Recovery, purification of therapeutic proteins an economic and scientific challenge

The economics of producing biopharmaceuticals from transgenic plants such as tobacco is still a roadblock to producing large quantities of urgently needed medicines, especially for people in underdeveloped nations. Chenming (Mike) Zhang is testing a variety of ways to economically recover recombinant proteins from transgenic tobacco using different protein separation techniques.

Zhang, an a

Finnish company Jurilab has announced the completion of a genome-wide scan in Acute Myocardial Infarction in the East Finland Founder Population. The study gives invaluable insight into the interplay of different genes and pathways leading to coronary disease. The study has re-affirmed the majority of genes previously known to be associated with AMI. The new genes discovered include also ones, which appear to give humans a strong protection against coronary disease.

“These discov

Peginterferon and ribavirin treatment produce significantly better viral control

Since the introduction of highly active combination drug therapy for HIV, liver failure attributable to infection with the hepatitis C virus (HCV) has become a leading cause of death among those infected with the virus that causes AIDS. Now a multi-center study has found that the newest treatment for patients infected with HCV alone also helps those infected with both pathogens by significantly impro

Brush, then squash. Remember those three words and that technique the next time you catch a mosquito dining on your arm or leg, and you’ll go a long way to protecting yourself from a potentially lethal parasitic micro-organism that may be in the mosquito, and is especially dangerous to those with weakened immune systems.

A study by Rutgers-Newark biology professor Ann Cali and others published in the New England Journal of Medicine in July indicates that microsporidia, a group of op

’Selective approval’ would require follow up studies to identify most appropriate patients

One of the most promising new strategies for cancer treatment is the development of drugs that directly target molecular abnormalities that lead to the growth of tumors. Several such drugs have received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval in recent years, but some have been controversial because the data on which they were approved did not clearly define which patients will most bene

Children who have severe allergic reactions when stung by bees, wasps and other insects should receive venom immunotherapy, or allergy shots, to reduce the chance of future life-threatening reactions if a repeat sting should occur, said an allergist at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.

In an editorial published in today’s issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Rebecca Gruchalla, chief of the allergy division of internal medicine and associate professor of pedi

Boys exposed to persistent levels of cocaine in the womb are more likely to have behavioral problems like hyperactivity in their early school years, new research suggests.

But girls who had prenatal exposure to similar amounts of cocaine were not more likely to suffer from the same problems, Virginia Delaney-Black, M.D., of Children’s Hospital of Michigan and colleagues found. The study results are published in the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics.

While

Telomere crisis is an important early event in the development of breast cancer, and its occurrence can be identified with precision, according to recent findings by a team of scientists at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California at San Francisco. Their report is now available through advance online publication of Nature Genetics.

Joe Gray, director of Berkeley Lab’s Life Sciences Division and a professor of laboratory medicin

The expression pattern of certain genes may someday help doctors to diagnose and predict whether or not an individual has an aggressive form of B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), Jefferson cancer researchers have found.

Scientists, led by Carlo Croce, M.D., director of Jefferson’s Kimmel Cancer Center and professor and chair of microbiology and immunology at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, looked at the expression of genes that

Using a new molecular genetic technique, scientists have turned procrastinating primates into workaholics by temporarily suppressing a gene in a brain circuit involved in reward learning. Without the gene, the monkeys lost their sense of balance between reward and the work required to get it, say researchers at the NIH’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).

“The gene makes a receptor for a key brain messenger chemical, dopamine,” explained Barry Richmond, M.D., NIMH Labo

Investigators from an international consortium of research institutes, including the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, have identified compounds that mimic the effects of a low calorie diet without changing the amount of essential nutrients. The researchers believe it may be possible to design drugs that imitate many of the beneficial effects of calorie restriction resulting in the prevention of diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer, which are more common in people w

Hospital patients increasingly face tenacious bacterial infections because microbes found in hospitals acquire resistance to commonly prescribed antibiotics. A recent strategy alternating the most commonly used antibiotics has sparked hope of stopping the spread of antibiotic resistance.

But a new model shows that the practice of cycling – alternating between two or more classes of antibiotics as often as every few months – probably will not work. It is an unexpected finding at a

People who have heart attacks or other heart conditions who do not experience chest pain are commonly overlooked and undertreated at the hospital, often resulting in greater fatality rates in this group of patients. A new study in the August issue of CHEST, the peer-reviewed journal of the American College of Chest Physicians, shows that cardiac patients presenting to the hospital without chest pain have triple the death rate of other cardiac patients and are less likely to receive medications to slo

A computer-based simulation model suggests that short-term hormone therapy (HT) is associated with increases in quality of life for women with menopausal symptoms, but may shorten life expectancy, according to an article in the August 9/23 issue of The Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

According to information in the article, decisions concerning menopausal hormone therapy (HT) are difficult due to the complexity of balancing the risks and benefits of

Findings by a Saint Louis University research team led by the scientist who discovered Sly Syndrome 32 years ago point to a new direction for research into the rare genetic disorder that can cause bone deformities, vision and hearing loss, mental retardation and death in children.

The research is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Online Early Edition the week of Aug. 9.

“The importance of this research goes far beyond this rare disorder,” said

A new implantable device that could send an early-warning signal to your doctor before heart rhythm problems arise, may now be possible thanks to research described in the latest issue of the Institute of Physics journal, Physiological Measurement.

More than five million people worldwide have been diagnosed with the heart disorder atrial fibrillation (AF). In AF, the upper chambers of the heart, the atria, quiver and beat rapidly: a condition that can often lead to heart failure