Tag: preclinical
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Biogen, UPenn Partner in $2B Gene Therapy Research Deal
16 May 2016. The biotechnology company Biogen is collaborating with University of Pennsylvania’s medical school on research into gene therapies and editing, with payments to the university totaling as much as $2 billion. The partnership will fund research in the labs of University of Pennsylvania medical professors James Wilson and Jean Bennett, who study gene…
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Engineered Protein Advances to Treat Genetic Blood Disorders
4 May 2016. Lab tests by a biotechnology company show an engineered protein can block the actions of genes responsible for low normal hemoglobin production in people with inherited blood disorders like sickle cell disease. The findings of researchers from Acetylon Pharmaceuticals Inc. in Boston were reported in April in the journal PLoS One. Acetylon…
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Patent Granted for RNA Transcription Technology
3 May 2016. A technology that blocks RNA molecules from activating chemicals in the body suppressing the working of genes to treat or prevent disease received a U.S. patent. The Patent and Trademark Office awarded patent number 9,328,346 to five inventors and assigned the patent to the parent company of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.…
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NeuroVive, Penn Partner on Traumatic Brain Injury
26 April 2016. A pharmaceutical company in Sweden is collaborating with University of Pennsylvania’s medical school in preclinical studies of a new drug that protects against long term damage caused by traumatic brain injury. Financial terms of the agreement between NeuroVive Pharmaceutical AB in Lund, Sweden and the university were not disclosed. NeuroVive develops drugs…
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Nanoparticles Designed for Asthma, Allergy Treatments
19 April 2016. A technique for masking allergy or asthma treatments in biodegradable nanoparticles is shown in lab mice to quickly build a tolerance in the immune system for offending allergens. A medical and engineering team at Northwestern University in Chicago published its findings yesterday, 18 April, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences…
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Electric Current Shown to Reduce Wound Bacteria
18 April 2016. A bandage that sends a mild electric current through wounds was shown in tests with pigs to disrupt and reduce films of bacteria that form over wounds, to improve healing. Tests of the electric wound dressing, made by Vomaris Innovations in Tempe, Arizona, were reported at the Wound Healing Society conference that…
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Therapy Shown to Boost Immune System Against Cancer
18 April 2016. An experimental treatment was shown in lab mice to enhance immune system cells that can help immunotherapy drugs to reduce solid tumor growth. Researchers from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York and Infinity Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, Massachusetts presented their findings yesterday (17 April) at the annual meeting of American Association…
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Implanted Device Delivers Pancreatic Cancer Drugs
15 April 2016. An engineering and medical research team developed an implanted device that in lab mice delivers chemotherapy directly to cancerous tumors in the pancreas. The device, designed in a biomedical engineering lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, is described in an article appearing 31 March 2016 in the journal Biomaterials…
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Emergency Snakebite Treatment in Development
14 April 2016. A new treatment for rattlesnake bites, designed as emergency first-aid until reaching a clinic, is being developed at University of Arizona medical school in Tucson. The therapy, still in preclinical stages, is the work of anesthesiology professor Vance Nielsen and toxicologist Leslie Boyer, founder and director of Arizona’s Viper Institute — short…
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Technique Extends Bioactive Device Coating Lifetime
14 April 2016. A new process is shown to regenerate therapeutic coatings on implanted medical devices in lab tests and with animals, possibly extending the devices’ lifetimes in patients. The techniques, developed in the lab of Harvard University biomedical engineering professor Elliot Chaikof, are described in the 13 April 2016 issue of the journal Nature…