Month: June 2015
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Trial Begins Testing Sickle Cell Blood Therapy
23 June 2015. A clinical trial began enrolling participants testing a synthesized therapy for sickle cell disease to improve the flow of blood cells blocked by the condition and relieve the intense pain that results. The late-stage trial is being conducted by drug maker Pfizer Inc., with biotechnology company GlycoMimetics Inc. in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Sickle…
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Smart Insulin Patch Designed to Regulate Blood Glucose
23 June 2015. A skin patch made with tiny needles can dispense insulin and regulate blood glucose levels in lab mice for up to 9 hours. The device is being developed by a joint biomedical engineering department at University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University in Raleigh, and described in…
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Study Urges Better Heart Implant Device Tracking
22 June 2015. Current methods of monitoring implanted heart devices, conclude researchers at University of California in San Francisco, may not be adequate for spotting the number of problems with the devices leading to patients’ deaths. The findings of the team led by UCSF cardiologist Zian Tseng were reported today in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine…
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Allied-Bristol Licenses Chinese Root Extract Technology
22 June 2015. A joint venture of drug maker Bristol-Myers Squibb and science commercialization company Allied Minds is licensing research at Harvard University on the actions of a Chinese root extract with therapeutic potential against fibrosis, inflammation, and autoimmune disorders. Financial aspects of the agreement between Harvard and Allied-Bristol Life Sciences were not disclosed. The…
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$50,000 Challenge Seeks Liver Disease Biomarkers
19 June 2015. A new challenge on InnoCentive asks for biomarkers indicating damage to the liver, conditions that today often require invasive procedures such as biopsies to diagnose. The competition has a total purse of $50,000 and a deadline for proposals of 17 August 2015. InnoCentive in Waltham, Massachusetts conducts open-innovation, crowdsourcing competitions for corporate…
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Internet-of-Things Security Architecture Designed
19 June 2015. Engineering students at Ruhr-Universität Bochum in Germany are developing a security architecture to protect wireless communications among small household devices connected in what’s known as the Internet-of-Things. The team from the university’s Horst Görtz Institute that specializes in IT security is also receiving funds from a German government program to start a…
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Trial Testing Precision Medicine as Skin Cancer Therapy
18 June 2015. A clinical trial is recruiting participants to test targeted molecular therapies as treatments for advanced cases of skin cancer. The study plans to enroll 96 individuals with melanoma, an advanced and dangerous form of skin cancer, found spreading to other organs in the body and cannot be treated with surgery. Melanoma results…
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Anti-Infection Compound Devised for Dental, Wound Care
18 June 2015. A new formulation of a common antibacterial agent can protect against infections for weeks or months at a time, according to its developers at University of Bristol in the U.K. The team led by Bristol dental materials scientist Michele Barbour is developing Pertinax, an extended antimicrobial compound, and receiving this year’s £25,000…
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Drug Makers Start Prostate Cancer Patient Registry
17 June 2015. Two companies that developed a drug to treat prostate cancer, began enrolling individuals into a registry of people with prostate cancer to track their quality of care. Astellas U.S., a division of Astellas Pharma in Tokyo, and Medivation Inc., a biotechnology company in San Francisco, created the registry to better understand treatment…
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Institute Developing Engineered Bacteria for Gut Diseases
17 June 2015. Engineers and medical researchers at Harvard University are designing genetically engineered bacteria that can diagnose and treat gastrointestinal disorders affecting travelers, as well as people suffering from acute or chronic gut diseases. The team from Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard developing the engineered microbes is funded by a $4.7…