Obama set restore stem cell funding on Monday
This would be good news for California researchers and the stem cell area in general. Finally, some change in the right direction.
Scientists close to universal vaccine for flu
From AFP: “Scientists on Sunday unveiled lab-made human antibodies that can disable several types of influenza, including highly-lethal H5N1 bird flu and the “Spanish Flu” strain that killed tens of millions in 1918. Tested in mice, the antibodies work by
More on gene therapy for HIV
An American living in Berlin got a bone marrow transplant that seems to have cleared up his HIV. Read more here.
Human gene therapy trials for AIDS begin
Reuters reports: “California biotechnology company Sangamo BioSciences Inc. said on Monday it will start human testing of a new approach to treating the AIDS virus that involves deliberately damaging the patient’s DNA. The approach is based on research that has
Finally, birth control drugs for men
According to Fox News: “Men in Sydney, Australia will be among the first in the world to try a new contraceptive giving them control over their own fertility. ANZAC Research Institute at Concord Hospital has begun testing a new twice-monthly
Learning from cancer resistant dwarfs
Valter Longo, associate professor of gerontology and biology at USC Davis is trying to develop drugs that mimic the same mutations that protect Laron dwarfs from cancer. Longo is also the same researcher that is investigating whether starvation makes chemotherapy
World’s first pregnancy from using new IVF egg screening tech
From the Guardian: A British woman has become the first in the world to conceive using a new IVF technique that could more than double the success rate of pregnancies. The 41-year-old woman was treated after suffering two miscarriages and
A virus may make you fat
According to a new study, a virus called AD-36 may give you cold like symptoms, but also make your fat cells multiply. From the Daily Express: “Professor Nikhil Dhurandhar, of Pennington Biomedical Research Centre in Louisiana, US, who led the
Injectable artificial bone developed
According to Cosmos Magazine: “Artificial ‘injectable bone’ that flows like toothpaste, and hardens in the body, has been invented by British scientists. This new regenerative medicine technology provides a scaffold for the formation of blood vessels and bone tissue, and
Eli Lilly looks towards personalized medicine
According to the Arizona Republic, “The chairman of Eli Lilly & Co. said the future of the pharmaceutical industry rests not with blockbuster drugs but with targeted therapies that work for smaller groups of people based on their biological makeup.”
Pfizer is getting into stem cell research
From Bloomberg News: “Doctors may someday slow or reverse the aging process with drugs that stimulate the body to repair itself as a result of research undertaken by Pfizer Inc. Pfizer, the world’s largest drugmaker, will spend $100 million during
Why science foundations should be run like businesses
This is a great article by Joe Nocera of the New York Times on the effectiveness of bringing a business mindset to disease research. He interviews Michael J. Fox and Andy Grove on how the best ways to run a
New camera pill by Philips
According to Cnet News: “Philips Research is out with a new intelligent camera pill that can be electronically preprogrammed to deliver targeted doses of medicine to patients with digestive disorders such as Crohn’s disease, colitis, and colon cancer. The device
Now there’s a ‘virtual rat’ for drug trials
From Financial Times: “A Sheffield company has launched a “virtual rat” computer programme, which it claims will mimic drug trials on animals. Simcyp, spun out of Sheffield University, has specialised for the past seven years in creating virtual populations, essentially
Sequencing the Human Genome for $5000
Complete Genomics, a startup based in Mountain View, says it can sequence an entire genome for $1000 in materials costs and will sell it for $5000 to cover the costs of labor etc. If that’s correct, they should be in
Gene therapy restores sight
Here’s the story from Wired. “With the help of gene therapy, two people who once were blind now can see.[…] Cideciyan’s study, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is one of three simultaneous trials of
Maybe 100 glasses of wine aren’t necessary?
Longevinex, a company that makes nutracuticals, recently took issue with the idea that large doses of resveratrol help fight the aging process. Instead, they say that lower doses work better when combined with other substances. In discussing their product, they
Innovation slashes price of genetics test
Popular genetics testing firm 23andMe just got cheaper b/c of upgrades to the chips it uses to do the tests (now it’s $399 compared with $999). Here’s the story.
Cheap, clean water using nanotech
Researchers Peter Majewski and Chiu Ping ‘Candace’ Chan in South Australia “have discovered a simple way to remove bacteria and other contaminants from water using tiny particles of pure silica coated with an active nano-material.” Here’s the news story.
Exercise in a pill?
The Salk Institute’s Ron Evans just released a study where certain drugs trick a mouse’s body into thinking it exercised. Sounds a bit matrix-like to me, but if it could work on humans without side effects, the demand would be