Tag: NIH
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Heart-on-Chip Device Built to Screen Drugs
9 March 2015. A bioengineering team at University of California in Berkeley developed a device with cardiac tissue derived from stem cells that can test drug candidates for potentially toxic effects. Researchers from the lab of engineering professor Kevin Healy published their findings today in the journal Scientific Reports. Healy and colleagues created this device…
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Smartphones Studied to Upgrade Hearing Aids
6 February 2015. Engineers at University of Texas in Dallas are studying the potential of smartphones to boost the ability of hearing aids to help people who are hard of hearing. Electrical engineering professor Issa Panahi is leading a team of engineers and audiologists in a two-year, $522,000 project funded by National Institute on Deafness…
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NIH Grant Funding Stress-Obesity Control System
2 February 2015. A team from University of Massachusetts Medical School and Worcester Polytechnic Institute are creating a smartphone app combined with a cloud-based data store to help people who overeat due to stress control their eating. The system known as the RELAX Application Suite is funded by a 3-year, $2 million grant from National…
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Vaccine Combo Produces Ricin, Anthrax Antibodies
29 December 2014. Tests of a vaccine to prevent ricin and anthrax poisoning shows it produces long-lasting antibodies against both toxins, making a single vaccine against both bioterror agents more feasible. Results of a study by biotechnology company Soligenix Inc. in Princeton, New Jersey are reported in the January 2015 issue of the journal Vaccine…
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Trial Testing Biologic Treatment for Hepatitis D
22 December 2014. An intermediate-stage clinical trial testing a biologic treatment made by Eiger BioPharmaceuticals Inc. shows lower hepatitis D virus levels among patients taking the treatment compared to a placebo. The San Carlos, California company says the treatment, called lonafarnib, also received orphan drug status by regulatory authorities in the U.S. and Europe. Hepatitis…
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Peptide Regenerates Muscles Damaged from Spinal Cord Injury
4 December 2014. Researchers at Case Western Reserve University developed a synthetic peptide that in lab animals restores some functions in muscles damaged from spinal cord injuries. The team from the lab of CWRU neuroscientist Jerry Silver in Cleveland, Ohio published its findings yesterday in the journal Nature (paid subscription required). National Institute of Neurological…
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NIH Grant Funds Review for New Brain Cancer Diagnostics
2 December 2014. National Cancer Institute, an agency of National Institutes of Health (NIH), awarded a grant to HealthTell Inc. to validate the company’s technology for development of a simple test to diagnose brain cancers, including glioblastoma multiforme, an aggressive and malignant form of the disease. The $225,000 grant to HealthTell funds an early-stage study…
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Ebola-Marburg Vaccine Development, Testing Contract Awarded
31 October 2014. A biodefense unit of the U.S. Department of Defense awarded a contract to vaccine maker Profectus BioSciences Inc. for development and testing of a vaccine protecting against the two major Ebola strains and related Marburg viruses. The $9.5 million contract with the Baltimore company came from DoD’s Medical Countermeasure Systems-Joint Vaccine Acquisition…
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Chip Emulates Human Airway Muscles to Test Asthma Treatments
24 September 2014. Biomedical engineers at Harvard University developed a model of human airway muscles on a miniaturized chip that emulates their actions during an asthma attack. The senior author of the paper describing the airway muscles chip, Kevin Kit Parker, is also a recipient of a new National Institutes of Health grant to develop…
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Safety Trial Underway for Addiction Drug Candidate
23 September 2014. A clinical trial is underway testing the safety of a new therapy designed to treat addictions and compulsive behavior by Savant HWP, a drug development company in San Carlos, California. The study is testing the compound 18-methoxycoronaridine or 18-MC, conducted in South America by a Brazilian partner company identified as Hebron Farmaceutica…