Archive for the 'Research Reports' Category
October 28th, 2010 by admin
Venture capital investments declined sharply in the third quarter of 2010, according to the MoneyTree Report from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association based on data provided by Thomson Reuters. Venture capitalists invested $4.8 billion in 780 deals in the third quarter of 2010; these numbers reflect a decline in quarterly investment activity of 31 percent in terms of dollars, as well as a decline of 19 percent in number of deals compared to the second quarter of 2010 when $6.9 billion was invested in 962 deals.
Continue reading ‘Biotechnology Continues to Bring in Significant Funding’
October 21st, 2010 by admin
New research provides the first direct evidence that attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a genetic condition. Scientists at Cardiff University found that children with ADHD were more likely to have small segments of their DNA duplicated or missing than other children.
Continue reading ‘Children with ADHD More Likely to Have Missing Segments of DNA’
October 20th, 2010 by admin
Stomach cancer patients with a high expression of the molecule microRNA 451 show greater survival rates. This molecule could be a biomarker for treatment response. “The high presence of microRNA 451 enhances the response to treatment with chemo-radiotherapy and increases the survival of patients with stomach cancer,” explained Dr. Jesús García-Foncillas, chief researcher of the Pharmacogenomics Laboratory at the Applied Medical Research Centre (CIMA) and Director of Oncology at the University Hospital of Navarra. This was one of the results presented at the IV Congress of the Spanish Society for Pharmacogenetics and Pharmacogenomic, recently held at CIMA.
Continue reading ‘Molecule Increases Survival of Stomach Cancer Patients’
October 18th, 2010 by admin
Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have shown how stem cells, together with other cells, repair damaged tissue in the mouse spinal cord. The results are of potential significance to the development of therapies for spinal cord injury. There is hope that damage to the spinal cord and brain will one day be treatable using stem cells (i.e. immature cells that can develop into different cell types). Stem cell-like cells have been found in most parts of the adult human nervous system, although it is still unclear how much they contribute to the formation of new, functioning cells in adult individuals.
Continue reading ‘Stem Cells Repair Damaged Spinal Cord Tissue’
October 15th, 2010 by admin
When the economic crisis reached its peak in 2009, biotech companies were hit hard. We buried 16 developers in our first annual Biotech Graveyard list last year, and while that number has dropped significantly in 2010, there were still eight biotechs that simply couldn’t find a buyer or the money necessary to continue their run. Several of these developers struggled for years with solvency problems until finally their luck run out, while others were never able to recover from disappointing clinical trial results.
Continue reading ‘The 2010 Biotech Graveyard’
October 5th, 2010 by admin
Biomedical researchers at the University at Buffalo have engineered adult stem cells that scientists can grow continuously in culture, a discovery that could speed development of cost-effective treatments for diseases including heart disease, diabetes, immune disorders and neurodegenerative diseases.
Continue reading ‘Adult Stem Cells That Do Not Age’
October 4th, 2010 by admin
The news that Geron had finally received the FDA’s approval to start the world’s first human trial of an embryonic stem cell treatment marked a major milestone for the controversial field. But it also highlights just how far ESC treatments have lagged behind adult stem cell remedies in human studies.
Continue reading ‘Adult Stem Cell Therapies Making Rapid Progress in Human Studies’
September 14th, 2010 by admin
Critical challenges remain in the centuries-old battles against infectious diseases, particularly as bacteria and viruses mutate and as the threat of bioterrorism grows. Responding to this need, America’s biopharmaceutical research companies this year have 395 new medicines and vaccines in the pipeline to fight infectious diseases. All 395 are in later stages of development, meaning in clinical trials or under Food and Drug Administration (FDA) review.
Continue reading ‘Nearly 400 Medicines and Vaccines in Development to Fight Infectious Diseases’
September 10th, 2010 by admin
The stimulus bill that pumped more than $8 billion into biomedical research projects in the U.S. is set to end at the end of the month. And the surge of research work that it helped spawn is likely to come to a quick stop, triggering stinging job losses as research scientists jockey for a piece of a much smaller pie.
Continue reading ‘Research Scientists Brace for Layoffs as Stimulus Cash Dries Up’
September 1st, 2010 by admin
A relatively recent subgroup of nanotech research is what is beginning to be commonly referred to as “nanotox,” or the study of how nanoparticles react to the environment and human body. It is a line of inquiry that directly arose out of concerns that if engineered nanoscale particles have the potential to do great things in specifically targeted way, then there might be some unintentional harm happening as well. A group of nanotox researchers at North Carolina State University looking into how nanoparticles interact with living things might have also, as a side benefit, made a discovery with applications for drug delivery.
Continue reading ‘‘Nanotox’ Research also has Implications for Nano Drug Delivery’
