Month: April 2016
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On the Road Again
21 April 2016. We’ll be traveling for the rest of the week, so Science & Enterprise will not have any posts today or Friday. We’ll resume our regular posting on Monday, 25 April. * * *
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NIH Closes Two Clinical Facilities for Sterility Issues
20 April 2016. National Institutes of Health closed two of its clinical facilities found not in compliance with safety and quality standards that could put patients at risk. Facilities at NIH closed for not meeting Current Good Manufacturing Practice standards are a cell therapy production lab at National Cancer Institute and a production center for…
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U.S. Energy Use Declines in 2015, Renewables Gain
20 April 2016. Energy use by Americans in their homes and businesses declined in 2015 from the previous year, due to a sharp drop in coal burned for electric power, among other factors. The findings were published in an annual accounting of national energy supply and demand by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, based on data…
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Software Detects DNA Mutations in Single Cells
19 April 2016. A new computer program detects genetic variations in individual cells, rather than current methods that require analyzing DNA in millions of cells. The program, named Monovar, is described by geneticists and bioinformatics specialists at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in the 18 April issue of the journal Nature Methods (paid subscription required). Monovar…
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Nanoparticles Designed for Asthma, Allergy Treatments
19 April 2016. A technique for masking allergy or asthma treatments in biodegradable nanoparticles is shown in lab mice to quickly build a tolerance in the immune system for offending allergens. A medical and engineering team at Northwestern University in Chicago published its findings yesterday, 18 April, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences…
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Electric Current Shown to Reduce Wound Bacteria
18 April 2016. A bandage that sends a mild electric current through wounds was shown in tests with pigs to disrupt and reduce films of bacteria that form over wounds, to improve healing. Tests of the electric wound dressing, made by Vomaris Innovations in Tempe, Arizona, were reported at the Wound Healing Society conference that…
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Therapy Shown to Boost Immune System Against Cancer
18 April 2016. An experimental treatment was shown in lab mice to enhance immune system cells that can help immunotherapy drugs to reduce solid tumor growth. Researchers from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York and Infinity Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, Massachusetts presented their findings yesterday (17 April) at the annual meeting of American Association…
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Challenge Seeks Diabetic Kidney Disease Treatments
15 April 2016. A challenge on InnoCentive is asking for new techniques to deliver drugs to specialized kidney cells in patients with kidney damage caused by diabetes. The competition has a total purse of $20,000 and a deadline of 13 May 2016 for submissions. The sponsor of the challenge, pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim, is also…
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Implanted Device Delivers Pancreatic Cancer Drugs
15 April 2016. An engineering and medical research team developed an implanted device that in lab mice delivers chemotherapy directly to cancerous tumors in the pancreas. The device, designed in a biomedical engineering lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, is described in an article appearing 31 March 2016 in the journal Biomaterials…
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Emergency Snakebite Treatment in Development
14 April 2016. A new treatment for rattlesnake bites, designed as emergency first-aid until reaching a clinic, is being developed at University of Arizona medical school in Tucson. The therapy, still in preclinical stages, is the work of anesthesiology professor Vance Nielsen and toxicologist Leslie Boyer, founder and director of Arizona’s Viper Institute — short…