Virus News and Research

Latest Virus News and Research

NSF awards grants to advance Ebola research

The National Science Foundation has awarded the first of a number of rapid response grants to advance fundamental Ebola research.

5 Dec 2014

Mylan gets tentative approval from FDA for two pediatric dosages of abacavir/lamivudine tablets

Mylan Inc. today announced that its subsidiary Mylan Laboratories Limited has received tentative approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its New Drug Applications (NDAs) for two dosages of abacavir/lamivudine tablets for oral suspension for the treatment of HIV-1 infection in pediatric patients.

4 Dec 2014

MRIGlobal awarded $3 million contract to provide HPV vaccine

MRIGlobal today announced that it has been awarded a $3 million contract amendment from the National Cancer Institute's PREVENT Cancer Program to provide a vaccine for the Human Papillomavirus or HPV, the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States. MRIGlobal will lead a team that will produce the vaccine to be used in a Phase I clinical trial.

4 Dec 2014

Scientists undertake multiple strategies to tame Ebola virus

The Ebola epidemic in West Africa has pushed the decades-long search for a treatment to a frenetic pace. Somewhere in the virus' deceptively simple structure is a key to taming it. To find that key, scientists are undertaking multiple strategies, some of which are being fast-tracked for human testing, according to an article in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society.

4 Dec 2014

Scientists review HBV-associated tumor microenvironment in hepatocellular carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the few cancers in which a continued increase in incidence has been observed over recent years. Globally, there are approximately 750,000 new cases of liver cancer reported each year. Importantly, population-based studies show that HCC ranks as the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide.

4 Dec 2014

Study reports effective treatment approach to inhibit herpes virus infection

A multi-institutional study reports an effective treatment approach to inhibit and keep latent viruses like herpes simplex from reactivating and causing disease. The work, whose lead author is the late James Hill, PhD, LSU Health New Orleans Professor and Director of Pharmacology and Infectious Disease at the LSU Eye Center, is published in the December 3, 2014, issue of Science Translational Medicine.

4 Dec 2014

Organovo, Yale collaborate to develop bioprinted tissues for surgical transplantation research

Organovo Holdings, Inc., a three-dimensional biology company focused on delivering breakthrough 3D bioprinting technology, and Yale School of Medicine, Department of Surgery have formed a collaboration to develop bioprinted tissues for surgical transplantation research, made possible by a generous gift from the Methuselah Foundation.

3 Dec 2014

New WHO guidance provides cervical cancer control and prevention approach

New guidance from WHO aims to help countries better prevent and control cervical cancer. The disease is one of the world's deadliest - but most easily preventable - forms of cancer for women, responsible for more than 270 000 deaths annually, 85% of which occur in developing countries.

3 Dec 2014

Joint therapy to counter HIV and HCV increases chance of success

A Spanish researcher has collaborated on a mathematical analysis, recently published in the journal 'Science Translational Medicine', which concludes that joint therapy to counter HIV in patients who also have hepatitis C increases the chance of success in the fight against both infections. Between eight and nine million people worldwide simultaneously suffer from AIDS and hepatitis C.

3 Dec 2014

IDT, Ubiquitome to develop hand-held, battery-powered Freedom4 Real-Time RT-PCR Ebola Virus Assay

Integrated DNA Technologies, and Ubiquitome today announced a partnership to develop the Ubiquitome Freedom4 Real-Time RT-PCR Ebola Virus Assay for easy use in the field. This rapid test is designed to be run on Ubiquitome’s hand-held, battery powered real-time PCR device, the Freedom4.

From Integrated DNA Technologies 3 Dec 2014

UCLA researchers devise plan to reduce HIV transmission in Africa

While Ebola has attracted much of the world's attention recently, a severe HIV epidemic rages on around the world and in sub-Saharan Africa in particular. Globally, more than 34 million people are infected with HIV; in sub-Saharan Africa alone, 3 million new infections occur annually.

3 Dec 2014

Ceres to develop new method for detecting the presence of Ebola virus in saliva

Ceres Nanosciences Inc. today announced the commencement of a development program, funded by the Gates Foundation, to use Ceres' Nanotrap particle technology to develop a new method of detecting the presence of the Ebola virus in saliva.

3 Dec 2014

Monash University, 60P Australia partner to develop Fenretinide drug for dengue fever

Monash University and 60P Australia Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of 60° Pharmaceuticals LLC, have announced today an exclusive partnering deal, with 60P obtaining rights to develop the drug Fenretinide for dengue fever.

2 Dec 2014

HIV's ability to cause AIDS is declining, finds new research

The rapid evolution of HIV, which has allowed the virus to develop resistance to patients' natural immunity, is at the same time slowing the virus's ability to cause AIDS, according to new research funded by the Wellcome Trust.

2 Dec 2014

New cellPACK software can help explore human cells in more detail

Researchers can now explore viruses, bacteria and components of the human body in more detail than ever before with software developed at The Scripps Research Institute.

2 Dec 2014

New blood test could help detect cold-related asthma risk

People who have asthma generally suffer worse with colds caused by rhinoviruses than other people do. There are also asthmatics and patients with the severe lung condition COPD in whom the cold virus can trigger serious flare-ups of their condition. A team of researchers from the Institute of Pathophysiology and Allergy Research at the MedUni Vienna has now discovered how this risk group can be filtered out using a blood test.

2 Dec 2014

Ligand indazole chloride improves motor function, study shows

Multiple sclerosis (MS), an autoimmune disease of the brain and spinal cord, affects about 2.3 million people worldwide (400,000 in the United States). Affecting more women than men, it can be seen at any age, although it is most commonly diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 40.

2 Dec 2014

Researchers identify infection control gaps as major culprit in spread of MERS-CoV

Little is known about the often fatal virus known as Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), but researchers have identified gaps in infection control as a major culprit in all eleven published cases involving healthcare-associated transmission of the virus.

2 Dec 2014

Cepheid gets FDA clearance to market Xpert Norovirus

Cepheid today announced it has received clearance from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration to market Xpert Norovirus, a qualitative in vitro diagnostic test for expeditious identification and differentiation of Noroviruses genogroup I (GI) and genogroup II (GII).

1 Dec 2014