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Heart Model Devised to Implant Child’s Defibrillator
Engineers and medical researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore developed a three-dimensional computer model of a child’s heart to guide the optimal location for a defibrillator that regulates heart rhythms. The team led by biomedical engineering professor Natalia Trayanova describes the model online in The Journal of Physiology (paid subscription required). Children born with…
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Diagnostics Developer, Mt. Sinai to Partner on Biomarkers
Exosome Diagnostics and Mount Sinai medical center, both in New York, are collaborating on the discovery of genetic biomarkers to build diagnostics for inflammation, cancer, and other diseases. Financial aspects of the five-year agreement were not disclosed. Exosome Diagnostics develops diagnostics based on biomarkers derived from bodily fluids, such as blood, urine, plasma, serum, and…
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Simple Authentication Scheme Cuts Phishing, Password Theft
Computer scientists at Royal Hollaway in the U.K., a part of University of London, developed a method for verifying the identify of computer users when logging on to password-protected Web sites that reduces opportunities for stealing user credentials. Royal Hollaway professor Chris Mitchell and researcher Haitham Al-Sinani in the university’s Information Security Group describe an…
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Cancer Care Plans Help Survivors Make Lifestyle Changes
Medical researchers at University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia found online care plans encourage cancer survivors to make needed lifestyle changes to help them cope with their treatments. This finding and other results appear online this month in the journal Cancer (paid subscription required). The Institute of Medicine recommended in a 2005 report that cancer patients…
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FDA Grants Muscle-Wasting Disease Drug Breakthrough Status
The global pharmaceutical company Novartis says the Food and Drug Administration granted its therapy candidate bimagrumab breakthrough status to treat a rare muscle-wasting condition for which there are currently no approved treatments. FDA designates new drugs for serious or life-threatening conditions as breakthroughs to expedite their review in the agency. The disorder is known as…
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Trial Testing Non-Invasive Neurostimulation for Migraine
A clinical trial is underway testing a hand-held device developed by Electrocore LLC in Basking Ridge, New Jersey that stimulates the vagus nerve as a treatment for migraine and cluster headaches. The company says it completed enrollment of 60 patients at six sites in the U.S., with results of the study expected in the second…
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Data Review Indicates Drug Improves Brain Cancer Survival
Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota found patients who took the drug bevacizumab for the brain cancer glioblastoma lived somewhat longer than patients with the disease before the drug’s FDA approval in 2009. The team of neurologists Derek Johnson, Heather Leeper, and Joon Uhm describe their findings in a recent issue of the journal…
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Welcome Science and Enterprise. Farewell Science Business.
As regular readers may notice, we’ve changed the name of this blog to Science and Enterprise. Let me explain why we did it. Earlier this month we received a letter from a trademark attorney representing Science Business Publishing Ltd. that appears to be a consulting company based in the U.K. and publisher of the Web…
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Simpler Internal Organ, Duct Imaging Sought in Challenge
A new challenge on InnoCentive is looking for simpler tools or methods for imaging or conducting treatments in small ducts connected to the liver, gall bladder, or pancreas. The competition has a a prize purse of $25,000 and a deadline of 13 October 2013 for submissions (free registration required). InnoCentive in Waltham, Massachusetts conducts open-innovation,…
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NSF Awards $20 Million for Cyber Security, Privacy R&D
National Science Foundation is funding new research to better secure the nation’s health information technology, simplify and improve control of security for cloud computing, and clarify an individual’s privacy on the Web. The awards, made under the agency’s Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace program, total $20 million and are supporting three initiatives, each shared among multiple…