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Campaign Seeks More Minorities in Brain Disorder Trials
13 March 2015. A new public service campaign led by former actress and restaurateur B. Smith aims to recruit more minorities in clinical trials for brain disorders, such Alzheimer’s disease, from which Smith suffers. Smith and her husband Dan Gasby are partnering in the campaign with Brain Health Registry, affiliated with University of California in…
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Stem Cells Shown to Stop Decline for Some ALS Patients
13 March 2015. An intermediate-stage clinical trial of a stem cell therapy to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, shows some patients receiving the treatments nearly stopped the decline or improved their muscle functions. Neuralstem Inc., a biotechnology company in Germantown, Maryland sponsoring the study, reported summary results yesterday. ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s…
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Second-Hand E-Cigarette Emissions Pose Health Risks
12 March 2015. Exhaled particles from electronic cigarette smokers contain nicotine and other chemicals that could pose health risks to non-smokers in the same room, according to new research. The study, by RTI International, a research institute in North Carolina, aims to provide more health information about the largely unregulated and growing e-cigarette market. E-cigarettes…
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Immunotherapy Biotech Raising $45 Million in IPO
12 March 2015. Genocea Biosciences Inc., a biotechnology company developing immunotherapies to treat genital herpes and other diseases, is raising $45 million in its initial public offering of stock. The Cambridge, Massachusetts enterprise is issuing 5,454,545 shares priced at $8.25. The company trades on the NASDAQ exchange under the symbol GNCA. As of 12:00 pm…
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Univ. Lab Creates Open-Source Intelligent Assistant
11 March 2015. A computer science lab at University of Michigan is developing an intelligent personal assistant program that responds to voice commands like Apple’s Siri and Google Now, but is freely available for use or adoption in other software. The team from Michigan’s Clarity Lab, led by professors Jason Mars and Lingjia Tang, will…
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Trial Shows Current Drug Slows Alzheimer’s Onset
11 March 2015. A clinical trial testing a current drug to treat epilepsy shows the drug can delay development of Alzheimer’s disease in its earliest stages. Results of the study, conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins University for AgeneBio Inc., two year-old pharmaceutical company in Baltimore, appear online in the journal NeuroImage: Clinical. The intermediate-stage…
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FDA Approves Antibody for Childhood Nerve Cell Cancer
10 March 2015. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved today dinutuximab, an engineered antibody to treat neuroblastoma, a rare cancer affecting nerve cells in young children. Dinutuximab is developed by United Therapeutics, a biotechnology company in Silver Spring, Maryland and marketed under the brand name Unituxin. Neuroblastoma is a cancer that develops from immature…
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MedImmune, Joslin Partner on Diabetes Research
10 March 2015. Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston and MedImmune, the biotechnology subsidiary of pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, are collaborating on research to identify new drugs to treat diabetes. While the partnership calls for MedImmune to fund research conducted at Joslin, financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Diabetes is a chronic condition where the pancreas…
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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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Funds Awarded for Astronaut Eye Disorder Technologies
9 March 2015. Three companies are each receiving $100,000 in early-stage funds from a challenge seeking technologies to diagnose or correct eye problems in space faced by astronauts. The awards are made by National Space and Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, from its Vision for Mars Challenge. The Vision…