In early drug discovery, you need a starting point, says Northeastern University associate professor of chemistry and chemical biology Michael Pollastri.
In a new research paper published Thursday in the journal PLOS-Neglected Tropical Diseases, Pollastri and his colleagues present hundreds of such starting points for potentially treating Human African trypanosomiasis, or sleeping sickness, a deadly disease that affects thousands of people annually.
The technology for creating new tissues from stem cells has taken a giant leap forward. Two tablespoons of blood are all that is needed to grow a brand new blood vessel in just seven days. This is shown in a new study from Sahlgrenska Acadedmy and Sahlgrenska University Hospital published in EBioMedicine. Just three years ago, a patient at Sahlgrenska University Hospital received a blood vessel transplant grown from her own stem cells.
Suchitra Sumitran-Holgersson, Professor of Transplantation Biology at Sahlgrenska Academy, and Michael Olausson, Surgeon/Medical Director of the Transplant Center and Professor at Sahlgrenska Academy, came up with the idea, planned and carried out the procedure.
Qiagen has announced the introduction of expanded functionality for its range of bioinformatics workflow solutions.
New capabilities for the Ingenuity Variant Analysis and CLC Cancer Research Workbench solutions were unveiled at the American Society of Human Genetics annual meeting, which recently concluded in San Diego.
Regression models, Monte Carlo simulations, and other methods for predicting what’s around the corner have been in use for decades. It’s only recently, though, that advances in information technology have made it possible for predictive tools to access and manipulate big data, and to do so continuously — accelerating the generation of insights, and opening up opportunities to anticipate issues with unprecedented precision. Think of the colleges that are increasingly able to identify students at risk of dropping out and intervene before they do. Or lenders’ enhanced abilities to gauge credit risk. Energy, agriculture, insurance, retail, human resources — no industry is unaffected. But nowhere is the potential of this new era of opportunity more apparent and exciting than it is in health care.
Roche plans to spend around $3bn updating and expanding its Basal site, home to the Swiss company’s headquarters, over the next 10 years.
The company is set to build a new R&D centre for 1,900 employees and an office building for 1,700 employees, and will also upgrade its existing infrastructure.
New initiative will support networks that help doctors access information and improve health outcomes
Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell today announced an initiative that will fund successful applicants who work directly with medical providers to rethink and redesign their practices, moving from systems driven by quantity of care to ones focused on patients’ health outcomes, and coordinated health care systems. These applicants could include group practices, health care systems, medical provider associations and others. This effort will help clinicians develop strategies to share, adapt and further improve the quality of care they provide, while holding down costs. Strategies could include:
Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Sucampo) (Nasdaq:SCMP), a global biopharmaceutical company, and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (Takeda) today announced that on October 17, 2014, they entered into a global license, development, commercialization and supply agreement for AMITIZA® (lubiprostone). Through this agreement, Takeda expanded its exclusive rights beyond the United States (U.S.) and Canada to further develop and commercialize AMITIZA in all global markets, except Japan and the People’s Republic of China.
“Takeda is committed to being a patient and customer-centric organization, making quality health products available to the patients who need them. Through this agreement, AMITIZA can now be made available to patients worldwide,” said Shinji Honda, Senior Managing Director and Corporate Strategy Officer. “Takeda forms partnerships to advance science and to provide innovative treatment options for patients, and this global agreement is an excellent example. This global collaboration leverages the expertise we have established through our gastroenterology portfolio of products.”
It’s not just the FDA that is making life difficult for medical device companies. Executives are having to follow sales opportunities as medical care shifts out of hospitals into homes and physician offices. They are having to revamp their entire business model to survive in the new world of the ACA.
A.T. Kearney has identified the five forces that are forcing the device industry to evolve in this new report: Medical Devices: Equipped for the Future? In addition to spelling out the threats, the analysts have a guide for how to start building a new business model.
Stapling up skin post-surgery is pretty much the norm to quickly seal up wounds, but it runs a risk of infection and injury from the extra damage to already sensitive skin.
Bay Area startup ZipLine Medical has developed a non-invasive but suture-like alternative that it’s positioning as a quicker, simpler and more desirable way to close small surgical wounds. To boot, clinical trials have shown the method decreases both infection likelihood as well as scarring. The company just closed a $5.7 million extension to its Series C financing round, led by a new venture firm in Shanghai called China Materialia that wants to expand the technology there.
Colleen Worthington has been working at this university for more than 24 years. It wasn’t until this year, however, that she received her first promotion.
“No matter how much better I got or more I contributed, it was the same title from 1990 until last [semester],” Worthington said.
