Month: April 2014
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MERS Vaccine Candidate Produces Immune Response in Lab Test
30 April 2014. Researchers at the biotechnology company Novavax Inc. in Gaithersburg, Maryland and University of Maryland medical school in Baltimore found new vaccines made from engineered protein nanoparticles generated in lab mice an immune response to the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) viruses. The team led by Maryland…
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Alzheimer’s Brain Stimulation Implants Completed for Trial
30 April 2014. A clinical trial testing the safety and potential benefit of deep brain stimulation to treat Alzheimer’s disease completed implanting stimulation devices in enrolled patients in the U.S. and Canada. Functional Neuromodulation Ltd, in Toronto and Charlottesville, Virginia says it expects to report the first results from the trial in the second quarter…
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Tablet App Provides Feedback, Improves Drug Adherence
29 April 2014. Computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh designed and tested a tablet app, connected to electronic sensors on a pillbox, that provides feedback to older adults and helps them stick to their medication schedules. Anind Dey, a professor in Carnegie Mellon’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute, and former Ph.D. student Matthew Lee, now…
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Mayo Clinic Offering Gene Test to Target Chemotherapy
29 April 2014. Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota now offers cancer patients with solid tumors a test that enables physicians to tailor chemotherapy drugs to the patient’s specific genetic background. The test known as Solid Tumor Targeted Cancer Panel or CANCP is available to patients at the Mayo Clinic and its affiliates worldwide, through the…
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FDA Approves Intermediate ALS Stem Cell Clinical Trial
28 April 2014. BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics, in New York and Israel, says the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved its beginning an intermediate stage clinical trial of a stem cell-based therapy for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. The trial will test for safety and tolerability of the company’s treatments…
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Diagnostics Firm Licenses Severe Food Allergy Gene Research
28 April 2014. Diagnovus LLC, a molecular diagnostics developer in Nashville, is licensing research on food allergies to detect a severe type of allergic condition based on a patient’s genetics. Financial terms of the deal with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center that conducted the research were not disclosed. The test will analyze a patient’s genome…
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Cancer Immunotherapy Start-Up Completes $176M Funding Round
25 April 2014. Juno Therapeutics, a biotechnology start-up company in Seattle, completed its first round of venture financing, raising $176 million from private investors and not-for-profit research institutes. The company started in December 2013 with a stake of $120 million, but announced in January 2014 it planned to expand its financing beyond an original target…
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Simple, Low-Cost Method Adds Microscope Lens to Smartphone
25 April 2014. Engineers at Australian National University in Canberra devised an inexpensive process to make an add-on lens that turns a smartphone into a high-powered microscope. The team led by ANU’s Woei Ming (Steve) Lee published its technique in the May 2014 issue of the journal Biomedical Optics Express. The university filed for a…
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Genome Editing Start-Up Secures $25 Million in First Round
24 April 2014. Biopharmaceutical start-up company CRISPR Therapeutics in Basel, Switzerland raised $25 million in its first funding round. The company develops engineered gene therapies with a technology developed by one of its scientific founders, and is backed in this round by Versant Ventures, a venture capital company in Menlo Park, California. CRISPR Therapeutics’ technology…
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Electro-Gene Therapy with Cochlear Implant Boosts Hearing
24 April 2014. Researchers at University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia delivered genetic material with electric impulses into cochlear implants that improves the quality of hearing to nearly normal in deaf lab animals. The team led by UNSW’s Gary Housley published its findings in today’s issue of the journal Science Translational Medicine (paid…