Disease/Infection News

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Transplant surgeons routinely use fewer organs from high-risk donors

As a response to a 2007 episode in which four patients in Chicago were transplanted with organs from a single donor unknowingly infected with HIV — the only such episode in 20 years — one-third of transplant surgeons in the United States "overreacted" and began routinely using fewer organs from high-risk donors, new research from Johns Hopkins finds.

19 Jan 2011

Collaborative study may lead to improved influenza vaccine and vaccines for other respiratory virus infections

A collaborative project between researchers at the Trudeau Institute and their colleagues at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., offers new insights that may lead to an improved strategy to protect against the influenza virus and other viruses that infect the respiratory tract.

19 Jan 2011

Dr. Kathleen receives NSF grant to measure how climate change will impact risk of malaria, dengue fever

Thanks to a $250,000 National Science Foundation grant we may soon know how climate change will impact our risk of malaria and dengue fever. Dr. Kathleen Schreiber, professor of geography at Millersville University of Pennsylvania, received the grant from the NSF sponsored Vector-Borne Disease Project to measure how environmental temperature change influences the transmission and disease risk of the two diseases.

19 Jan 2011

Dextran-coated onto iron oxide nanoparticles can detect cholera toxin: Study

A complex sugar may someday become one of the most effective weapons to stop the spread of cholera, a disease that has claimed thousands of lives in Haiti since the devastating earthquake last year.

19 Jan 2011

Researchers create biyouyanagin compound library

Using chemical compounds found in a Japanese plant as a lead and the clever application of ultraviolet light, a Scripps Research Institute team has created a unique library of dozens of synthetic compounds to test for biomedical potential. Already, one of the compounds has shown great promise in inhibiting replication of HIV particles and fighting inflammation.

19 Jan 2011

Convalescent plasma therapy may reduce mortality rate in patients with H1N1 infection: Study

A study published in the February 15 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases suggests that convalescent plasma may reduce the death rate in patients severely ill with this type of influenza.

19 Jan 2011

Meganucleases used to prevent HSV-1 infection

Cellectis, announced today that scientists from Cellectis therapeutics, the French National Center For Medical Research (CNRS) and Institut de la Vision (Paris) have used its proprietary meganucleases to successfully prevent infection of cultured cells by a Herpes Simplex virus (HSV-1).

19 Jan 2011

BSi and OMJPI enter development agreement for novel neurological and psychiatric disease therapeutics

The Johns Hopkins Brain Science Institute (BSi) announced today that it has entered into an agreement with Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. (OMJPI) to advance the development of novel therapeutics for neurological and psychiatric diseases.

19 Jan 2011

Healthy teeth and gums may reduce risk for pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Maintaining periodontal health may contribute to a healthy respiratory system, according to research published in the Journal of Periodontology. A new study suggests that periodontal disease may increase the risk for respiratory infections, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and pneumonia.

19 Jan 2011

New project on developing countermeasures for natural and intentional exposure to disease pathogens

Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have received a $5.6 million grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Army Research Office (ARO) to develop transient immunity against known, unknown, naturally occurring, or engineered disease-causing pathogens. The ultimate goal is to develop a viable countermeasure to an unknown pathogen within seven days of receiving it in a laboratory.

19 Jan 2011

WHO Director-General opens executive board session with calls for reform

Kicking off a nine-day annual WHO executive board meeting Monday, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan called for the board to consider areas where the agency can redirect resources in a more targeted manner so as to achieve greater outcomes, Reuters reports.

19 Jan 2011

AMBR sensor measures growth and drug susceptibility of bacterial cells without use of microscope

With an invention that can be made from some of the same parts used in CD players, University of Michigan researchers have developed a way to measure the growth and drug susceptibility of individual bacterial cells without the use of a microscope.

19 Jan 2011

Research provides new insight into how HIV protein's structural changes may alter viral infection into healthy cells

The UK's National Physical Laboratory with the University of Edinburgh and IBM's TJ Watson Research Center have published new research about the structure of an HIV-1 protein that could help to develop new drugs to stop the virus infecting healthy cells.

19 Jan 2011

UMMS begins MBL-HCV1 Phase 2 trial to prevent hepatitis C virus infection in liver transplant patients

Following a successful Phase 1 study for safety, researchers at MassBiologics of the University of Massachusetts Medical School today announced the beginning of a Phase 2 clinical trial testing the ability of a human monoclonal antibody they developed to prevent hepatitis C virus infection of a donor liver in transplant patients.

19 Jan 2011

FDA approves Natroba for treatment of head lice infestations

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Natroba (spinosad) Topical Suspension 0.9% for the treatment of head lice infestation in patients ages 4 years and older.

18 Jan 2011

New York Times examines Russia's 'inadequate fight' against HIV/AIDS

Russia's HIV/AIDS epidemic "has defied worldwide trends, expanding more rapidly year by year than almost anywhere else," the New York Times writes in an article that examines how the country has become "one of the world's low points in the effort to fight the spread of HIV," in large part due to the government's failure to reach out to injecting drug users (IDUs) and sex workers - the groups "at the heart" of the epidemic.

18 Jan 2011

Australians urged to vaccinate babies and care givers against whooping cough

The number of cases of the deadly whooping cough in the Hume region in Victoria, including Wodonga, last year increased fivefold from those diagnosed in 2008. A total 67 cases were reported in Albury last year but across the Greater Southern region there were more than 1,000 cases. The outbreak reached its peak in September. In the last three years 1,416 West Australians contracted the disease, three of whom died.

18 Jan 2011

iBio grants commercial, royalty-bearing license to Fiocruz/Bio-Manguinhos for new yellow fever vaccine

iBio, Inc. today announced the grant of a commercial, royalty-bearing license to Fiocruz/Bio-Manguinhos of Brazil to develop, manufacture and sell certain vaccines based upon iBio's proprietary technology. Fiocruz/Bio-Manguinhos will invest more than $6 million to bring the first product - a new yellow fever vaccine - through Phase I clinical trials.

18 Jan 2011

Few opt for vaccine to prevent painful shingles, NPR reports

[T]he fact is only about 10% of the 50 million people who should get the vaccine actually have. … The vaccine is expensive — $160 a shot, plus an administration fee.

18 Jan 2011

PositiveID and RFID Solutions complete development of temperature-sensing microchip

PositiveID Corporation announced today that it has completed the development of its temperature-sensing microchip in conjunction with development partner RFID Solutions of Malaga, Spain. The microchip, which uses radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, is able to measure internal temperature within the body and communicate that temperature wirelessly to an external reader.

18 Jan 2011

Disease/Infection News

Transplant surgeons routinely use fewer organs from high-risk donors

Collaborative study may lead to improved influenza vaccine and vaccines for other respiratory virus infections

Dr. Kathleen receives NSF grant to measure how climate change will impact risk of malaria, dengue fever

Dextran-coated onto iron oxide nanoparticles can detect cholera toxin: Study

Researchers create biyouyanagin compound library

Convalescent plasma therapy may reduce mortality rate in patients with H1N1 infection: Study

Meganucleases used to prevent HSV-1 infection

BSi and OMJPI enter development agreement for novel neurological and psychiatric disease therapeutics

Healthy teeth and gums may reduce risk for pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

New project on developing countermeasures for natural and intentional exposure to disease pathogens

WHO Director-General opens executive board session with calls for reform

AMBR sensor measures growth and drug susceptibility of bacterial cells without use of microscope

Research provides new insight into how HIV protein's structural changes may alter viral infection into healthy cells

UMMS begins MBL-HCV1 Phase 2 trial to prevent hepatitis C virus infection in liver transplant patients

FDA approves Natroba for treatment of head lice infestations

New York Times examines Russia's 'inadequate fight' against HIV/AIDS

Australians urged to vaccinate babies and care givers against whooping cough

iBio grants commercial, royalty-bearing license to Fiocruz/Bio-Manguinhos for new yellow fever vaccine

Few opt for vaccine to prevent painful shingles, NPR reports

PositiveID and RFID Solutions complete development of temperature-sensing microchip

Designing fluidic architecture for scalable diagnostic platforms

Evaluating new approaches for rare disease genomics

Expanding access to NMR with the Fourier 80 Duo

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