#First Artificial Ribosome Designed, University of Illinois Researchers Reveal Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago
and Northwestern University have engineered a tethered ribosome that works nearly as well as the authentic cellular component,
The engineered ribosome may enable the production of new drugs and next-generation biomaterials and lead to a better understanding of how ribosomes function.
The artificial ribosome, called Ribo-T, was created in the laboratories of Alexander Mankin, director of the UIC College of Pharmacy's Center for Biomolecular Sciences
and Northwestern's Michael Jewett, assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering. The human-made ribosome may be able to be manipulated in the laboratory to do things natural ribosomes cannot do.
Ribo-T may be able to be tuned to produce unique and functional polymers for exploring ribosome functions
or producing designer therapeutics--and perhaps one day even non-biological polymers. No one has developed ever something of this nature."
"We felt like there was a small--very small--chance Ribo-T could work, but we did not really know,
"Our new protein-making factory holds promise to expand the genetic code in a unique and transformative way, providing exciting opportunities for synthetic biology and biomolecular engineering,
#Soon, a single flu shot may offer universal immunity! A single vaccine that immunizes against all types of influenza may soon be a reality,
after a team of scientists from Australia and China have discovered how the body's immunity cells remember flu viruses. The study published in the journal Nature Communications elaborated that body's CD8 cells can memorize strains of influenza
and destroy them. The teams from Australia's University of Melbourne and Shanghai's Fudan University had worked together during the first outbreak of avian flu in China in 2013.
University of Melbourne's associate professor Ms Katherine Kedzierska recently said that during the outbreak 99 percent of people with the H7n9 virus were hospitalized,
while 30 percent died.""After collecting samples from infected patients, we found that people who couldn't make these T-cell flu assassins were told dying,
Researchers said that the breakthrough could lead to the development of a vaccine that can fight all new influenza viruses. Professor Xu,
who co-led the study from Fudan University, China, said this study would significantly enlighten T-cell based vaccine development and immune intervention during severe influenza infection in the future.
Professor Elizabeth Hartland, head of the department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Melbourne added that the international collaboration has brought together the immunological expertise in Melbourne
and the clinical knowledge in Shanghai to produce a study of much higher impact than could be achieved individually."
"It exemplifies the approach we are taking at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity,
#Eisai launches In-house anticancer agent in Japan Japan's leading pharmaceutical company Eisai Co. Ltd. has launched its in-house developed novel anticancer agent Lenvima Capsule 4 mg
and 10 mg (lenvatinib mesylate, Lenvima) as a treatment for unresectable thyroid cancer in Japan on May 20, 2015.
Lenvima is the first molecular targeted treatment in Japan approved with an indication for unresectable thyroid cancer
which covers differentiated thyroid cancer as well as medullary thyroid carcinoma and anaplastic thyroid carcinoma. Discovered at Eisai's Tsukuba Research Laboratories
and developed in-house, Lenvima is administered an orally molecular targeted agent that selectively inhibits the activities of several different molecules including VEGFR,
which are involved especially in tumor angiogenesis and proliferation of thyroid cancer. Furthermore, Lenvima has been confirmed through X-ray co-crystal structural analysis to demonstrate a new binding mode (Type V) to VEGFR2,
and received a positive opinion from the European Medicines Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use in March 2015.
#Oncosil Medical introduces new device that treats cancer The global market for Pancreatic cancer is $1 billion,
and for HCC Liver Cancer an additional $1. 4 billionsingapore: Australia-based lifesciences company Oncosil Medical recently announced the commercialization of its device-Oncosil in the European union.
Oncosil is device that provides localized radiation treatment for cancer, and is the company's lead product candidate.
Oncosil, implantable nuclear medicine (radiotherapy) device, has been piloted successfully for treating pancreatic and liver cancer. The device was found to be safe and effective in laboratory studies
and has demonstrated clinically target tumor regression (tumour shrinkage) in both solid tumor indications of pancreatic and liver cancer.
We are excited very to be in the forefront of potentially a new radiation treatment for the dreaded disease of pancreatic and liver cancer."
"The company also announced the appointment of Professor Pierce Chow as chairman to lead primary liver cancer-hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)- Scientific Advisory board d
#Re-engineered antibiotic could fight drug-resistant bacteria The US scientists have created a promising second-generation antibiotic to fight against the bacteria that commonly cause respiratory and other infections,
which also includes the sexually transmitted gonorrhea disease. Researchers have led by St jude Children's Research Hospital,
have developed the antibiotics by changing the chemical structure of Spectinomycin, an old and weak antibiotic
and children globally,"said Mr Richard Lee, corresponding author, St jude Children's Research Hospital. In the study, the scientists have constructed based on the research
In the laboratory, the Spectinomycin analogs have blocked the growth of pneumococcal bacteria strains which are resistant to commonly used antibiotics.
The second-generation Spectinomycins demonstrated an increased in antibacterial activity against several other commonly caused respiratory infections such as Haemophilus influenza and Moraxella catarrhalis.
which are mostly responsible for the cases like Legionnaires'disease and other sexually transmitted diseases such as gonorrhea and chlamydia.
how Spectinomycin binds to the ribosomes of clinically important bacteria with a focus on producing compounds that would work on a broader field of disease-causing bacteria."
#Detecting potent tumors using a smartphone! Ms Maryam Sadeghi shows off an early version of Molescope (Picture courtesy:
http://www. sfu. ca) Simon Fraser University Phd alumna Ms Maryam Sadeghi has developed Molescope, an innovative hand-held tool that uses a smartphone to monitor skin for signs of cancer.
Ms Sadeghi, who laid the groundwork for the device during her Phd thesis research, has spent three years transitioning from academic research to her start-up venture, Metaoptima Technology.
This is exactly what I imagined doing as a student and now my vision is being realized through the launch of Molescope,
Molescope comprises a mini-microscope that attaches to a smartphone, an app (ios, Android, or web compatible) and a cloud-based analytical platform called Dermengine.
Once people take high-quality, high-resolution images of suspicious moles or skin abnormalities, they can archive images
and communicate concerns with others.
#New device promises to detect cancer in 3 min! Singapore: Japanese researchers claim that they have developed a new device that can detect cancer from a drop of blood in just three minutes!
The device developed as a result of collaboration between Kobe-based medical device manufacturer My Tech researchers from Showa University uses a biochip,
a sensor comprising multiple tiny test sites. The chip, known as proteo, functions by attracting a faintly luminous substance found in cancer patients,
even when the cancer is at a very early stage.""We diagnosed without any errors
whether the tumor is benign or malignant in a study of 20 patients,"said Mr Yuki Hasegawa of My Tech.
Mr Hiroaki Ito, a researcher from Showa University, said the preliminary data suggests that the device could be more accurate and effective than existing blood tests."
"Currently, blood testing can only detect around 10 to 20 percent of cancers. In contrast, we are expecting to detect as much as 90 percent.""
""Most cancers are detectable only after they have developed for 15 to 20 years. Our technology allows diagnosing much earlier than that,
even within one year after they develop,"concluded Mr Hasegawa a
#No more needles, no more pain! Vaccination will no longer be a painful process as researchers from Japan's Osaka University have developed a new technique that can deliver vaccines without needles.
The new method will encourage vaccination thus aiding in reducing global disease burden. The technique was found to be safe and effective in lab testssingapore:
Vaccination will no longer be a painful process as researchers from Japan's Osaka University have developed a new technique that can deliver vaccines without needles.
The new method will encourage vaccination thus aiding in reducing global disease burden. Through this technology, vaccines are delivered simply by laying a tiny patch onto a person's finger,
before it dissolves into their skin.""We were excited to see that our new microneedle patch is
just as effective as the needle-delivered flu vaccines, and in some cases even more effective,"said Professor Nakagawa, one of the authors of the Osaka University study.
The results of the trials are reported in a paper, linical study and stability assessment of a novel transcutaneous influenza vaccination using a dissolving microneedle patch,
'published this month in Biomaterials. The authors further explained that the new delivery mechanism uses a dissolvable material,
meaning that when it is placed onto the skin it will dissolve straight away, not leaving any fragments behind,
thus being very safe to administer t
#Approval for AIDS Vaccine at Canadian University The Food and Drug Administration has given Canadian researchers approval to test a vaccine for HIV/AIDS on humans.
Researchers from the University of Western Ontario are hopeful that with further tests, a vaccine could be on the market in about five years.
Similar to the approaches used to develop vaccines for polio, influenza, rabies and Hepatitis a, the vaccine is the first based on a genetically modified,
killed whole virus and is the only HIV vaccine currently under development in Canada, and one of the only few in the world.
Beginning next month a clinical trial on 40 HIV-positive volunteers will begin. Following the trials,
tests will begin on 6, 600 HIV-negative but high-risk category volunteers. These tests will focus on immune responses and effectiveness of the vaccine in two more phases s
#Doggonn It! This Kitty May be Researchers#New Best friend The glow-in-the-dark cat is out of the bag.
Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota have modified genetically domestic cats to resist the feline form of AIDS.
As reported in the journal Nature Methods this new achievement is a milestone in the ongoing quest to protect humans from the virus
. And yes these kitties glow in the dark. A green fluorescent protein was added to a gene from rhesus macaque monkeys that is known to restrict the feline and human form of the disease.
This method allows researchers to easily determine whether the gene had been incorporated successfully into cat DNA.
If the cats glowed under a special light the transfer and expression was successful. Even better news is that the transgenic cats have passed successfully both traits (glowing and resistance) along to their offspring.
In other words the manipulated DNA is inherited now an trait. Glow in the dark cats are nothing new
#but that doesn#t mean I don t want one. The real news here is the potential for developing disease resistant genetic lines.
And maybe just maybe we#re one step closer to effectively combating this terrible disease b
#State Deficits to Shrink & Taxes Drop-Good News for Biotech Forecasters at the National Conference of State Legislatures2011 Legislative Summit expect a dramatic reduction of state deficits in the coming years,
along with business-friendly tax-cuts. The projections are based on a survey of budget officials in all 50 states last month,
said Corina Eckl, director of state services for NCSL. Eckl also noted an emerging trend in
which state governors and legislatures are allowing for the expiration of temporary business taxes. Notably, the Michigan Business Tax was eliminated
and replaced with a six percent corporate income tax that essentially exempts small business. North dakota has also cut the corporate income tax rate
while Indiana and Arizona will soon phase in similar tax cuts. Florida also raised the corporate income tax standard exemption from $5, 000 to $25, 000.
Unfortunately these corporate tax cuts do not provide much-needed capital to small biotech companies because their lack of profits makes tax benefits unredeemable.
Most emerging biotech companies with promising scientific innovation are small, research-intensive and not yet profitable because they do not have approved an FDA product on the market.
Biotech start-ups generally struggle to raise capital to finance their research, and BIO advocates two important policies that enable them to continue critical R&d of advancements and breakthroughs.
The biotech industry has shrunk dramatically in recent years based primarily on the continued tight capital markets and increased aversion to risk on the part of investors.
As a result, scores of small companies have shut down operations and closed their doors. Eckl evidenced that the worst may be behind most states in that revenues are generally growing and year-end balances are stabilizing following the longest recession since WORLD WAR II.
Of course, this is still contingent upon the strength and sustainability of economic recovery which is still very much in the air e
#Hawaii's Papaya Growers Struggle in Hurricane Aftermath Hurricane Iselle assault on Hawaii garnered national coverage as the storm approached,
but little has been reported on the storm aftermath and the damage suffered by Hawaii papaya growers and other agricultural operations.
John Burnett writes for West Hawaii Today that Iselle damage to Big Island ag crops is estimated at $53 million.
KITV video news clip illustrates the devastation on the Island ag community. As officials assess the damage inflicted by Iselle,
it evident the Big Island agriculture industry has sustained a severe blow. Richard Ha, president of Hamakua Springs Country Farms
said Tuesday representatives of the U s . and State departments of Agriculture and state Board of Agriculture Chairman Scott Enright met Monday with farmers.
It was pretty clear to us that the papaya farmers took the highest amount of damage.
Estimation of the sales lost, plus the start-up, the bulldozing costs and growing up to that first year,
when theye ready to harvest again is about $53 million. eople have been flying overhead to look over the damage with helicopters,
of course, but the damage is extremely high. t takes about a year from the time you plant to the time you start to harvest.
The farmers went through a tough spot about a year ago, fighting disease. They got their crops to where they were ready to pick.
The plants are snapped off, not too high off the ground, but right to where the fruit column started to bear,
Ha said a real problem that will hinder papaya farmers in their recovery is most don have credit.
to the fertilizer they don have an account at the fertilizer company, they have to pay cash.
and theye banking everything on two years of harvest. And everything looked good until the wind came through.
because it is grown at a higher elevation than the papaya crop. Ross Sibucao, president of Hawaii Papaya Industry Association, said early Tuesday afternoon the association board was about to hold an emergency meeting.
And it not just Puna farmers who sustained damage from Iselle winds and rain. Ka coffee and macadamia nut growers have been impacted
as well. e had a USDA (Farm Service agency) meeting (Tuesday) morning down here with some of the farmers.
A thousand trees producing 100 to 200 pounds of bean a season at $2 a pound is a lot of money
we have upwards of seven years of herbicide and pesticide and maintenance, caring and fertilizing of these trees.
There some serious cost in there. It cost us right around $4, 500 an acre.
Stevens said, o some of the smaller farmers, 100 to 200 trees is huge damage,
which we hosted for the smaller farmers, he said. e probably don qualify for any type of aid,
although we have hired four new employees on and have invested well over $20, 000 in materials to start revitalizing our fields already.
and the rain also damaged the company macadamia nut crop. Wee lost just over 2, 000 trees,
the most beautiful trees Hawaii has seen ever. hat means I lost more 22 percent of my trees in that orchard.
newest orchard in the state of Hawaii, and Ed Olson effort at revitalizing the macadamia nut industry for the future by planting new orchards. n our older orchard,
which cover about 425 acres, we lost about 800 trees, Cross added. heye older trees;
I only lost about 3 to 4 percent in those older orchards. Anthurium and ornamental flower growers in East Hawaii are also feeling Iselle effects,
He said three of his four 5-acre greenhouses in Panaewa sustained roof damage which will ultimately have an effect on his crops.
he said. ee trying to call a meeting where all the farmers and ranchers can get accurate information on the process we can use to follow to get some help for our farmers and ranchers. n
#Decoding Genes to find Breast cancer Today, August 7, 2014, researchers at the University Medical center Utrecht announced that they have identified a gene that puts women at higher risk for breast cancer.
Through animal and patient database studies, researchers found that women with an anomaly on the MEN1 gene are three times more likely to develop breast cancer at a relatively young age.
Their findings are published in the New england Journal of Medicine. MEN1 is the acronym for Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia type 1,
a rare hereditary disease in which a mutation of the MEN1 gene on chromosome 11 makes patients susceptible to developing both benign
and malignant tumors on hormone-producing organs such as the parathyroid gland, the pancreas and the pituitary gland. Animal studies previously linked this gene mutation with breast cancer;
and the researchers further conducted an analysis of the utchmen1 Study Groupdatabase. This database includes 90 percent of all MEN1 patients
which were 16 years or older living in The netherlands; this individual study incorporated 190 women with the MEN1 gene.
Researchers concluded that the average age of diagnosis of breast cancer with this gene abnormality was 48 years old,
as compared with an age of 60 to 65 years in the general population. Studies in the United states, Tasmania,
Right now there are 400 patients in The netherlands with this mutation. Breast cancer is a leading killer for women.
Besides skin cancer, it is the most commonly diagnosed cancer; breast cancer is also the 2nd deadliest type of cancer, right behind lung cancer.
About 85%of breast cancers occur in women who have no family history of breast cancer. Even though this study does not offer a cure,
it may provide future scientists with information that can help defeat this devastating disease and it may provide patients the chance to perform early action treatment. t is important that women with the MEN1 syndrome now know that they have to be aware that they run the risk of developing breast cancer,
because early treatment is always better, said Prof. Dr. Elsken van der Wall, a medical oncologist working for the UMC Utrecht Cancer Center e
#A Better Way to Make Unnatural Amino acids Discovered by Yu Certain amino acids that are not found in nature are highly sought after by pharmaceutical manufacturers.
These nnaturalamino acids have traditionally been very difficult to synthesize, so a new and improved technique for doing
or building blocks for peptide drugs, explains Jin-Quan Yu, chemistry professor at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI),
and drugs that inhibit the formation of amyloid aggregates seen in Alzheimer, Parkinson and other diseases.
The team used the approach to cut two tough bonds in the desired sequence and aryl molecules.
and the pharmaceutical giant Bristol-myers squibb. nder this agreement we are putting the new methods to work to discover novel drug candidates,
#Biodiesel production from Sugarcane A multi-institutional team led by plant biology professor Stephen P. Long from the University of Illinois reports that it can increase sugarcane's geographic range boost its photosynthetic rate by 30 percent
and turn it into an oil-producing crop for biodiesel production. These are the first steps in a bigger initiative that will turn sugarcane
and sorghum two of the most productive crop plants known into even more productive oil-generating plants.
The team presented its latest findings to the U s. Department of energy's ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit in Washington D c. in February this year.
But soybean isnt productive enough to meet the nations need for renewable diesel fuels Long said.
Working first with the laboratory-friendly plant Arabidopsis (rockcress a relative of cabbage and mustard) and later with sugarcane the team introduced genes that boost natural oil production in the plant.
They increased oil production in sugarcane stems to about 1. 5 percent. The team hopes to increase the oil content of sugarcane stems to about 20 percent he said.
Using genetic engineering the researchers increased photosynthetic efficiency in sugarcane and sorghum by 30 percent Long said.
And to boost cold tolerance researchers are crossing sugarcane with Miscanthus a related perennial grass that can grow as far north as Canada.
The new hybrid is more cold-tolerant than sugarcane but further crosses are needed to restore the other attributes of sugarcane
while preserving its cold-tolerance Long said. Ultimately the team hopes to integrate all of these new attributes into sugarcane he said.
The research team led by the University of Illinois includes scientists from Brookhaven National Laboratory the University of Florida and the University of Nebraska.
Long is an affiliate of the Institute for Genomic Biology at the University of Illinois s
#Uniting To Accelerate Pediatric Medicine Drug companies inherently absorb significant risk when developing compounds and biologics for clinical use.
A recent article suggests that only one out of every 12 drugs that enters clinical trials succeeds
and the cost of a drug successfully reaching the market now exceeds an average of $5 billion
when you add up the cost of all those that failed along the way. For many indications, such as Alzheimer and autism, the need for new treatments is enormous,
yet investment in these areas is declining due to recent high profile failures. The risks and challenges associated with drug development will continue to be there for the foreseeable future.
Despite these risks I have noticed a promising trend the rise of open source drug R&d consortia that include large biotech
and pharma organizations that normally compete against each other, along with academic institutions and disease foundations. These collaborations are defined coming together,
in re-competitivespaces, to generate tools and data that can be shared in order to accelerate research at the early stage to collectively reduce costs,
minimize failures and shorten the timeline to approval for new drugs helping bring treatments to the patients who need them the most.
In the field of autism, stakeholders such as academic researchers, pharma companies, and patient advocacy groups are coming together to better understand the inner workings of the disease in hopes to increase the development and approval of effective therapeutics.
A unified effort in Europe is named underway EU-AIMS a $40 million multi-year collaborative program to develop the infrastructure underpinning new treatments for autism.
These are just two instances of industry coming together to achieve a mutually beneficial goal and tackle challenges that no one organization can tackle alone.
As an industry, pediatric medicine faces many similar challenges. Addressing chronic and complex diseases in kids can improve health outcomes,
quality of life and reduce future medical spending when these children enter their adult lives. Surprisingly, the NIH only allocates five percent of it $30 billion budget to pediatric research
and this has been flat for nearly 20 years (See this blog post)..Other challenges I see include low commercial investment in pediatric medicine and devices, development of effective therapeutics for neurodevelopmental disorders,
and clinical interpretation of genomic data into pediatric clinical care. At the Technology and Innovation Development Office (TIDO) at Boston Children, we have the honor
and challenge of turning the research discoveries and clinical innovations made by our scientists and clinicians into new products that can benefit our kids and the public.
But we cannot do it alone. TIDO extends significant effort to set up strategic alliances with pharma
and biotech companies to develop better treatments most recently with Shire around rare diseases. These alliances leverage Boston Children research expertise and companiesdevelopment and commercialization capabilities.
Similarly drawing on the expertise of our external advisory board made up of pharma, device, diagnostic and software experts,
the Technology Development Fund is an internal funding mechanism set up by the hospital in 2009 that invests in
and develops promising innovations. All of these efforts in conjunction with the strength of the research base have led to approximately 16 products on the market with eight more in clinical trials.
Boston Children is interested in breaking down the barriers that remain in pediatric medicine. We can only do that if the innovation community
This is why Boston Children is convening top thought leaders to address the toughest challenges in pediatric health care today.
The National Pediatric Innovation Summit, to be held in Boston on September 26 and 27, will bring together leading clinicians, scientists and leaders in industry, private equity,
and health care policy to engage in discussions collectively taking on problems that no single organization can solve alone.
Leaders from companies like IBM Vertex and Johnson & johnson will interact with thought leaders from leading children hospitals in the US
and acclaimed academic institutions like MIT and Harvard. I am confident that discussions started at the summit will lead to the types of large collaborations
and innovative solutions needed to tackle the toughest challenges in pediatric healthcare because the lives and well being of children all over the world is depending on us.
Erik Halvorsen, Phd. is the Executive director of Technology & Innovation Development Office and Managing Partner, Technology Development Fund at Boston Children Hospital.
The mission of the Technology and Innovation Development Office (TIDO) is to translate the excellence of the laboratory research and clinical care at Boston Children into lifesaving biomedical products, devices and procedures for the public benefit e
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