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Technological and scientific initiatives from Helicos BioSciences Corporation

Helicos BioSciences Corporation provided updates on recent scientific findings and progress on Helicos’s technology initiatives. Speaking at the Personal Genomes conference in Cold Spring Harbor, NY, and the CHI Next Generation Sequencing conference in Providence, RI, Patrice Milos, Ph.D. Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer provided an overview of recent technological and scientific initiatives underway at Helicos.

23 Sep 2009

Drugs blocking the effects of ACh may prevent cancer

By seeing what substances and molecules affect the development of our diseases, we can develop drugs that prevent or cure diseases. In her dissertation at Kalmar University in Sweden, Ann Novotny has found that the signal molecule acetylcholine (ACh) is important for the progress of cancer of the large intestine and colon, knowledge that is important to factor in when developing drugs that block the effects of Ach on tumor cells.

23 Sep 2009

Drug trial for OSI-906 begins

TGen Clinical Research Services at Scottsdale Healthcare today announced the start of a clinical trial for a drug designed to combat adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC), a rare but deadly cancer that attacks the adrenal glands.

23 Sep 2009

Bio-Path Holdings to develop liposome tumor targeting technology

Bio-Path Holdings, Inc. (OTCBB: BPTH), a publicly traded biotechnology company with drug development operations in Houston, Texas, announced today the Company has executed an exclusive license with The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center to develop liposome tumor targeting technology. Bio-Path is currently developing a neutral-lipid based liposome delivery technology for nucleic acid cancer drugs (including antisense and siRNA molecules).

23 Sep 2009

Declining performance of muscles linked to harmful byproducts of air we breathe

If you think the air outside is polluted, a new research report in the September 2009 issue of the journal Genetics (http://www.genetics.org) might make you to think twice about the air inside our bodies too. That's because researchers show how about 3 percent of the air we breathe gets converted into harmful superoxides, which ultimately harm our muscles.

23 Sep 2009

$1.2 million grant to study centrosomes and cilia and their connections to human disease

If you don't know how a human cell is supposed to work, it's hard to offer a good explanation when the cell goes haywire -- as it does in cancer. That's why a Florida State University College of Medicine researcher has been awarded a $1.2 million grant to explore the role of centrosomes and cilia in cell division and development and their connections to human disease.

22 Sep 2009

Advaxis' patent approval enables the development of new vaccines with additional properties

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has granted and issued Advaxis, Inc. (OTCBB: ADXS), the live, attenuated Listeria monocytogenes (Lm) vaccine company, patent 7,588,930 “Compositions and Methods for Enhancing Immunogenicity of Antigens.” This patent expands the Company’s intellectual property portfolio to cover another family of adjuvant proteins based upon the Lm protein Act-A.

22 Sep 2009

Updates from Pacific Biosciences to its commercial strategy and progress

Pacific Biosciences, a private company developing a disruptive technology platform for real-time detection of biological events at single molecule resolution, today provided a number of updates to its commercial strategy and progress.

22 Sep 2009

Cancer Research UK invests £16 million in new Drug Discovery Programes at Manchester and Glasgow

CANCER RESEARCH UK is set to extend its drug discovery effort by investing up to £16 million in two new Drug Discovery Programmes at the Paterson Institute for Cancer Research in Manchester and the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research in Glasgow.

22 Sep 2009

Molecule responsible for neuronal branches identifed

The human brain consists of about 100 billion (1011) neurons, which altogether form about 100 trillion (1014) synaptic connections with each other. A crucial mechanism for the generation of this complex wiring pattern is the formation of neuronal branches. The neurobiologists Dr. Hannes Schmidt and Professor Fritz G. Rathjen at the Max Delbr-ck Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch, Germany, have now discovered a molecule that regulates this vital process. At the same time they have succeeded in elucidating the signaling cascade induced by this molecule (PNAS, Early Edition, 2009, doi:10.1073).

22 Sep 2009

Rexahn and Teva sign license and stock purchase agreements

Rexahn Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE Amex: RNN), a clinical stage pharmaceutical company commercializing potential best in class oncology and central nervous system (CNS) therapeutics, today announced that it has closed on its previously announced licensing and stock purchase agreements with Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited, a top 20 pharmaceutical company, for the development of its novel anti-cancer compound, RX-3117. RX-3117 is a small molecule, new chemical entity (NCE), nucleoside compound that has an anti-metabolite mechanism of action, and has therapeutic potential in a broad range of cancers including colon, lung and pancreatic cancer.

22 Sep 2009

Investigative drug hampers the survival of non-Hodgkin lymphoma cells

An investigative drug deprived non-Hodgkin lymphoma cells of their ability to survive too long and multiply too fast, according to an early study published recently in the journal Experimental Hematology.

22 Sep 2009

Interim data from Micromet's T-cell engaging BiTE antibody study for treating solid tumors

Micromet, Inc. (Nasdaq: MITI), a biopharmaceutical company developing novel, proprietary antibodies for the treatment of cancer, inflammation and autoimmune diseases, today presented first interim data from a phase 1 dose-escalation clinical study for BiTE antibody MT110, the first T-cell engaging antibody for the treatment of solid tumors.

22 Sep 2009

Signaling molecules have different effects on key inhibitory protein

Researchers have identified a mechanism that may keep a well known signaling molecule from eroding bone and inflaming joints, according to an early study published online today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

22 Sep 2009

Swedish researcher to receive Fernström Foundation's Nordic Prize

Internationally renowned Swedish researcher Professor Jan-Åke Gustafsson, from KI and the University of Houston, is this year's recipient of the Fernström Foundation's Nordic Prize. The prize, which is worth SEK 1 million, is one of Scandinavia's most prestigious medical prizes.

21 Sep 2009

AstraZeneca and Nektar Therapeutics enter worldwide license agreement for two drug development programmes

AstraZeneca and Nektar Therapeutics announced today that they have entered into an exclusive worldwide license agreement for two drug development programmes: NKTR-118, a late stage investigational product being evaluated for the treatment of opioid-induced constipation, and the NKTR-119 programme, an early stage programme that is intended to deliver products for the treatment of pain without constipation side effects.

21 Sep 2009

Increasing the half life of proteins to treat diseases such as hepatitis B

Many biopharmaceuticals comprise small proteins that are quickly eliminated from the body. Scientists at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) combine such small proteins with a kind of molecular balloon that swells and thus prolongs the half-life of the proteins in the body. The TUM spin-off XL-Protein GmbH has now started to further develop this new technology with blockbuster potential.

21 Sep 2009

SHP-2 protein molecule encourages placenta growth

Scientists funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) have shown that a common biological protein molecule called SHP-2 is crucial for encouraging placenta growth. The research is published today in Endocrinology.

21 Sep 2009

HIV mutates itself to escape antibodies

A study of how HIV mutates in response to immune system pressure by Emory Vaccine Center researchers shows that the virus can take several escape routes, not one preferred route.

21 Sep 2009

Pfizer Oncology to present early-stage research of investigational agents for cancer treatment

Pfizer Oncology will present data from across its portfolio, including results from long-term follow-up of Aromasin® (exemestane tablets) in a study of early breast cancer, updated study results from a Phase 3 study of Sutent® (sunitinib malate) in pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (NET), and early-stage research of investigational agents PF-02341066 and figitumumab (CP-751,871) in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

19 Sep 2009