Posts

May 09, 2013

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9:57 AM | Celebrating Gleevec – and Basic Research

When 23-year-old Glamour magazine editor Erin Zammett Ruddy went for a routine physical in November 2001, she expected reassurance that her healthy lifestyle had been keeping her well. After all, she felt great. What Erin received, a few days later, was a shock.… Read the rest

May 08, 2013

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6:01 PM | Reproducible cell counts in less than 30 seconds

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4:15 PM | Q&A with Haven Baker on Simplot’s Innate™ Potatoes

There’s a new genetically engineered potato in town that doesn’t brown when cut or fried, nor does it make acrylamide. J. R. Simplot Company petitioned the USDA to deregulate their Innate™ potatoes, and the public comment period has just been opened up on that petition. We sent Simplot some questions about their new potatoes and the technology used to make them, and their Vice President of Plant Sciences, Haven Baker, was happy to respond. Here is that interview, and if you have […]

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3:39 PM | Cold-War Bunkers Enlisted in the Fight Against Cold-Loving Fungus: More on the White-Nose Syndrome Story

A lot has happened since I first wrote about White-Nose Syndrome, the fungal disease that has devastated bat populations in North America. The disease, caused by the cold-loving fungus Geomyces destructans, has been identified in many more places, including most recently confirmed cases in Georgia, South Carolina, Illinois and Missouri in the United States and Prince [...]

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2:55 PM | Cellectis: 2012 financial results. Operating performance in line with forecasts, focus on executing growth strategy, new prospects for strong value creation in the therapeutic sector

29 Apr 2013 18:00 PMParis, FranceParis, April 29,2013 - Cellectis (Alternext: ALCLS), the global genome engineering specialist, presented its consolidated financial statements for the 2012 fiscal year, approved for publication by the Board of Directors at their meeting today. Financial results for fiscal year 2012 Cellectis’ operating performance showed: increase in revenue generated by new products and services, strict control of operating costs, strengthening of the […]

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2:14 PM | Arrivano i cassonetti intelligenti per rifiuti RAEE

Finalmente entrano in attività in diversi comuni dell’Emilia Romagna, a partire da Bologna, i cassonetti speciali per i Raee, rifiuti elettrici ed elettrocnici. Si tratta di un progetto, realizzato dal gruppo Hera, che finalmente diventa operativo a tutti gli effetti. Si spera così di raddoppiare la raccolta di materiali Raee come cellulari, batterie, lampadine o [...]

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1:13 PM | Diabetic Bones? Amazing Insights to the Relationship Between Diabetes and Bone

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10:22 AM | Tip of the Week: Transfac (and HGMD, Proteome, etc)

BioBase is a provider of expert-curated biological databases. Two well known BioBase databases are TransFac and HGMD. Both have publicly available data (see previous links), but if you go to the BioBase site, you’ll find there are subscription based data access also for more feature-rich access. HGMD is the Human Gene Mutation database and “ represents [...]

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9:33 AM | Salento eVoting: la Puglia prova il voto digitale per le elezioni

Nei comuni di Melpignano e Martignano si sono raccolte le preferenze dei cittadini con una speciale urna digitale. Ecco com'è andata

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8:59 AM | Quanto si risparmia con le promozioni adsl e voce

Per risparmiare sulla bolletta telefonica occorre avere una conoscenza delle tariffe proposte dai vari operatori e dei costi accessori regolati dalle condizioni esistenti al momento della stipula del contratto. In alcuni abbonamenti l’attivazione della linea può essere gratis se il cliente non recede prima dei due anni, in altri il costo è rateizzato oppure da [...]

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2:12 AM | KQED Quest on GMOs

KQED Quest, based in San Francisco, has just posted a half-hour special on GMOs called Next Meal: Engineering your Food, by Gabriela Quirós. In the wake of proposition 37 in California there has been a lot more public awareness of genetically engineered crops, but little public education about it. (Just think what those millions spent could have accomplished) So in this special KQED Quest takes a look at the science of plant breeding and genetic engineering, interviewing Peggy Lemaux from UC […]

May 07, 2013

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6:36 PM | Fifty years later, new mechanism discovered in meiosis

The Research Group headed by molecular biologist Andrea Pichler from the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg has made an important discovery in meiosis research. Pichler and her group have identified a new mechanism that plays an important role in meiosis. Meiosis, also called reductional division, is a key process in sexual [...]

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10:08 AM | CNR studia come riparare i neuroni con i biomateriali

Si tratta di speciali microchip organici e soprattutto biocompatibili capaci di analizzare lo stato di neuroni e magari in grado di ripararli curando così molte malattie degenerative. Lo studio, pubblicato su Nature Materials, vede coinvolti in primis il Consiglio nazionale delle ricerche di Bologna e l’Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia di Genova (IIT) in collaborazione con [...]

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9:47 AM | Partito Vega, il vettore spaziale italiano

Vega, il lanciatore nato dalla collaborazione tra l’ Agenzia spaziale europea (Esa) e l” Agenzia spaziale italiana (Asi), in buona parte made in Italy, è stato lanciato stanotte. Questo è il suo secondo volo ( VV02), dopo quello inaugurale del febbraio 2012. Il lancio è stato eseguito con un paio di settimane di ritardo da Kourou, nella Guyana Francese alle nostre 4:06. [...]

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9:13 AM | Gli USA promettono: su Marte entro il 2030

Il numero uno della Nasa, Golden, ha affermato che ogni dollaro del budget stanziato per le missioni spaziali sarà utilizzato per realizzare il fanatico progetto di portare l’uomo su Marte. Gli Usa si sono posti anche un obiettivo temporale, contando di riuscire nell’impresa entro il 2030. Punteranno allo sviluppo di nuove super tecnologie che permetteranno [...]

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3:48 AM | GMO Wheat and shouting “fire” in a crowded theater

A report from an activist group called Safe Food Foundation (SFF) came out last fall that caused a minor stir upon it’s first release. They claimed that they had unearthed an issue with GMO wheat being studied by the Australian CSIRO researchers. The wheat under investigation has shown to provide improvements in digestive health in animal studies and could potentially lower the glycemic index of foods. SFF threw a press conference, did a YouTube video, and managed to get some press about […]

Regina, A. (2006). High-amylose wheat generated by RNA interference improves indices of large-bowel health in rats, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 103 (10) 3546-3551. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0510737103

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2:07 AM | ASCO 2013: PI3K inhibitor clinical trials data presentations

It is that time again.... the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) is just around the corner in early June. Abstracts will be released May 15th, so we will begin to feature key presentations both here at BiotechDueDiligence and at HSP90 Central.Featured [...]

May 06, 2013

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6:28 PM | Droplet Digital™ PCR Works for GMO Quantification

A study published in PLOS ONE finds that Droplet Digital PCR (ddPCR™) technology is suitable for routine analysis of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in food, feed, and seeds. More than 60 countries representing 40 percent of the world’s population require labeling of food and feed when GMOs reach certain thresholds. Screening for and quantifying GMOs [...]

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5:16 PM | Compound Screening Using Cell-Free Protein Expression Systems

Both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cell-free protein expression systems have found great utility in efforts to screen organic compounds for inhibition of the basic cellular functions of transcription and translation, common targets for antibiotic compounds. Cell-free systems can provide some advantages over cell-based systems for screening purposes. Cell-free systems allow exact manipulation of compound concentrations. This [...]

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8:00 AM | Global Entrepreneurship in the Biotech Industry

Oxbridge Biotech Roundtable and the International Affairs Group at UC San Diego are co-sponsoring an exciting event on Global Entrepreneurship the in Biotech Industry on May 13, 2013. This seminar brings together Greg Horowitt, founder of Global CONNECT, and Jeff Stein, president and CEO of Trius Therapeutics, a developer of antibiotics for drug-resistant, life-threatening infections. [...]The post Global Entrepreneurship in the Biotech Industry appeared first on Oxbridge Biotech.

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8:00 AM | Integrating Mesofacts: On Samuel Arbesman’s “The Half-Life of Facts”

Book: The Half-Life of Facts: Why Everything We Know Has an Expiration Date Author: Samuel Arbesman Publisher: Penguin Subject: Turnover patterns and their rates of what we call “facts” ISBN: 978-1591844723 RRP: £17 How do we know a technology is nearing its maximum potential? How do we know to stop incremental improvement and [...]The post Integrating Mesofacts: On Samuel Arbesman’s “The Half-Life of Facts” appeared first on Oxbridge Biotech.

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7:00 AM | Personalized Medicine – The Future of Medicine

Following a clinical exam, Bob hands over his smartphone to Dr. Trevor. After poring over Bob’s genome sequence on the phone, Dr. Trevor proceeds to type out a prescription. The exam gave Dr. Trevor an idea about what Bob is suffering from. This genome sequence told her about how best to approach Bob’s condition and [...]The post Personalized Medicine – The Future of Medicine appeared first on Oxbridge Biotech.

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6:53 AM | News of the week, May 6th, 2013

SCIENCE Youngest child ever to receive bioengineered organ A two-year-old Korean-Canadian girl, Hannah Warren, born without a trachea (tracheal agenesis) has been fitted with a new one bioengineered using her own cells. No child with this condition has ever lived past the age of 6. She has become the youngest child ever to receive a [...]The post News of the week, May 6th, 2013 appeared first on Oxbridge Biotech.

May 04, 2013

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11:22 AM | Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine: Learning from Spin Outs

Earlier in February, OBR hosted a timely discussion on the commercialisation of regenerative medicine research, inviting UK based industry leaders Gregg Sando, CEO, Cell Medica, John Sinden, CSO, Reneuron and Paul Kemp, CEO and CSO, Intercytex to share their views and expertise. Regenerative medicines, defined inclusively, encompass tissue engineering, cellular therapies, gene therapies, aspects of [...]The post Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine: Learning from Spin Outs appeared first […]

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12:19 AM | ISIS NBY BLRX IMMU SSH - Investor Relations Responses Posted

A new set of recent investor relations (IR) questions and responses from biotechs provided by Mike O'Neill has been posted, covering financials and upcoming catalysts for each biotech stock. This round of responses features [...]

May 03, 2013

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9:33 PM | Chop It While It’s Hot! An Enzyme-Free Alternative to Hydroxymethylated DNA Detection

5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5-hmC) has been widely studied in many biological contexts, but the precise mechanistic functions of this epigenetic modification remain largely unknown. Some evidence suggests that 5-hmC may be an intermediate in the process of DNA demethylation because it can be further oxidized to form 5-formylcytosine (5-fC) and 5-carboxylcytosine (5-caC), which are recognized and eliminated ...

Mao W, Hu J, Hong T, Xing X, Wang S, Chen X & Zhou X (2013). A convenient method for selective detection of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine and 5-formylcytosine sites in DNA sequences., Organic & biomolecular chemistry, PMID: 23629475

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7:45 PM | Pinpointing dairy cows with high immune responses benefits producers

Disease cuts into dairy producers’ profit margins and, of course, makes life unpleasant for dairy cows. For example, mastitis is thought to affect as many as 50 per cent of dairy cattle in the United States and Canada each year. But researchers have created technology to help dairy producers select cattle with stronger immune systems. The technology identifies cattle with a high, average, and low immune response. Cows with a high immune response do a better job of fighting off pathogens […]

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7:36 PM | Nature Special on GE crops

This week, readers of the Biofortified Blog are in for a treat. The Journal Nature has a special feature on genetically engineered crops, complete with editorials, perspectives, and an article on the next generation of these crops featuring some people who you may find familiar. Here are a few snippets to give you a taste of it. Fields of Gold The analyst who spoke of an uninformed public may have been correct in 1993, but such a claim no longer applies. People are positively swimming in […]

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6:22 PM | MiSeq Grants Enable Diverse Research

In late 2012, chances are that seismic instruments detected small tremors in Melbourne, Australia; East Boothbay, Maine; and San Antonio, Texas from all the jumping up and down as research teams learned they had just won a MiSeq system. The inaugural MiSeq Grant program was developed to enable any researcher‒from novices to current Illumina customers anywhere in the world‒to gain access to next-generation sequencing (NGS) to further their research, and advance innovation in applications […]

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6:01 PM | An End-Run Around Antimicrobial Resistance?

Antimicrobial Resistance You and I know that bacterial resistance to antibiotics is a serious and growing problem. As the Center for Disease Control notes, the problem is not only one of industrial nations, but is found worldwide: For instance, we hear frequently of cases of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA. Methicillin was widely regarded as [...]