Category: New products
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Gates Funding RNA Treatment for HIV Infection
12 January 2016. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is backing a biotechnology company’s early development of antibodies to treat human immunodeficiency virus or HIV based on RNA, nucleic acids expressed by a person’s genetic code. The foundation is supporting the work of Moderna Therapeutics, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with an initial $20 million grant, and…
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Zika Virus Genome Sequenced
12 January 2016. A team from Institut Pasteur in French Guiana sequenced the complete genome of the Zika virus, a mosquito-borne pathogen causing disease outbreaks in tropical regions, including the Americas. Findings from the analysis appeared last week in the journal The Lancet. The Zika virus causes fever, with rash, joint pain, and conjunctivitis, also…
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Trials Show Safety, Benefit of Stem Cells to Treat ALS
11 January 2016. Two clinical trials testing stem cells to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, found the treatments are safe for patients, and can slow progression of the disease. Results of the trials testing the stem cell product known as NurOwn made by BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics in Petach Tikvah, Israel are reported today in…
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Phillips, Banyan Partner on Point-of-Care Concussion Test
7 January 2016. A collaboration between electronics manufacturer Royal Phillips and medical diagnostics company Banyan Biomarkers Inc. is developing a handheld blood test for concussions and other mild traumatic brain injuries. Financial and intellectual property aspects of the partnership were not disclosed. Traumatic brain injury is caused by a blow or jolt to the head,…
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Monsanto, Biotech Developing Soil Nutrient Microbe
6 January 2016. A partnership between Monsanto and the biotechnology company Novozymes developed a new soil microbe product, which the companies say in field tests substantially increases corn yields. The collaboration known as BioAg Alliance plans to introduce the corn inoculant product in the U.S. next year. Novozymes, an agricultural biotechnology company in Copenhangen, Denmark,…
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Clinical Trials to Test Artificial Pancreas
4 January 2016. Two new clinical trials are planned to test a smartphone-based closed-loop artificial pancreas system for people with type 1 diabetes. The system is developed by teams at University of Virginia in Charlottesville and Harvard University, and licensed for commercial development by TypeZero LLC, also in Charlottesville. The trials are funded by a…
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Autism App Adapts Facial Analysis Software
31 December 2015. A research team at Duke University is using facial analysis software routines developed for the U.S. Navy in building a smartphone app to screen for autism. The Duke team, led by engineering professor Guillermo Sapiro, adapted algorithms designed for the Office of Naval Research to analyze emotions displayed through facial expressions. Sapiro…
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Cancer Genome Data Visualization Tool Developed
29 December 2015. A bioinformatics team at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital created a Web-based system that illustrates genetic mutations behind pediatric cancers. The software and database in ProteinPaint, as the system is called, are described in a letter in today’s issue of the journal Nature Genetics (paid subscription required). The team led by Jinghui…
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Human Cornea Cells Derived from Stem Cells
28 December 2015. A biotechnology company designed a process for generating human cornea cells from embryonic stem cells, without a donated cornea, the current replacement therapy. The team from Ocata Therapeutics Inc. led by Robert Lanza, the company’s chief scientist, published its proof-of-concept findings last week in the journal PLoS One. Lanza and colleagues —…
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Trial Shows Vaccine Protects Against Stem Cell Complications
24 December 2015. An early-stage clinical trial indicates a vaccine protects against complications from stem cell transplants used to treat blood-related cancers. Results of the trial conducted by City of Hope medical center in Duarte, California that developed the vaccine appear online in the journal The Lancet Haematology (paid subscription required), and were discussed earlier…