Tag: genomics
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International Consortium Sequences Bread Wheat Genome
Researchers from the U.S., U.K., and Germany sequenced the genome of the strain of wheat used to make bread, an achievement that is expected to increase yields and enhance the nutritional value of this crop. The findings of the consortium, comprising researchers from 10 different institutions, appear today online in the journal Nature. U.S. Department…
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Stem Cells Devised for Rare Disease Boost Personal Medicine
Medical researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Institute in New York developed a method of screening treatments for a rare genetic disorder that the authors say could be applied to tests of stem-cell derived personalized medicines. The team led by Gabsang Lee at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Cell Engineering published…
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U.S. Patent Awarded for Protein Therapy Delivery Technology
Medgenics Inc., a biotechnology company in Misgav, Israel and San Francisco, received a U.S. patent for its technology for the sustained delivery of therapeutic proteins to treat anemia. Patent number 8,293,463 was awarded by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on 23 October 2012 to 11 inventors, including Andrew Pearlman, president of Medgenics Inc., and…
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Gene Therapy Biotech Secures $37.5 Million in Venture Funds
Applied Genetic Technologies Corp., a biotechnology company in Gainesville, Florida, gained $37.5 million in series B funds, the second round of financing after initial start-up. Alta Partners and S.R. One Ltd led the financing, with new investor Osage University Partners joining existing investors InterWest, Intersouth Partners, and MedImmune Ventures in the round. Applied Genetic Technologies…
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Swine Genome Offers Insights for Agriculture, Medicine
An analysis of the pig genome by an international consortium highlights genetic mechanisms that can improve breeding practices and show similarities with humans for development of drugs. The findings by the International Swine Genome Sequence Consortium appear online in the journals Nature and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers from North America,…
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Nanotech Strategy Developed for Solid Tumor Drug Delivery
Researchers at Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, with colleagues from Munich Technical University and Helmholtz Center Munich, engineered a gene that can generate anti-cancer agents deep inside solid cancerous tumors. The team led by Ludwig-Maximilians pharmacologist Manfred Ogris reported its findings online yesterday in the journal Molecular Therapy (paid subscription required). Ogris (pictured right) and colleagues…
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Genomics Institute to Back Umbilical Cord Stem Cell Company
Ontario Genomics Institute in Toronto, Canada is investing in Tissue Regeneration Therapeutics, also in Toronto, a company developing a technology for medical treatments with stems cells extracted from umbilical cords. Financial aspects of the investment were not disclosed. The technology developed by Tissue Regeneration Therapeutics uses human umbilical cord perivascular cells or HUCPVCs that are extracted…
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Universities, Biotechs to Research Epilepsy Treatments
A consortium of universities and biotechnology companies in Europe are developing a new strategy for treating epilepsy, a neurological disease affecting 50 million people worldwide. The group called EPIXCHANGE includes researchers from Lund University in Sweden, University of Ferrara in Italy, and the biotech companies Bioviron in France and NsGene in Denmark. Epilepsy covers a…
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Takeda Pharma to Acquire Envoy Therapeutics
Takeda Pharmaceuticals, in Osaka, Japan, will acquire the drug discovery company Envoy Therapeutics in Jupiter, Florida for $140 million. Takeda says the merger will mean moving Envoy’s management and scientific staff to Takeda’s San Diego offices after March 2013. Envoy was founded by biophysicist and 2000 Nobel prize winner Paul Greengard, and Rockefeller University colleague…
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Cloud Computing Harnessed for Cancer Data Analysis
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore will collect large volumes of cancer data, down to the level of individual cells, using cloud computing to amass and analyze the data. The team of engineering and medical researchers is led by Denis Wirtz, associate director of Johns Hopkins’s Institute for NanoBio Technology, and funded by a…