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FDA approval of Vaccinia Immune Globulin to treat adverse reactions to smallpox vaccination

Computer Sciences Corporation today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved its Vaccinia Immune Globulin (VIGIV), an intravenous immune globulin, to treat rare adverse reactions to smallpox vaccination.

22 Feb 2005

Crystallized molecular machine reveals possible new paths for treating diseases

The crystallized form of a molecular machine that can cut and paste genetic material is revealing possible new paths for treating diseases such as some forms of cancer and opportunistic infections that plague HIV patients.

21 Feb 2005

Shedding new LIGHT on disease

New drugs for the 270,000 people who suffer heart attacks every year in the UK will be among the projects in Leeds' new research institute. The Leeds Institute of Genetics Health and Therapeutics (LIGHT) was opened by head of the Medical Research Council chief executive Professor Colin Blakemore yesterday.

17 Feb 2005

Programmed cell death may provide clues to cancer and autoimmune diseases therapies

Dartmouth Medical School geneticists have found links in the cell death machinery of worms and mammals, opening new avenues for studying and targeting a process vital to development and implicated in cancer and autoimmune diseases.

16 Feb 2005

Paradox suggests reasons why COX-2 inhibitors hurt and help

Laboratory studies at Johns Hopkins have revealed that certain products of the enzymes COX-1 and COX-2 can both protect and damage the brain. The findings, published in the February 2005 issue of the Journal of Neurochemistry, offer tantalizing clues to why drugs like Vioxx and Celebrex, which block COX-2, can ease arthritis but potentially harm the heart and brain.

14 Feb 2005

Bionomics goes for aggressive strategy in 2005

Australian biotech, Bionomics gave an investor presentation in Melbourne on 2 February 2005 and outlined a bolder, more aggressive strategy. There are many Australian biotech companies with big aspirations.

13 Feb 2005

Nano-sized particles enable researchers to visualize a tumor using only infrared light

Nano-sized particles embedded with bright, light-emitting molecules have enabled researchers to visualize a tumor more than one centimeter below the skin surface using only infrared light.

7 Feb 2005

Bioartificial kidney containing billions of donor kidney cells under study at the Medical College of Georgia

Whether a bioartificial kidney containing billions of donor kidney cells will help intensive care patients with kidney failure survive is under study at the Medical College of Georgia.

31 Jan 2005

Paracetamol effective for chronic pain and arthritis

A research team from University of Queensland has just published the results of a small study into the effectiveness of medications for chronic pain.

27 Jan 2005

Monoclonal antibody therapeutics to fill vacuum left by ineffective conventional therapies

Currently, the limited efficacy of conventional therapies, especially in the case of several oncology and autoimmune and inflammatory disorders (AIID), is creating the need for safe and effective treatment alternatives.

25 Jan 2005

Further evidence for the role of cyclooxygenases (COX) in heart-disease risk

In two articles, published in Circulation, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine provide further evidence for the role of cyclooxygenases (COX) in heart-disease risk.

17 Jan 2005

Study provides insight into strategies for telomere-based molecular cancer therapeutics

A new study published in the January issue of Cancer Cell provides exciting new information about how to boost the effectiveness of a promising cancer treatment that targets telomeres in an attempt to interfere with the ability of a cancer cell to continuously divide.

17 Jan 2005

Escalating demand for novel and effective therapeutic approaches underlines growing appeal of peptides

With a 30 per cent revenue share, Europe trails the United States as the second largest regional market for therapeutic peptides. The rising need for new therapeutic approaches combined with the potential of peptides as active pharmaceutical ingredients for effective drug formulation is contributing to rapid market development.

12 Jan 2005

Recent study correlates human cord blood cells with reduced animal heart attack damage

Researchers from the University of South Florida (USF) and James A. Haley Veterans Hospital have reported in the journal "Cell Transplantation" that stem cells from umbilical cord blood effectively treated heart attacks in an animal study.

12 Jan 2005

Novel vaccine that uses immune cells as factories to produce Her2/neu protein may offer a way to treat some breast cancers

Based on successful animal studies, a novel vaccine that uses immune cells as factories to produce Her2/neu protein may offer a way to treat some human breast cancers, say researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

10 Jan 2005

First program to apply RNA interference (RNAi) technology to asthma

Sirna Therapeutics, Inc. has announced the first program to apply RNA interference (RNAi) technology to asthma, a highly prevalent, chronic disease accounting for an estimated $13 billion in healthcare costs in the United States, a number which is forecast to grow considerably by the end of the decade.

7 Jan 2005

Stem cells from umbilical cord blood effectively treated heart attacks

When injected into rats' hearts soon after a heart attack, stem cells taken from human umbilical cord blood (HUCB) greatly reduced the size of heart damage and restored pumping function to near normal. This improvement occurred without the need for drugs to prevent the rats' immune system from rejecting the human cells.

5 Jan 2005

Technology that could double the effectiveness of cancer drugs

To identify the best treatment for recurrent ovarian cancer, researchers at Yale School of Medicine are studying a technology called the Yale apoptosis assay in combination with another technology called the ChemoFX assay, which could double the response rate to existing drugs.

4 Jan 2005

Somatic hypermutation (SHM) should prove to be extremely useful in directed protein evolution

Fascinated by the efficient way the human immune system generates a rapid response to create a near-infinite variety of antibodies, researchers have "hijacked" that machinery and used it to evolve a new type of fluorescent protein.

23 Dec 2004

Researchers discover clues to cirrhosis

Researchers at the University of Essex have found new biochemical indicators of cirrhosis in blood plasma which could help detect the disease in its early stages.

20 Dec 2004