Tag: biotechnology

  • Consortium Aims to Upgrade Cell Manufacturing

    13 June 2016. A collaboration between businesses and universities outlined a strategy to develop processes and technologies for large-scale manufacturing of human cells for therapies and diagnostics. The National Cell Manufacturing Consortium, residing at Georgia Institute of Technology, announced its technology road map for advance cell manufacturing today at a White House conference on organ…

  • Process Devised to Quickly Isolate Bacteria in Lab Samples

    10 June 2016. A biomedical engineering center at Harvard University developed a process for quickly isolating staph bacteria from clinical samples for lab testing. The team led by Donald Ingber, director of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard, published its findings earlier this week in the journal PLoS One. Ingber and colleagues…

  • New Diabetic Eye Disease Drugs Shown Not Cost-Effective

    10 June 2016. An evaluation of two new biologic drugs to treat diabetic macular edema, an eye disease caused by diabetes, show the drugs do not provide enough additional benefit over much less expensive treatments to justify their higher price tags. The team led by Adam Glassman of the Jaeb Center for Health Research in…

  • Antibody Treatment Shown to Prevent Migraine

    9 June 2016. A clinical trial shows an engineered antibody in one week reduced the number of headaches in people who experienced migraines for an average of 18 years. Results of the study testing the experimental treatment appear in yesterday’s issue of the journal Neurology, published by American Academy of Neurology. Migraine is a neurological syndrome…

  • Engineered T-Cells Get Leukemia Response

    (6 June 2016) An early-stage clinical trial testing genetically engineered T-cells from the immune system, shows the treatments are effective against a form of leukemia when combined with chemotherapy drugs. Results of the trial were reported by study leader Jae Hong Park of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center on 4 June at a meeting of…

  • Biomaterials Solutions Studied for Chronic Wounds

    3 June 2016. A team of materials and medical scientists is investigating a new process of applying protein-based biomaterials to the healing of chronic wounds. The research led by materials scientists Millicent Sullivan and Kristi Kiick at University of Delaware in Newark is funded by a 4 year, $1.4 million grant from National Institute of…

  • St. Jude Hospital to Test Nanotech Flu Virus Drugs

    31 May 2016. A company developing anti-viral drugs delivered in nanoscale particles is partnering with scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital to test drug candidates to treat influenza. Financial details of the agreement between NanoViricides Inc. in Shelton, Connecticut and St. Jude hospital in Memphis were not disclosed. NanoViricides makes drugs that fight dangerous…

  • Pricing Factors Proposed for Gene Therapies

    Updated 27 May 2016. See Another Chance to Get Serious on Drug Pricing. A pediatric cancer specialist and venture capital executive argue for establishing a framework for pricing gene therapies to treat inherited and other diseases, before these treatments are approved by FDA. Stuart Orkin, a pediatric oncologist and hematologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Research Center…

  • Patent Awarded for Skin Stem Cell Regeneration Methods

    24 May 2016. Two faculty members at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts received a patent for techniques that make regeneration of human tissue with adult stem cells more direct and productive. Patent number 9,290,740 was issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in March 2016 to biomedical engineering professor Raymond Page and biotechnology professor…

  • Start-Up Licenses Genetics Technology for HIV Diagnostics

    19 May 2016. A spin-off company from Harvard University is licensing genetics research to develop more powerful tools to detect drug-resistant strains of HIV. Financial details of the agreement between the 2 year-old Aldatu Biosciences Inc. and Harvard were not disclosed. Aldatu Biosciences is the creation of pathologist Iain MacLeod and geneticist David Raiser that…