Tag Archive for 'Pharmacogenomics'
June 22nd, 2010 by admin
Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have for the first time differentiated human stem cells to become heart cells with cardiomyopathy, a condition in which the heart muscle cells are abnormal. The discovery will allow scientists to learn how those heart cells become diseased and from there, they can begin developing drug therapies to [...]
June 17th, 2010 by admin
The scramble to come up with a faster and cheaper way to sequence a genome just got a credible new contender which aims to do the job for the bargain basement rate of $30. The first time scientists sequenced a human genome, the price tag hit $3 billion. That price point has quickly plunged to [...]
June 15th, 2010 by admin
What three trends are most important to pharma these days? Generics, emerging markets and personalized medicine, according to the Harvard Business Review. Branded generics are the wave of Big Pharma’s future, HBR says. These branded versions of off-patent meds sell at higher prices than regular generics do, but are cheaper than the branded meds themselves. They give [...]
May 27th, 2010 by admin
GE Healthcare has entered an alliance with CardioDx to co-develop diagnostic technologies to improve the care and management of patients with cardiovascular disease. Building on the alliance, the GE Healthymagination Fund, a new equity fund that makes investments in highly promising healthcare technology companies, has invested $5 million in CardioDx as part of a Series [...]
May 14th, 2010 by admin
A new study by researchers from McGill University and the University of British Columbia shows that mice, like humans, express pain through facial expressions. The research will not only be an important tool in helping scientists ensure that laboratory animals don’t suffer unnecessarily, but could lead to new and better pain-relief drugs for [...]
May 3rd, 2010 by admin
Neuroscience researchers have zeroed in on a novel mechanism that helps control the firing of electrical signals among neurons. By isolating the molecular and electrical events that occur when this control is disrupted, the new research sheds light on epileptic seizures and potentially on other prominent diseases involving poorly regulated brain activity.
April 30th, 2010 by admin
Scientists from Buffalo, Cleveland, and Oklahoma City made a huge step toward making the blind see, and they did it by using a form of gene therapy that does not involve the use of modified viruses. In a research report published in the April 2010 print issue of The FASEB Journal, scientists describe how they [...]
April 15th, 2010 by admin
Infectious diseases are not always caused by infection. In work reported in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, researchers at Rockefeller University reveal that patients who suffer from a rare autoimmune disorder that makes them vulnerable to yeast infections produce antibodies that target and destroy immune-fighting proteins that would otherwise keep yeast in check.
April 8th, 2010 by admin
By blocking the cellular signaling activity of a protein, a team of neuroscientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) has prevented memory loss in fruit flies caused by brain plaques similar to those thought to cause Alzheimer’s disease in humans. The study also resolves a long-standing controversy about the role of this protein, PI3 kinase, [...]
April 6th, 2010 by admin
A federal judge struck down patents on two genes linked to breast and ovarian cancer. The decision, if upheld, could throw into doubt the patents covering thousands of human genes and reshape the law of intellectual property. United States District Court Judge Robert W. Sweet issued the 152-page decision, which invalidated seven patents related to [...]