Tag: genomics
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Cellulosic Plants Engineered for Improved Biofuel Production
Researchers at the Joint BioEnergy Institute in Berkeley, California developed a process to re-engineer the cell walls of plants to make them better feedstocks for biofuels. The team led by bio-engineer Dominique Locque of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, one of the Joint BioEnergy Institute partners and a division of the U.S. Department of Energy, published…
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AstraZeneca Licenses Messenger RNA Therapy Technology
The pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca based in London is licensing genomic technology from Moderna Therapeutics, a biotechnology company in Cambridge, Massachusetts to develop treatments for heart disease, metabolic disorders, and cancer. The five-year deal has potential payout to Moderna of $420 million. Moderna Therapeutics harnesses messenger RNA, nucleic acids related to DNA that leave the cell…
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Database Enables Documentation of Rare Genetic Disorders
A new online database developed by Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston will make it possible for researchers and clinicans to collect data on diseases caused by single faulty genes. The database, known as PhenoDB is described in a recent online issue of the journal Human Mutation. PhenoDB is…
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23andMe Identifies New Genetic Nearsightedness Factors
Researchers at the consumer genetics company 23andMe in Mountain View, California found 20 new associations with myopia or nearsightedness from data provided by their customers. The team led by Nicholas Eriksson, the company’s principal scientist, published its findings online in a recent issue of the journal PLoS Genetics. Nearsightedness is a common vision condition, which…
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Merck, Luminex Partner on Alzheimer’s Screening Device
The pharmaceutical company Merck & Co and diagnostics developer Luminex Corp. in Austin, Texas will develop a device to screen patients for tests of Merck’s experimental drug to treat Alzheimer’s disease. Financial terms and timetable of the deal were not disclosed. Merck is researching a potential treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, code-named MK-8931, that inhibits an…
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Gold Nanoparticle Biosensor Developed for Simple Diagnostics
Biomedical engineers at University of Toronto in Canada developed a simple, portable DNA diagnostic process using gold nanoparticles and requiring only small specimen samples. The team of doctoral candidate Kyryl Zagorovsky and professor Warren Chan reported their findings online in a recent issue of the journal Angewandte Chemie (paid subscription required). Zagorovsky and Chan (pictured…
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Merck, Samsung to Collaborate on Biosimilars
The pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. in New Jersey and Samsung Bioepis Co. in Seoul, South Korea agreed on a deal for licensing and taking to market non-branded biologic therapies called biosimilars. While the companies released an outline of the financial arrangements, the dollar amount of the agreement was not disclosed. Biosimilars are treatments and…
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Biotechs to Partner on Cancer Therapy, Drug Production
The biotechnology companies iBio Inc. in Newark, Delaware and Caliber Biotherapeutics in Bryan, Texas agreed to combine their plant-based genomic drug discovery and development technologies to produce new therapeutics, beginning with a cancer drug. Financial aspects of the deal were not disclosed. iBio’s platform, called iBio Launch, uses plant biology to harness gene expression for…
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Personalized Chemotherapy Devised from Patients’ Tumors
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore developed a new lab technique to personalize the selection of chemotherapy drugs, with cell lines based on patients’ own tumors and genetically engineered mice. The findings of the team led by Johns Hopkins professor James Eshleman appear online in a recent issue of the journal Clinical Cancer Research…
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GE, Vanderbilt to Partner on Colon Cancer Research
GE Global Research, a division of General Electric Company, and Vanderbilt University’s Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville are collaborating on research to better understand the formation of colon cancer tumors at the level of individual cells. The study is funded by a five-year, $3.75 million grant from National Institutes of Health (NIH). Better cancer diagnosis…