes linked to the immune system can affect healthy people's personality traits as well as the risk of developing mental illness and suicidal behaviour, reveals a thesis from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

8 Feb 2011

Nutritional deficiencies among indigenous populations: two studies

They find iodine deficiency for the first time among an Aboriginal population in the NT. This deficiency was previously thought to occur only in the nation’s south-eastern states. The study involved nearly 400 teenagers of aboriginal origin living in remote as well as urban areas of the Darwin Health Region, which covers 120,000 km-square of the top end of the NT.

7 Feb 2011

XDx and LabCorp enter non-hospital provider agreement for AlloMap molecular expression tests

XDx, Inc., a molecular diagnostics company focused on noninvasive gene expression tests to monitor immune-mediated conditions, today announced that it has entered into a multi-year agreement with Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings to provide heart transplant patients eligible for XDx's AlloMap® test with the convenience of having their blood drawn at participating LabCorp sites across the United States.

7 Feb 2011

Human Vaccines journal publishes paper on Inovio's new DNA vaccine delivery technology

Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a leader in the development of therapeutic and preventive vaccines against cancers and infectious diseases, announced today that its new generation DNA vaccine delivery technology, which provides the powerful enabling capabilities of electroporation without contacting the skin, is highlighted in a paper published in the scientific journal Human Vaccines.

7 Feb 2011

Allergies appear to reduce glioma risk

The more allergies one has, the lower the risk of developing low- and high-grade glioma, according to data published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

7 Feb 2011

Blood vessels for heart bypass could be available ‘off-the-shelf’ soon: Study

Scientists from USA have developed a method to produce a ready made supply of blood vessels for use in heart bypass surgery. A study on baboons and dogs reported in journal Science Translational Medicine suggests vessels could be stored for up to a year and used by any patient. These vessels have been grown earlier from a patient’s own cells, but this takes several months.

6 Feb 2011

Technique that cleared mouse of HIV-like virus sparks hope for new therapy

In a breakthrough, Australian researchers have developed a method to boost the immune system. This technique is seen to be capable of clearing an “HIV-like” infection from a mouse. This could in future lead to a cure for HIV and other chronic viral infections in humans. The findings from Melbourne’s Walter and Eliza Hall Institute are centred on a naturally occurring cell signalling hormone called interleukin-7 (IL-7).

6 Feb 2011

New understanding of how host and foreign structures are distinguished by front-line defence mechanism

This week, the highly-respected US Academy of Sciences journal (PNAS) published an article describing how the first line of defence of the human immune system distinguishes between microbes and the body's own structures.

5 Feb 2011

Lampreys may have dual immune defense system similar to that of humans

Biologists have discovered that primitive, predatory lampreys have structures within their gills that play the same role as the thymus, the organ where immune cells called T cells develop in mammals, birds and fish.

4 Feb 2011

GSA commends '2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans'

The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) - the nation's largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to the field of aging - commends the federal government's recent release of the "2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans" and particularly applauds its inclusion of specific advice for older adults.

4 Feb 2011

Method to comprehensively characterize human embryonic stem cell lines and iPS cell lines

Ever since researchers devised a recipe for turning adult cells into cells that look and act like embryonic stem cells, there has been lingering doubt in the field about just how close to embryonic stem cells each of those cell lines really is at a molecular and functional level. Now, researchers reporting in the February 4th issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, have developed a systematic way to lay those doubts about quality to rest.

4 Feb 2011

How body's first line of defence distinguishes between microbes and own structures

4 Feb 2011

Researchers identify regulatory defect that drives lupus

Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Cambridge, Mass., in collaboration with Jackson Laboratory scientists, have identified a regulatory defect that drives lupus.

4 Feb 2011

Treg therapy ensures success of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, without triggering GVHD

For blood cancer patients at high risk of relapse, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), the transplantation of blood-forming stem cells, is one of best options for treatment and a potential cure. Unfortunately, the most common complication of HSCT is graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), a serious and often deadly post-transplant complication that occurs when the newly transplanted donor cells recognize the recipient's own cells as foreign and react by attacking the cells in the patient's body.

4 Feb 2011

AHF urges all AIDS drug manufacturers to reduce medication cost by 20%

As part of its ongoing advocacy to lower drug prices and increase access to lifesaving medications AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the largest global AIDS organization, today urged all AIDS drug manufacturers to reduce the cost of their medications by 20% for cash-strapped state.

4 Feb 2011

Cell signaling hormone boosts immune response to clear HIV-like infection

Australian scientists have successfully cleared a HIV-like infection from mice by boosting the function of cells vital to the immune response.

4 Feb 2011

U.S. Patent Office issues Notice of Allowance to Antigen Express AE37 cancer vaccine

Generex Biotechnology Corporation, together with its wholly-owned immunotherapeutic vaccines subsidiary, Antigen Express, announced today that Antigen Express has received a Notice of Allowance from the United States Patent Office relating to an application making augmentative pharmaceutical composition claims for the Antigen Express AE37 immunotherapeutic cancer vaccine.

4 Feb 2011

JDRF, Eli Lilly sign agreement to fund type 1 diabetes research for re-generative medicine

Eli Lilly and Company and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation today announced that they have signed an agreement to fund early-stage research that could enable patients with type 1 diabetes to regenerate insulin-producing cells destroyed by the disease.

4 Feb 2011

Immune protein exacerbates skin cancer due to sun exposure: Study

An unexpected immune protein exacerbates cancer due to sun exposure, report researchers in the January 27th issue of Nature. The study suggests that drugs blocking the protein might halt tumor growth in skin cancer patients.

3 Feb 2011

IDF commends Florida council for recommending SCID screening for all newborns

The Florida Genetics and Newborn Screening Program Advisory Council voted unanimously to recommend that the Department of Health screen all newborns for Severe Combined Immune Deficiency (SCID) – commonly known as bubble boy disease.

3 Feb 2011

Immune System News and Research

Immune system genes linked to personality traits, mental illness and suicidal behaviour

Nutritional deficiencies among indigenous populations: two studies

XDx and LabCorp enter non-hospital provider agreement for AlloMap molecular expression tests

Human Vaccines journal publishes paper on Inovio's new DNA vaccine delivery technology

Allergies appear to reduce glioma risk

Blood vessels for heart bypass could be available ‘off-the-shelf’ soon: Study

Technique that cleared mouse of HIV-like virus sparks hope for new therapy

New understanding of how host and foreign structures are distinguished by front-line defence mechanism

Lampreys may have dual immune defense system similar to that of humans

GSA commends '2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans'

Method to comprehensively characterize human embryonic stem cell lines and iPS cell lines

How body's first line of defence distinguishes between microbes and own structures

Researchers identify regulatory defect that drives lupus

Treg therapy ensures success of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, without triggering GVHD

AHF urges all AIDS drug manufacturers to reduce medication cost by 20%

Cell signaling hormone boosts immune response to clear HIV-like infection

U.S. Patent Office issues Notice of Allowance to Antigen Express AE37 cancer vaccine

JDRF, Eli Lilly sign agreement to fund type 1 diabetes research for re-generative medicine

Immune protein exacerbates skin cancer due to sun exposure: Study

IDF commends Florida council for recommending SCID screening for all newborns

Immunology eBook

Achieving and maintaining ISO/IEC 27001 and BS 10012 certifications

Expanding research and clinical options for children with cancer

Examining how pain could play a direct protective role in the gut

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