Month: December 2015
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Trial Underway Testing Flesh-Eating Bacteria Drug
7 December 2015. A late-stage clinical trial began enrolling patients to test a new treatment for rare, but dangerous bacterial infections that destroy soft tissue and muscle. The trial is testing AB103, a biologic therapy developed by the biotechnology company Atox Bio in Ness Ziona, Israel. AB103 is designed to treat necrotizing soft tissue infections,…
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Challenge Seeks Nutrient Recycling from Livestock Waste
4 December 2015. A public-private consortium seeks techniques for recycling crop nutrients from livestock waste in an open-innovation challenge paying $20,000 in prizes. The competition, sponsored by Environmental Protection Agency and a number of partners in government, academia, not-for-profit organizations, and industry has a deadline of 15 January 2016 for initial submissions. The challenge itself…
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NIH Funding New Robotics for Disabled, Children
4 December 2015. National Institutes of Health is funding research and development of new robotic devices to help older people or those with disabilities and serve as companions for children. Agencies in NIH plan to spend $2.2 million on these cooperative robotic, or co-robot, devices over the next five years, as part of the National…
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Study: Records Database Offers Clinical Trial Savings
3 December 2015. A cost-benefit analysis shows pharmaceutical companies could reap sizable savings in their planning and conduct of clinical trials if they made regular use of a European electronic health records database. The study, led by Data Mining Institute in Geneva, Switzerland with co-authors from several pharmaceutical companies, appears in the January 2016 issue…
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Antibodies Reduce Whooping Cough Severity, Infections
3 December 2015. Two engineered antibodies were shown in tests with lab animals to reduce the severity of whooping cough symptoms and white blood cell counts indicating infection. The team from the protein engineering lab of Jennifer Maynard at University of Texas in Austin and Synthetic Biologics, a biotechnology company in Rockville, Maryland, published its…
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Chlamydia Vaccine Shown Working in Lab Tests
2 December 2015. An experimental vaccine to prevent chlamydia was shown in tests with lab mice to prevent pelvic inflammation and clear bacteria more than mice not receiving the vaccine. The vaccine, given through the nose, is made by NanoBio Corp., a biopharmaceutical company in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Chlamydia is a sexually transmitted disease that…
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Wearable Personal Instruction System Being Developed
2 December 2015. A device that provides personal step-by-step instruction to individuals as they undertake various tasks is being developed by computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon University. The system, designed in the lab of professor Mahadev Satyanarayanan, is funded by a four-year $2.8 million grant from National Science Foundation. Satyanarayanan and colleagues are seeking a…
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CRISPR-Cas9 Gene Editing Made More Accurate
1 December 2015. Medical and engineering researchers enhanced emerging CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing techniques, reducing erroneous off-target edits with an engineered enzyme. The team from the Broad Institute, a medical research center at Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, published its findings today online in Science…
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Implanted Sensor to Measure Blood Sugar in Development
1 December 2015. An engineering group at University of Texas in Arlington is developing a system for people with diabetes to measure their blood glucose levels without taking repeated blood drops throughout the day. The work in the lab of biomaterials professor Kyungsuk Yum is funded by a $100,00 grant from the Texas Medical Research Collaborative.…