Biotechnology news

• Partners to Develop Chemotherapeutic Technology as Liver Cancer Treatment

  07-02-2017 16:27
  Q BioMed said today it will partner with the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation (OMRF) and the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB) to develop a chemotherapeutic technology to treat liver cancer.The value of the collaboration was not disclosed by Q BioMed, a biomedical acceleration and development company.Q BioMed said the technology will use uttroside B and its derivatives as a chemotherapeutic agent against hepatocellular carcinoma. Uttroside B is a saponin derived from Solanum nigru
  
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• Search for Synthetic-Essential Genes Uncovers Prostate Cancer Treatment Target

  07-02-2017 16:23
  A new method has been found for identifying therapeutic targets in cancers lacking specific key tumor suppressor genes. The process, which located a genetic site for the most common form of prostate cancer, has potential for developing precision therapy for other cancers, such as breast, brain, and colorectal, say researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Study results appeared February 6 in the journal Nature, in an article entitled, “Synthetic Essentiality of Chro
  
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• Teva Names Interim CEO as Vigodman Steps Down

  07-02-2017 16:00
  Teva Pharmaceutical Industries today named board Chairman Yitzhak Peterburg, M.D., Dr.P.H., as interim president and CEO.He succeeds Erez Vigodman, who stepped down from both his position and the company’s board by “mutual agreement” with the board, Teva said in a statement. Vigodman is the third CEO to resign during this decade.Teva’s board has hired a firm to assist in a search for a permanent CEO that the company says has begun. Dr. Peterburg has stepped down from the
  
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• Team Shows How Zika Crosses Placental Barrier to Cause Birth Defects

  07-02-2017 15:57
  Investigators from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) say they have uncovered the details behind the virus's unique ability to cross the placental barrier and expose the fetus to a range of birth defects that often go beyond microcephaly to include eye and joint injury, and even other types of brain damage. The new study (" AXL-Dependent Infection of Human Fetal Endothelial Cells Distinguishes Zika Virus from Other Pathogenic Flaviviruses"),  led by TSRI Associ
  
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• Austrian Research Center and GE Healthcare Seek to Boost CHO Cell Line Engineering

  07-02-2017 14:53
  The Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology (acib) and GE Healthcare agreed to collaborate on a cell line engineering program to bring increased productivity to biomanufacturers. The goal of the three-year partnership is to explore and identify new tools and methods to modify and optimize the Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell line performance.CHO cell lines, the most commonly used hosts for industrial production of therapeutic proteins, have not traditionally received much direct attention or
  
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• Chrysalis Wins $5.45M NIAID Contract for Nuclear Countermeasure Peptide

  07-02-2017 14:19
  Chrysalis BioTherapeutics won a 3-year, $5.45 million contract from NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to fund continued development of its synthetic thrombin peptide TP508 (rusalatide acetate) as a nuclear countermeasure to prevent tissue damage after exposure to radiation. The firm says the funds will allow it to complete key steps, including additional efficacy validation studies, required for FDA approval. The latest award follows on from previous NIAID
  
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• Maverick Licenses Isogenica's Synthetic Camelid Antibody Platform

  07-02-2017 12:45
  Maverick Therapeutics negotiated a license to Isogenica’s synthetic llamdA™ VHH single-domain antibody libraries, in return for undisclosed up front and annual license payments. Isogenica could earn additional upfront and milestone commercial payments if Maverick develops antibodies derived from the libraries.Start-up firm Maverick was spun out of Harpoon Therapeutics last year to develop T-cell engagement antibody therapeutics against cancer. Last month Maverick signed a potentially
  
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• Prexton Raises €29M to Take mGluR4 PAM into Phase II for PD Therapy

  07-02-2017 11:34
  Prexton Therapeutics raised €29 million ($31 million) in Series B financing to support two Phase II trials with its lead Parkinson’s’ disease therapeutic, Foliglurax (PXT002331). The fundraising round was co-led by Forbion Capital Partners and Seroba Life Sciences. Current investors, including Merck Ventures, also participated.Geneva-based biopharma Prexton was founded in 2012 as a spin-out from Merck Serono. The firm is developing a series of novel positive allosteric modulator
  
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