Month: September 2014
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Small Business Grant Funds Point-of-Care Sickle Cell Test
22 September 2014. A Cambridge, Massachusetts diagnostics company received a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant to develop a simple point-of-care test for sickle cell disease, a genetic blood disorder affecting a large percentage of people of African origin. The $225,000 grant from National Institutes of Health’s SBIR program to Daktari Diagnostics will support development…
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Gene Editing Techniques Devised to Combat Superbugs
22 September 2014. Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology are developing ways to fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria by modifying the genes that make the bacteria resistant to drugs. The team from MIT’s Synthetic Biology Group, led by engineering professor Timothy Lu, published its findings yesterday in the journal Nature Biotechnology (paid subscription required). Antibiotic resistance is…
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Boehringer Ingelheim Licenses RNA Lung Cancer Immunotherapy
19 September 2014. The pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim is licensing from biopharmaceutical enterprise CureVac a vaccine based on RNA to generate an immune response for treating lung cancer. The deal has a total potential value to CureVac of €465 million ($US 597 million). CureVac, in Tübingen, Germany, develops vaccines and treatments based on messenger RNA,…
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Biotech Firms Find Genetic Drivers for Uterine Cancers
19 September 2014. Researchers with the companies Personal Genome Diagnostics and Blueprint Medicines identified genetic mutations associated with carcinosarcoma, a rare but deadly form of cancer affecting the female reproductive system also known as malignant mixed Mullerian tumors. The team that includes members from Johns Hopkins University and Oregon Health and Science University published its…
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Small Business Contract to Fund Cancer Drug Response Tests
18 September 2014. National Cancer Institute, part of National Institutes of Health, is funding development of lab tests using a patient’s own cancer cells to help determine the best treatments for the patient. The $1.975 million contract to biotechnology company Kiyatec Inc. in Greenville, South Carolina was awarded under the Small Business Innovation Research program,…
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3-D, Open-Source Syringe Pump Cuts Research Lab Costs
18 September 2014. Engineers at Michigan Technological University in Houghton produced a syringe pump, a common but often expensive piece of lab equipment, with three-dimensional printing that drastically cuts the cost of the device. The team led by Michigan Tech’s Joshua Pearce published its findings yesterday in the journal PLoS One, and makes the pump’s…
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Sanofi, MyoKardia Partner on Genetic Heart Disorders
17 September 2014. The pharmaceutical company Sanofi and biopharmaceutical developer MyoKardia are collaborating on development and commercialization of three MyoKardia therapies for inherited heart diseases. The deal could earn MyoKardia as much as $200 million in milestone payments and equity investments from Sanofi. MyoKardia, in South San Francisco, California, designs small-molecule therapies for two types…
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Early Clinical Trial to Test Leukemia Antibody Safety
17 September 2014. An early stage clinical trial at University of California in San Diego is testing the safety of an antibody that in lab animals decreases the number of chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells, the most common form of leukemia among adults. The study is led by UC-San Diego medical school professor Thomas Kipps, who…
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Lilly, AstraZeneca Collaborate on Alzheimer’s Drug
16 September 2014. The pharmaceutical companies Eli Lilly and Company and AstraZeneca will jointly develop a drug to treat Alzheimer’s disease, currently in early-stage clinical trials. In the $500 million deal, Lilly is licensing research and development conducted so far by AstraZeneca, with the companies dividing up further clinical development, commercialization, and manufacturing of the…
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Taking a Break
Science & Enterprise is a taking long weekend beginning tomorrow, 12 September through Monday, 15 September. We’ll resume posting on Tuesday 16 September. * * *