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Gene therapy helps alcoholic rats

As a follow up to previous work showing that gene therapy can reduce drinking in rats trained to prefer alcohol, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have used the same technique to cut drinking in rats with a genetic predisposition for heavy alcohol consumption.

5 May 2004

Gene therapy may delay Alzheimer progression

Results from a preliminary eight-patient study of gene therapy for Alzheimer’s disease are positive enough to justify a larger clinical trial, Mark H. Tuszynski, M.D., Ph.D., reported April 27 at the 56th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology. Dr. Tuszynski says that a larger trial is being planned at a major medical center in Chicago.

30 Apr 2004

PET imaging has recently been shown to aid in the diagnosis of particular neurological syndromes associated with cancer

PET imaging has been shown to improve detection of a variety of cancers, and earlier tests have suggested this technique may be useful in identifying small tumors in patients with paraneoplastic neurological disorders. But PET imaging is not yet widely available, and clear indicators of clinically meaningful outcomes using PET are essential to warrant use with this patient population.

28 Apr 2004

Results look promising in Alzheimer’s gene therapy trial

Surgical placement of genetically modified tissue directly into the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease, an experimental approach to delaying brain cell loss associated with the disease, leads to increased metabolic activity in the brain, with cells apparently responding to the insertion of growth factor-producing grafts

28 Apr 2004

New evidence that brain circuits involved in drug addiction are also activated by the desire for food

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have produced new evidence that brain circuits involved in drug addiction are also activated by the desire for food.

19 Apr 2004

Lung tumor therapies improved by combining scanning technologies

Physicians targeting lung tumors for radiation therapy can substantially improve their aim by combining data from two scanning techniques, according to Washington University researchers at Siteman Cancer Center and Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis.

14 Apr 2004

Discovery of gender difference in cartilage cells may help spinal disc repair

When biologist Barbara Boyan discovered science’s first proof of biochemical differences between male and female cartilage cells, she began to question the approaches she and other researchers were taking to study cells. Was their thinking biologically relevant?

30 Mar 2004

New Research Information on Tumor Necrosis Therapy

Researchers for Peregrine Pharmaceuticals presented today at the Strategic Research Institute’s Clinical-Stage Product Partnering Summit in La Jolla, CA a summary of clinical experience with Tumor Necrosis Therapy (TNT). The TNT technology is being developed in the U.S. and Europe by Peregrine under the trade name Cotara™. Over 200 patients have been treated with TNT world-wide and a TNT product has been approved to treat grade III or IV advanced lung cancer in the People’s Republic of China. A Cotara registration study for brain cancer has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and a Phase I colorectal cancer study is on-going at Stanford University Medical Center.

25 Mar 2004

£76 million research centre to make the UK a global centre of excellence for clinical imaging

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Imperial College London today announce a unique research collaboration in medical imaging. GSK will contribute funding of £28m for the construction of a new Clinical Imaging Centre, next to Hammersmith Hospital in West London, UK. Research will focus on cancer, stroke, neurological diseases such as Parkinson's and multiple sclerosis and psychiatric diseases. In association with the Clinical Imaging Centre, GSK and Imperial have entered into a 10-year research agreement for medical imaging.

22 Mar 2004