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Biotechs to Partner on Cancer Therapy, Drug Production
The biotechnology companies iBio Inc. in Newark, Delaware and Caliber Biotherapeutics in Bryan, Texas agreed to combine their plant-based genomic drug discovery and development technologies to produce new therapeutics, beginning with a cancer drug. Financial aspects of the deal were not disclosed. iBio’s platform, called iBio Launch, uses plant biology to harness gene expression for…
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USDA Funding Research on Sustainable Organic Rice Farming
Texas AgriLife Research, a division of Texas A&M University in College Station, is conducting research on sustainable techniques to improve yields of high-quality organic rice. The work led by Fugen Dou, a soil and crop science professor at AgriLife’s lab in Beaumont, is funded by two U.S. Department of Agriculture grants totaling $952,000 that run…
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Lozenges, Tobacco-Free Snuff Help Tobacco Chewers Quit
Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota found nicotine lozenges and tobacco-free snuff could get smokeless tobacco users to quit their habits, even when some users started out with no intention of quitting. The team led by Mayo Clinic’s Jon Ebbert published its findings in this month’s issue of the journal Addictive Behaviors (paid…
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Lockheed Martin, Nanyang Univ. to Partner on Nanotech Copper
Lockheed Martin Corp. in Bethesda, Maryland and Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU) will collaborate on research involving a new type of copper based on nanotechnology. The laboratory established under the agreement signed today will have initial funding of $10 million over four years. The NTU-Lockheed Martin Joint Laboratory at the university’s Yunnan campus will employ…
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Implant Drug Delivery Company Lands $9.5M Venture Funds
PolyActiva in Melbourne, Australia, a developer of a nanoscale drug delivery technology for medical implants, raised $AU 9.2 million ($US 9.5 million) in series B venture funds, the second financing round after initial start-up. Investors include the Australian venture funds Medical Research Commercialisation Fund, Brandon Biosciences Fund 1, and Yuuwa Capital, as well as a…
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Roche, Biotech to Partner on Growth Hormone Disorders
The Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche will license a compound developed by biotechnology company Chiasma Inc., based in New York and Jerusalem, to treat the hormonal disease acromegaly and neuroendocrine tumors. The deal has a total potential value to Chiasma of $595 million. Chiasma develops drugs for oral administration previously available in injection form. The company’s…
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Process Replaces Platinum with Iron as Fuel Cell Catalyst
Chemists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington designed a process that makes it possible for iron to replace expensive platinum as a catalyst to make electricity in hydrogen fuel cells. The team led by PNNL’s Morris Bullock published its findings online in yesterday’s issue of the journal Nature Chemistry (paid subscription required). Bullock,…
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Challenge Seeks Discontinued Drugs to Treat Rare Diseases
A new challenge on InnoCentive asks for ideas on repurposing drugs no longer in development as therapies for rare diseases other than cancer. The sponsor of the competition, an unnamed biopharmaceutical company, will award a total purse of $10,000 to the best proposals. The deadline for submissions is 11 March 2013 (free registration required). Rare…
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Personalized Chemotherapy Devised from Patients’ Tumors
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore developed a new lab technique to personalize the selection of chemotherapy drugs, with cell lines based on patients’ own tumors and genetically engineered mice. The findings of the team led by Johns Hopkins professor James Eshleman appear online in a recent issue of the journal Clinical Cancer Research…
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FDA Approves Electronic Artificial Retina Implant Device
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first implant device to restore some visual perception for adults with retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic disease that damages the retina. The Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System is made by Second Sight Medical Products Inc. in Sylmar, California. Retinitis pigmentosa is an eye disease caused by genetic defects…