Gene News and Research

Latest Gene News and Research

Second US trial in HIV/AIDS lymphoma patients using Benitec’s ddRNAi technology

Benitec Limited (ASX:BLT), a company involved in RNA-based gene silencing for human therapeutics, announced that the City of Hope research hospital in Duarte, California is planning to initiate a second small Phase I/II study using Benitec’s DNA-directed RNA interference (ddRNAi) technology in lymphoma patients carrying the HIV virus. The aim of the study is to optimize the treatment by modifying a range of clinical parameters.

21 Mar 2011

ViroPharma launches online community for teens and adults with hereditary angioedema

ViroPharma Incorporated today announced the launch of "HAE and Me," an online community that unites teens and adults with hereditary angioedema (HAE) through shared experiences to help them better manage their disease.

21 Mar 2011

Study identifies gene linked to higher risk of multiple sclerosis in children

Canadians have one of the highest rates of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in the world with approximately 1,000 new cases diagnosed each year. Primarily striking in adulthood, physicians and researchers with the Canadian Pediatric Demyelinating Diseases Network (CPDDN), a multi-institutional and multidisciplinary group, have found that MS is being increasingly diagnosed in children.

21 Mar 2011

Study unravels molecular mechanism of biomolecule RNA that plays dynamic regulatory role in protein selection

If a big bunch of your brain cells suddenly went rogue and decided to become fat cells, it could cloud your decision-making capacity a bit. Fortunately, early in an organism's development, cells make firm and more-or-less permanent decisions about whether they will live their lives as, say, skin cells, brain cells or, well, fat cells.

21 Mar 2011

WaferGen, NuGEN collaborate to develop integrated workflows for gene expression profiling and target enrichment

WaferGen Biosystems, Inc., a leading developer of state-of-the-art genomic analysis systems, and NuGEN Technologies, Inc., a leader in innovative genomic samples preparation, today announced they will co-develop and co-market simple, seamlessly integrated workflows for gene expression profiling and target enrichment to enable researchers to more easily achieve high-throughput, high-density real-time PCR with small, degraded, and hard-to-replace clinical specimens, such as formalin fixed paraffin embedded tissue (FFPE).

21 Mar 2011

Research outlines how cilia disease gene products regulate early cilium formation

An international collaboration jointly led by University College Dublin, University of Alabama and Simon Fraser University, British Columbia has outlined in the Journal of Cell Biology how cilia disease gene products regulate important aspects of early cilium formation and the integrity of the ciliary transport gate.

21 Mar 2011

Life Technologies enters clinical trials for DNA SBT platform for analysis of Human Leukocyte Antigen system

Life Technologies Corporation today announced that it is the first life science tools provider entering clinical trials to prove the safety and effectiveness of their DNA sequence-based typing (SBT) platform for analysis of the Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) system. Submission for 510(k) clearance of this SBT platform will follow completion of the clinical trials, which is anticipated this summer.

21 Mar 2011

Tiny Locked Nucleic Acid-based compounds inhibit entire disease-associated microRNA families

A study published online in this week's Nature Genetics demonstrates that tiny Locked Nucleic Acid (LNA)-based compounds developed by Santaris Pharma A/S can inhibit entire disease-associated microRNA families. This provides a potential new approach for treating a variety of diseases including cancer, viral infections, cardiovascular and muscle diseases.

21 Mar 2011

Researchers discover 'broad spectrum' cancer suppressor gene

Portuguese researchers have discovered a "broad spectrum" cancer suppressor gene - called LRP1B - which acts by removing proteins crucial for cancer development from the tumour environment. The fact that LRP1B does not act on the tumour itself (in this study thyroid tumours) but, instead, on molecules which are known to be important to many different cancers is what makes it so interesting.

21 Mar 2011

Genentech's vismodegib Phase II clinical study in advanced basal cell carcinoma meets primary endpoint

Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, today announced that a pivotal Phase II clinical study of its investigational Hedgehog Pathway Inhibitor, vismodegib (RG3616/GDC-0449), showed positive results in people with advanced basal cell carcinoma (aBCC), a particularly severe and debilitating form of skin cancer.

21 Mar 2011

Drug delivery breakthrough for Alzheimer’s disease

Till date all attempts to get drugs into the brain were countered by the blood-brain barrier - the natural defense against potentially harmful chemicals floating around the body. However this new finding from a team from University of Oxford shows that now scientists have successfully switched off a gene implicated in Alzheimer’s disease in the brains of mice by exploiting tiny particles naturally released by cells, called exosomes.

21 Mar 2011

CHMP recommends approval of Centralized Marketing Authorization for Cinryze

ViroPharma Incorporated today announced that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use of the European Medicines Agency has adopted a positive opinion at its plenary meeting in March 2011 recommending approval of a Centralized Marketing Authorization for Cinryze (C1 inhibitor [human]) in adults and adolescents with hereditary angioedema for routine prevention, pre-procedure prevention and acute treatment of angioedema attacks.

19 Mar 2011

Scientists devise new strategy to prevent spread of drug-resistant bacteria

A team of scientists from the University of Oxford, U.K. have taken lessons from Adam Smith and Charles Darwin to devise a new strategy that could one day slow, possibly even prevent, the spread of drug-resistant bacteria. In a new research report published in the March 2011 issue of GENETICS, the scientists show that bacterial gene mutations that lead to drug resistance come at a biological cost not borne by nonresistant strains.

19 Mar 2011

Quark Pharmaceuticals receives results from Phase 2 trial of PF-04523655 in patients with DME

Quark Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a pharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery and development of RNAi-based therapeutics, today announced that it has received results from a prospective randomized Phase 2 trial, the DEGAS study.

19 Mar 2011

New insight into Duchenne muscular dystrophy

Armed with a zebrafish model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy and a library of 1,200 chemicals already approved for human use, researchers at Children's Hospital Boston have identified a compound that reverses the loss of muscle structure and function associated with DMD, seemingly by compensating for the loss of a critical protein.

19 Mar 2011

RainDance Technologies launches ASDSeq and XSeq Research Screening Panels

RainDance Technologies, Inc., today announced the commercial availability of the ASDSeq™ and XSeq™ Research Screening Panels. Developed in collaboration with Emory University and Greenwood Genetic Center, the two comprehensive panels enable researchers to simultaneously interrogate key genes known to be linked to X-chromosome disorders and syndromic forms of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) using next-generation sequencing.

18 Mar 2011

EMA CHMP adopts negative opinion for Amgen's Vectibix in treatment of wild-type KRAS metastatic colorectal cancer

Amgen has received notice that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has adopted a negative opinion for Amgen's application to extend the marketing authorization in Europe for Vectibix® (panitumumab) to include combination with chemotherapy for the treatment of patients with wild-type KRAS metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC).

18 Mar 2011

Quest Diagnostics enters definitive merger agreement to acquire Celera for $8 per share

Quest Diagnostics Incorporated, the world's leading provider of diagnostic testing, information and services, and Celera Corporation, one of the world's pioneers in genetic diagnostics discovery and development, announced today that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement under which Quest Diagnostics will acquire Celera for $8 per share, representing a transaction value of approximately $344 million, net of $327 million in acquired cash and short-term investments.

From Quest Diagnostics 18 Mar 2011

Celera reports net revenue of $34.9 million for fourth quarter of 2010

Celera Corporation today reported net revenues of $34.9 million for the fourth quarter of 2010 that ended December 25, 2010, compared to $39.2 million for the prior year quarter.

18 Mar 2011

GHDX presents Oncotype DX breast cancer test study results at St. Gallen conference

Genomic Health, Inc. today announced results from nine studies utilizing the Oncotype DX test in early-stage breast cancer patients at the 12th Annual St. Gallen International Breast Cancer Conference in St. Gallen, Switzerland.

18 Mar 2011

Gene News and Research

Latest Gene News and Research

Second US trial in HIV/AIDS lymphoma patients using Benitec’s ddRNAi technology

ViroPharma launches online community for teens and adults with hereditary angioedema

Study identifies gene linked to higher risk of multiple sclerosis in children

Study unravels molecular mechanism of biomolecule RNA that plays dynamic regulatory role in protein selection

WaferGen, NuGEN collaborate to develop integrated workflows for gene expression profiling and target enrichment

Research outlines how cilia disease gene products regulate early cilium formation

Life Technologies enters clinical trials for DNA SBT platform for analysis of Human Leukocyte Antigen system

Tiny Locked Nucleic Acid-based compounds inhibit entire disease-associated microRNA families

Researchers discover 'broad spectrum' cancer suppressor gene

Genentech's vismodegib Phase II clinical study in advanced basal cell carcinoma meets primary endpoint

Drug delivery breakthrough for Alzheimer’s disease

CHMP recommends approval of Centralized Marketing Authorization for Cinryze

Scientists devise new strategy to prevent spread of drug-resistant bacteria

Quark Pharmaceuticals receives results from Phase 2 trial of PF-04523655 in patients with DME

New insight into Duchenne muscular dystrophy

RainDance Technologies launches ASDSeq and XSeq Research Screening Panels

EMA CHMP adopts negative opinion for Amgen's Vectibix in treatment of wild-type KRAS metastatic colorectal cancer

Quest Diagnostics enters definitive merger agreement to acquire Celera for $8 per share

Celera reports net revenue of $34.9 million for fourth quarter of 2010

GHDX presents Oncotype DX breast cancer test study results at St. Gallen conference

eBook: Using iPSCs models for human disease research and drug discovery eBook

Advancing benzodiazepine detection

The Surgeon-Scientist Pioneering Regenerative Engineering

Leveraging the Radian ASAP in standard casework