Disease/Infection News

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RV262 Phase I study launched to evaluate DNA prime/MVA vector boost vaccine regimen for HIV

A Phase I study, called RV262, recently began to evaluate a combination DNA prime/MVA vector boost vaccine regimen that was developed to protect against diverse subtypes of HIV-1 prevalent in North America, Europe, Africa and South America.

29 Sep 2010

Scientists to identify microbial risk predictors for preterm birth

A team of scientists from Mayo Clinic, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the J. Craig Venter Institute are leveraging a long-standing research relationship to apply results from the Human Microbiome Project to help identify microbial risk predictors for preterm birth.

29 Sep 2010

NIH grants Akonni $3M for development of multi-drug resistant/extensively drug-resistant genotyping test

Akonni Biosystems, a molecular diagnostics company that develops, manufactures, and plans to market sophisticated genetic testing devices for complex infectious and human diseases, today announced receipt of a nearly $3 million Challenge Grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a new program made possible under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

29 Sep 2010

PolyMedix begins PMX-30063 Phase 2 clinical trial for bacterial infections

PolyMedix, Inc., an emerging biotechnology company focused on developing new therapeutic drugs to treat acute cardiovascular disorders and infectious diseases, has initiated a Phase 2 clinical trial in Canada with its novel defensin-mimetic antibiotic, PMX-30063.

28 Sep 2010

Oncolytics Biotech receives patent for modified reovirus variant

Oncolytics Biotech Inc. today announced that it has been granted U.S. Patent, 7,803,385 entitled Reoviruses Having Modified Sequences. The patent claims cover methods for making and using modified reoviruses, and pharmaceutical compositions that include modified reoviruses.

28 Sep 2010

Portable humidifiers may reduce airborne influenza virus: Study

A new scientific study published in the open access, peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health indicates that the use of portable humidifiers in the home may reduce the survival of airborne influenza virus by controlling humidity indoors.

28 Sep 2010

Cintas’s new white paper offers EVS tips to reduce hospital-acquired infections

Cintas Corporation today announced the availability of a new white paper that offers Environmental Service Directors (EVS) tips to improve the handling of cleaning materials to reduce hospital-acquired infections (HAIs).

28 Sep 2010

Researchers use biological weapon to fight salmon parasite

A few years ago, fish farms in Chile produced enormous numbers of salmon. Now the industry is on its knees as a result of several years of disease and devastation by lice.

28 Sep 2010

Mucosis collaborates with PATH to pursue use of Mimopath technology in diarrhea vaccines

Dutch biotechnology company Mucosis B.V. announced today that it has entered into a collaboration agreement with the global health nonprofit organization PATH to pursue the use of the company's Mimopath technology in oral vaccines to prevent and treat severe diarrhea.

28 Sep 2010

Computer simulations show low prevalence of TB increases MDR-TB risk

While the U.S. has made great progress in the prevention and treatment of tuberculosis, the nation has become more susceptible to potential epidemics of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), according a study led by Johns Hopkins researchers. Computer simulations show that as TB prevalence falls, the risk for more extensive MDR-TB increases.

28 Sep 2010

NPL, Orla receives fund to improve detection methods for TB

Two UK companies have been awarded joint funding for a research project that could see significant advances in the quest to aid detection and eradication of Tuberculosis (TB), across the world.

28 Sep 2010

Opinions: U.S. food aid; MDGs; Contraceptive access, technology; U.S. AIDS funding; Foreign assistance reform

"The best way to help the millions of hungry people in countries that receive food aid get rid of their corrupt and incompetent rulers - and to ensure that their children will never go hungry in future — is to starve them now. That will turn them into raging, unstoppable anti-government regime changers," writes Nation Media Group Executive Editor Charles Onyango-Obbo in an East African opinion piece.

28 Sep 2010

MDG summit: Funding the Global Fund; Arab world's 'own challenges'

BusinessDay reports that following last week's Millennium Development Goal summit at the U.N. in New York, advocates "have called on rich nations to double their pledges to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, saying it desperately needs more money if the world is to meet the health-related Millennium Development Goals by 2015."

28 Sep 2010

AASLD, TFAH report calls for action to help identify Americans living with HBV, HCV

The American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and the Trust for America's Health issued a new report today calling for action to be taken to transform how the country deals with viral hepatitis – to help identify millions of Americans who know they are living with chronic forms of hepatitis B and C and to assure access to treatment for all who need it, to prevent even more Americans from becoming infected.

28 Sep 2010

IAVI investigators awarded grant to examine antibodies that neutralize HIV virus

A team of investigators headed by International AIDS Vaccine Initiative Investigator Pascal Poignard has been awarded a major grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the US National Institutes of Health to investigate the biological mechanisms underlying the generation of broadly neutralizing antibodies by HIV positive individuals.

28 Sep 2010

Novel therapies for HCV treatment can precipitate several changes: Report

Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that the launch of novel therapies for the treatment of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV), including Vertex/Johnson & Johnson/Mitsubishi Tanabe's telaprevir and Merck's boceprevir, will precipitate several changes in HCV treatment.

28 Sep 2010

BMC physicians receive $3M NIH grant to identify TB biomarkers

Boston Medical Center has been chosen to lead an investigation aimed at developing novel approaches to prevent tuberculosis. Jerrold J. Ellner, MD, chief of the section of infectious diseases at BMC and professor of medicine at the Boston University School of Medicine, a renowned expert in the field, will serve as principal investigator on the five-year, $3 million grant funded by the National Institutes of Health.

28 Sep 2010

BMC physicians to lead international research collaboration to curb infectious diseases

Boston Medical Center (BMC) has been chosen to lead an investigation aimed at developing novel approaches to prevent tuberculosis (TB). Jerrold J. Ellner, MD, chief of the section of infectious diseases at BMC and professor of medicine at the Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), a renowned expert in the field, will serve as principal investigator (PI) on the five-year, $3 million grant funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

27 Sep 2010

Condoms can prevent transmission of herpes simplex virus 2: Study

Condom use is associated with a reduced risk of contracting herpes simplex virus 2, according to a report based on pooled analysis of data from previous studies in the July 13 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

27 Sep 2010

GBS pathogen suppresses immune cell function in newborn infants: Research

Group B Streptococcus (GBS), a bacterial pathogen that causes sepsis and meningitis in newborn infants, is able to shut down immune cell function in order to promote its own survival, according to researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

27 Sep 2010