Asterion Ltd (“Asterion”), a Sheffield, UK-based drug development company and part of the Biofusion portfolio, announces today that it has raised £355k to progress its novel therapies for hormone-related diseases. Biofusion plc (“Biofusion”), the University Intellectual Property (IP) commercialisation company, led the round, investing £250k. The White Rose Technology Seedcorn Fund (“WRTSF”), the venture capital fund owned by the Universities of Leeds, Sheffield and York, invested £105k. Following
Study holds promise for susceptibility test
Cell and animal studies conducted jointly by scientists at Johns Hopkins, Yale and other institutions have uncovered at least one important contributor to the severe anemia that kills almost half of the 2 million people worldwide who die each year of malaria. The culprit is a protein cells make in response to inflammation called MIF, which appears to suppress red blood cell production in people whose red blood cells already are infec
Sexual harassment is a burden that females of many species face, and some may go to extreme lengths to avoid it. In a new paper from the June issue of the American Naturalist, Darren Croft (University of Wales) and a research team from the University of Leeds suggest that female guppies, a popular aquarium fish, may risk their lives to avoid too much attention from males. Observing wild population of guppies in the rainforest of Trinidad, the researchers found that female guppies swim in habitat
BU biologist discovers diversity in mantis shrimp underestimated
There is a push to document the biodiversity of the world within 25 years. However, the magnitude of this challenge is not well known, especially when it comes to vast and often inaccessible marine environments. To date, surveys of species diversity in the world’s oceans have focused on adult organisms, but new research from Boston University has found that studying marine life in its larval phase with DNA b
Female fish prefer brightly coloured males because they are easier to see and are in better shape concludes Dutch researcher Martine Maan following her study of fish speciation in the East African Lakes. Environmental variation subsequently leads to differences in preference and eventually to speciation.
Evolutionary theory predicts that species can diverge if different females choose different characteristics in males. Yet females often pay attention to traits that reveal something about
c-myc, a gene commonly involved in cancer onset, has been found to have a role in the immune system’s normal function according to a study published in the journal, Blood. The surprising finding, by a Swiss research team led by investigators from the Lausanne Branch of the international Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR), showed that c-myc functions in the immune system’s ‘memory’ of previous infections.
In order to rapidly and efficiently respond to new infections, the immune sy
CNRS researchers at the Institut Curie have shown in embryos that a cell-surface protein called ß1 integrin is essential for the formation of the enteric nervous system, which controls the passage of food through the gut. If the cells destined to form the future enteric nervous system lack ß1 integrin, their capacity to migrate is impaired and they fail to colonize the whole intestine. This anomaly resembles Hirschsprung’s disease, a rare human congenital malformation. These findings also shed ne
Now all they need is a really, really small corkscrew.
Like Lilliputian chemists, scientists have found a way to “cork” infinitesimally small nano test tubes. The goal is a better way to deliver drugs, for example, for cancer treatment. Scientists want to fill the teeny tubes with drugs and inject them into the body, where they will seek diseased or cancerous cells, uncork and spill their therapeutic contents in the right place.
“After making the nano test tubes, we saw the
Researchers from the Floral Genome Project at Penn State University, with an international team of collaborators, have proposed an answer to Charles Darwin’s “abominable mystery:” the inexplicably rapid evolution of flowering plants immediately after their first appearance some 140 million years ago. By developing new statistical methods to analyze incomplete DNA sequences from thirteen strategically selected plant species, the researchers uncovered a previously hidden “paleopolyploidy” event
Researchers from Delft University of Technology’s Kavli Institute of Nanoscience have discovered how to use the motors of biological cells in extremely small channels on a chip. Based on this, they built a transport system that uses electrical charges to direct the molecules individually. To demonstrate this, the Delft researchers sorted the individual molecules according to their color. Professor Hess of the University of Florida has called the Delft discovery “the first traffic control system in
Scientists have discovered that migrating dragonflies and songbirds exhibit many of the same behaviors, suggesting the rules that govern such long-distance travel may be simpler and more ancient than was once thought.
The research, published in the May 11 Biology Letters, is based on data generated by tracking 14 green darner dragonflies with radio transmitters weighing only 300 milligrams — about a third as much as a paper clip. Green darners are among the 25 to 50 species of d
Scientists at UCSF, Celera Genomics and The Cleveland Clinic have discovered two gene variants associated with a significantly increased risk for early heart attack, or myocardial infarction (MI).
One of the genes, known as VAMP8, normally expresses a protein essential for early stages of clotting. When clotting occurs in a coronary blood vessel, it can lead to heart attack. Knowing gene mutations that increase heart attack risk can help identify people at risk and clarify molecul
UK scientists have cracked one of the key biological processes used by viruses such as HIV and SARS when they replicate according to a paper published in the journal Nature tomorrow (11 May). Viruses are able to interfere with the host cell processes that our bodies use to replicate cells, and protein synthesis is often one of their targets. For the first time, researchers at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford have witnessed virus-induced “frameshifting” in action and have been able to iden
Leukemia – or cancer of the bone marrow – strikes some 700 Belgians each year. Chronic Eosinophilic Leukemia (CEL), a specific form of leukemia, is currently treated with Glivec. However, recent research has shown that prolonged usage can cause resistance to Glivec, rendering this chronic form of leukemia untreatable. Researchers from the Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology (VIB) connected to the Catholic University of Leuven have now discovered that another drug, Sorafenib (Nexav
It sounds like one of those curiosities which pops up in wildlife documentaries, but the African clawed frog could prove a powerful ally for scientists working in the key area of stem cell research. Researchers at the University of Edinburgh have discovered that the distinctive species – which has become popular in recent years as a domestic pet – shares with humans the same genetic mechanism that enables embryonic stem cells to divide without limit. This process, which gives embryonic stem ce
Scientists at UCL (University College London) have discovered that even wasps are driven by their status. The study, published today in Nature, shows that lower-ranked female wasps work harder to help their queen than those higher up the chain because they have less to lose, and consequently are prepared to take more risks and wear themselves out.
The study, funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), reveals that those higher up the chain and therefore with a gr
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