Feature Channels: Biotech

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Trending news releases with the most views in a single day. Topics include:sustainability, COPD, neurology, cancer, sleep, food, and genetics.

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Trending news releases with the most views in a single day. Topics include: robotics, nicotine and alcohol, stem cells, vision, cancer, pregnancy, racial disparities in smoking risk, and herbal therapy for cardiac hypertrophy

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New paper in the journal, Molecular Therapy – Methods & Clinical Development, describes how Melligen cell lines coupled with a live cell encapsulation technology such as Cell-in-a-Box® can reverse Type I Diabetes per a team at the University of Technology Sydney and the University of Sydney in Australia.

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By engineering antibacterial enzymes, Dartmouth investigators led by Karl Griswold, PhD are using novel strategies to target the prevalent drug-resistant bacterium Staphylococcus aureus.

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CENTOGENE AG (“CENTOGENE”) announces the launch of the world’s largest genetic mutation database for rare diseases, CentoMD®.

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In a new study, researchers report progress toward perfecting a radical new method of producing vaccines using genetically modified corn. The approach could lead to an oral hepatitis B vaccine that requires no refrigeration and costs less than $1 per dose to manufacture.

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Findings Shed Light on the Development of Blood Cancers

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New research from an Iowa State University economist found consumers were willing to spend more for biotech potato products with reduced levels of a chemical compound linked to cancer.

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University of Washington researchers have developed a new injectable polymer that strengthens blood clots, called PolySTAT. Administered in a simple shot, the polymer finds unseen injuries and has the potential to keep trauma patients from bleeding to death before reaching medical care.

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A plastic used in filters and tubing has an unusual trait: It can produce electricity when pulled or pressed. This ability has been used in small ways, but now researchers are coaxing fibers of it to make even more electricity for a wider range of applications from green energy to “artificial muscles.” They will report progress on a novel form of this plastic at the 249th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.

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Water-borne algal blooms from farm fertilizer runoff can destroy aquatic life and clog rivers and lakes, but scientists will report today that they are working on a way to clean up these environmental scourges and turn them into useful products. The algae could serve as a feedstock for biofuels, and the feedstock leftovers could be recycled back into farm soil nutrients.

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Squid are the ultimate camouflage artists, blending almost flawlessly with their backgrounds so that unsuspecting prey can’t detect them. Using a protein that’s key to this process, scientists have designed “invisibility stickers” that could one day help soldiers disguise themselves, even when sought by enemies with tough-to-fool infrared cameras.

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Biocompatible and biodegradable, cellulose materials are being studied for use in high-performance composites and optical films, and to deliver medicine in pills. But before a material can be commercialized, its impact on human health must be determined.

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Researchers at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research have developed a high-resolution method that can precisely and reliably map individual transcription factor binding sites in the genome, vastly outperforming standard techniques

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Nanometer-sized “drones” that deliver a special type of healing molecule to fat deposits in arteries could become a new way to prevent heart attacks caused by atherosclerosis.

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Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine used algae as a mini-factory to produce a malaria parasite protein. The algae-produced protein, paired with an immune-boosting cocktail suitable for use in humans, generated antibodies in mice that nearly eliminated mosquito infection by the malaria parasite. The method is the newest attempt to develop a vaccine that prevents transmission of the malaria parasite from host to mosquito.

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While methods for identifying immunogenic hotspots, or epitopes, are evolving rapidly, technologies to redesign the hotspots while maintaining biotherapeutic activity and stability are far less developed.

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NIBIB-funded researchers have developed a novel 3D vaccine that could provide a more effective way to harness the immune system to fight cancer as well as infectious diseases. The vaccine spontaneously assembles into a scaffold once injected under the skin and is capable of recruiting, housing, and manipulating immune cells to generate a powerful immune response. The vaccine was recently found to be effective in delaying tumor growth in mice.

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To help people with hormone deficiencies, scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have developed a potential new therapy based on an unlikely model: immune molecules from cows. Their research shows that human hormones and antibodies can be fused together—mimicking long, stalk-like cow antibodies.

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Scientists will examine living cells at a molecular level to find out how cells become cancerous, how viruses attack animals and humans and how plants can capture more nitrogen through a new collaborative research center called Biochemical Spatio-temporal NeTwork Resource (BioSNTR). The center brings together South Dakota plant and animal scientists, biochemists and biomedical engineers to improve human health and agriculture as part of the state’s science and technology plan.

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Researchers identify signaling molecules in intestinal stem cells that can lead to tumors if left unregulated. The findings suggest a new approach to targeting intestinal cancers.

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To prepare for people for safely journeying into space for extended periods of time in the future, it's crucial to gain a better understanding of the biophysics involved within reduced gravity and microgravity environments. To this end, a team of University of Delaware researchers is preparing to send transparent microscopic worms called "Caenorhabditas elegans" up to the International Space Station.

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Richard Kim, MD, a cardiac surgeon at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, recently used a 3D printed heart as a model to plan a life-saving procedure for his young patient, Esther Perez.

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People’s perceptions of the cost of a drug may affect how much they benefit from the drug, even when they are receiving only a placebo, according to a new study of people with Parkinson’s disease published in the January 28, 2015 online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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By establishing protein design algorithms that simultaneously optimize drug candidates for both decreased immunogenic epitope content and high level stability and activity, researchers have established a novel testing platform.

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A team of oncology and genetic researchers from Georgetown Lombardi and electrical and computer engineers and bioinformatics specialists from Virginia Tech collaborated in an effort designed to study the living cell as an information processing system.

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An international team of researchers says climate change, the loss of biosphere integrity, land-system change, and altered biogeochemical cycles like phosphorus and nitrogen runoff have all passed beyond levels that put humanity in a “safe operating space.” Civilization has crossed four of nine so-called planetary boundaries as the result of human activity, according to a report published today in Science by the 18-member research team.

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A stem cell capable of regenerating both bone and cartilage has been identified in bone marrow of mice.

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In a new study researchers at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have uncovered how melanoma becomes resistant to a promising new drug combo therapy utilizing BRAF+MEK inhibitors in patients after an initial period of tumor shrinkage.

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While considered a delicacy in some parts of the world, snails have found a more intriguing use to scientists and the medical profession offering a plethora of research possibilities.

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Innovative scoring system uses “Ann Arbor GVHD score” to better predict how patients will respond, minimize side effects

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Enzymes linked to diabetes and obesity appear to play key roles in arthritis and leukemia, potentially opening up new avenues for treating these diverse diseases, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

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UCLA researchers have for the first time developed a method that defines many stages of reprogramming skin or blood cells into pluripotent stem cells. Study analyzed the reprogramming process at the single-cell level on a daily basis. Results determined that stages of cell change were the same across different reprogramming systems and cell types analyzed.

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Salk scientists made a more effective diet pill

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Cell biologists at UT Southwestern Medical Center have targeted telomeres with a small molecule called 6-thiodG that takes advantage of the cell’s ‘biological clock’ to kill cancer cells and shrink tumor growth.

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Diagnosing HIV and other infectious diseases presents unique challenges in remote locations that lack electric power, refrigeration, and appropriately trained health care staff. To address these issues, researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have developed a low-cost, electricity-free device capable of detecting the DNA of infectious pathogens, including HIV-1.

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Ice poses major impediments to winter travel, accumulating on car windshields and airplane wings and causing countless unsuspecting pedestrians to dramatically lose their balance. A team of researchers from Arizona State University (ASU) has developed a new way to prevent ice buildup on surfaces like airplane wings, finding inspiration in an unusual source: the poison dart frog.

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Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have developed a way to chemically disguise RNAi drugs so that they are able to enter cells. Once inside, cellular machinery converts these disguised drug precursors — called siRNNs — into active RNAi drugs.

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New and more effective treatments for diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) and venous leg ulcers (VLUs) are sorely needed. One of the today’s most promising approaches harnesses regenerative medicine, specifically cell therapy. Israel-based Macrocure Ltd.’s lead product, CureXcell™, harnesses living white blood cells, including macrophages, neutrophils and lymphocytes, that are crucial to initiating, promoting and completing the process of cellular regeneration and wound healing for both of these conditions.

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The scientific community has made significant strides in recent years in identifying important genetic contributors to malignancy and developing therapeutic agents that target altered genes and proteins. A recent approach to treat cancer called synthetic lethality takes advantage of genetic alterations in cancer cells that make them more susceptible to certain drugs. Alan F. List, MD, president and CEO of Moffitt Cancer Center, co-authored an article on synthetic lethality featured in the October 30 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

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Paul Brindley, Ph.D., professor of microbiology, immunology, and tropical medicine, and scientific director of the Research Center for Neglected Diseases of Poverty at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, co-authored a perspective in the journal Science, calling for researchers to adapt new technologies to research neglected parasitic flatworms.

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Six Case Western Reserve scientists are part of an international team that has discovered two compounds that show promise in decreasing inflammation in diseases such as ulcerative colitis and arthritis. The compounds appear to curtail inflammation-triggering signals from RIPK2. These findings appear in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

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In a first step toward future human therapies, researchers at The Saban Research Institute of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles have shown that esophageal tissue can be grown in vivo from both human and mouse cells.

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Sandia National Laboratories researcher Jason Wheeler has been working to make prostheses more comfortable in a twofold approach: sensors that detect how the prosthesis fits and a system to make the fit better. He points out it doesn't matter how high-tech a prosthesis is if it's not comfortable.

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Researchers have developed a technique to jump-start the body's systems for creating blood vessels, opening the door for potential new treatments for diseases whose impacts include amputation and blindness.

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Cancer vaccines have recently emerged as a promising approach for killing tumor cells before they spread. But so far, most clinical candidates haven't worked that well. Now, scientists have developed a new way to deliver vaccines that successfully stifled tumor growth when tested in laboratory mice. And the key, they report in the journal ACS Nano, is in the vaccine's unique stealthy nanoparticles.

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A team led by the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory has unlocked the enzymatic synthesis process of rare sugars, which are useful in developing drugs with low side effects using a process more friendly to the environment.

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Researchers sequence the entire genome of the Clostridium autoethanogenum bacterium, which is used to sustainably produce fuel and chemicals from a range of raw materials, including gases derived from biomass and industrial wastes.