Drug Development
Old drug may point way to new treatments for diabetes, obesity
February 11, 2013 8:25 am | News | CommentsResearchers at the University of Michigan's Life Sciences Institute have found that amlexanox, an off-patent drug currently prescribed for the treatment of asthma and other uses, also reverses obesity, diabetes, and fatty liver in mice.
Partial fix found in mice for genetic disease
February 9, 2013 10:22 am | by JANET McCONNAUGHEY - Associated Press - Associated Press | News | CommentsIn a promising step against a genetic disease that causes deafness and gradual loss of vision, scientists have partly restored hearing with a single injection to young mice. Experts praised the study on Usher syndrome, but the results are still a long way from preventing the disease.
Lilly stops rheumatoid arthritis treatment study
February 7, 2013 10:33 am | by The Associated Press | News | CommentsDrug developer Eli Lilly and Co. is stopping clinical testing of an experimental rheumatoid arthritis treatment because it wasn't working. The Indianapolis company said Thursday it will continue studying the potential drug, tabalumab, as a possible treatment for a form of the autoimmune disorder lupus and the bone marrow cancer multiple myeloma.
U.S. warns of new fake batch of cancer drug Avastin
February 6, 2013 12:25 pm | by The Associated Press | News | CommentsThe Food and Drug Administration is warning U.S. doctors about another counterfeit version of the cancer drug Avastin, the third case involving the best-selling Roche drug in the past year. The FDA said in an online post Tuesday that at least one batch of the drug distributed by a New York company does not contain the active ingredient in real Avastin, which is used to treat cancers of the colon, lung, kidney, and brain.
Beer’s bitter compounds could help brew new medicines
January 29, 2013 3:44 pm | News | CommentsResearchers employing a century-old observational technique have determined the precise configuration of humulones, substances derived from hops that give beer its distinctive flavor. That might not sound like a big deal to the average brewmaster, but the findings overturn results reported in scientific literature in the last 40 years and could lead to new pharmaceuticals to treat diabetes, some types of cancer, and other maladies.
FDA accepts application for new Sanofi MS drug
January 28, 2013 11:17 am | by The Associated Press | News | CommentsFrench drugmaker Sanofi said Monday that the Food and Drug Administration will review its experimental multiple sclerosis treatment Lemtrada. Genzyme, Sanofi's U.S. biotech business, said the FDA will conduct a standard 10-month review and will make a decision on the drug in late 2013.
Novartis meningitis vaccine wins EU approval
January 22, 2013 8:38 am | by The Associated Press | News | CommentsEuropean regulators have approved the first vaccine against meningitis B, made by Swiss drugmaker Novartis. Novartis said Tuesday that the European Commission approved Bexsero for use in patients ages 2 months and older, and the company will make the vaccine available as soon as possible.
Study quantifies the size of holes antibacterials create in cell walls to kill bacteria
January 10, 2013 2:08 pm | News | CommentsResearch has shown that alternative antimicrobials such as PlyC can effectively kill bacteria. However, fundamental questions remain about how bacteria respond to the holes that these therapeutics make in their cell wall and what size holes bacteria can withstand before breaking apart. Answering those questions could improve the effectiveness of current antibacterial drugs and initiate the development of new ones. Researchers recently conducted a study to try to answer those questions.
Bind and Amgen in $180M cancer drug research deal
January 8, 2013 11:29 am | by The Associated Press | News | CommentsDrug developer Bind Biosciences said Tuesday that it will study potential cancer treatments with biotechnology company Amgen Inc. as part of a deal that could be worth more than $180 million. Bind is conducting preclinical and early-stage trials of drugs it calls Accurins.
New compound overcomes drug-resistant Staph infection in mice
January 7, 2013 11:37 am | News | CommentsResearchers have discovered a new compound that restores the health of mice infected with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), an otherwise dangerous bacterial infection. The new compound targets an enzyme not found in human cells but which is essential to bacterial survival.
Industrial R&D—Life Science
December 18, 2012 7:32 am | by Martin Grueber, Research Leader, Battelle and Tim Studt, Editorial Director, Advantage Business Media | Articles | CommentsIncreasing healthcare costs, aging populations, and rising prevalence of chronic diseases are among the factors that will continue to shape the direction of industrial life science R&D in 2013. Technology deployment in healthcare information technology and analytics will also have an increasing impact on research while contributing to efficiency and quality.
Controlled Success
December 14, 2012 11:42 am | by Paul Livingstone | Articles | CommentsFrom an early age, the 2012 Scientist of the Year knew that his knowledge of chemistry could make a difference in medicine. He’s still exploring just how much impact that can be.
A second ascent of chemistry's Mt. Everest
December 12, 2012 4:41 pm | News | CommentsResearchers in China are reporting success in one of the most difficult challenges in synthetic chemistry—a field in which scientists reproduce natural and other substances from jars of chemicals in a laboratory. The feat involved the synthesis of a rare substance with promising in vitro anti-cancer effects found naturally in tiny amounts in a Chinese medicinal herb. Without synthetic chemistry, scientists could never attain enough to pursue a viable drug compound.
J&J seeks approval of combination diabetes pill
December 12, 2012 2:35 pm | by The Associated Press | News | CommentsJohnson & Johnson said Wednesday that it filed for marketing approval of a drug that combines its experimental diabetes treatment canagliflozin with metformin, an older drug. The pill is intended to treat type 2 diabetes, in which the body doesn't produce enough insulin or the body's cells don't react properly to it.
Researchers turn harmful greenhouse gas into tool for making pharmaceuticals
December 7, 2012 8:22 am | News | CommentsA team of chemists at the University of Southern California has developed a way to transform a hitherto useless ozone-destroying greenhouse gas that is the byproduct of Teflon and manufacture and transform it into reagents for producing pharmaceuticals. The method is now being patented.
Individual cells respond to electrical signal
December 6, 2012 1:09 pm | News | CommentsIn an effort to aid the administration of medication at the cellular level, researchers in The Netherlands have pioneer a way to control or speed up the process of binding ligands, or antibodies, to diseased cells. This ability relies on a new method that uses supramolecules to electrically switch the behavior of individual cells.
Glowing fish shed light on metabolism
December 3, 2012 11:48 am | News | CommentsEmerging from a panel of 2,400 medications and drug-like compounds tested in a tiny zebrafish, a compound has been pinpointed by researchers who say it regulates whole-body metabolism and appears to protect obese mice from signs of metabolic disorders. The discovery may help drug discovery efforts to help help the rising population of Americans adults at risk for diabetes and other metabolic disorders.
BioMAP could streamline search for new antibiotics
November 26, 2012 12:57 pm | News | CommentsResearchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz have developed a new strategy for finding novel antibiotic compounds, using a diagnostic panel of bacterial strains for screening chemical extracts from natural sources. The screening procedure, called BioMAP (antibiotic mode of action profile), promises to streamline the discovery of new antibiotics from natural sources by providing a low-cost, high-throughput platform for identifying compounds with novel antibiotic properties.
Gene find turns soldier beetle defence into biotech opportunity
November 8, 2012 11:49 am | News | CommentsSoldier beetles have a potent predator defence system, which a research team in Australia discovered was powered by an exotic fatty acid called dihydromatricaria acid, or DHMA, which is one of a group called polyynes that have known anti-microbial and anti-cancer properties. Researchers have now found the three genes that combine to make this acid, opening a new way to synthesize this difficult-to-reproduce substance.
Team finds new way to inhibit blood clotting, inflammation
November 6, 2012 1:04 pm | News | CommentsScientists have identified a group of small molecules that interfere with the activity of a compound that initiates multiple steps in blood clotting, including those that lead to the obstruction of veins or arteries, a condition called thrombosis. Blocking the activity of this compound, polyphosphate, could treat thrombosis with fewer bleeding side effects than the drugs that are currently on the market.
Additive restores antibiotic effectiveness against MRSA
October 22, 2012 4:50 pm | News | CommentsResearchers from North Carolina State University have increased the potency of a compound that reactivates antibiotics against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Their improved compound removes the bacteria's antibiotic resistance and allows the antibiotic to once again become effective at normal dosage levels.
Water makes a “triple play” at membrane interfaces
October 19, 2012 9:26 am | News | CommentsDrugs that target cell function must pass through a tough gauntlet of membrane defenses. Working from the knowledge that thin water layers at the membrane surfaces play a big part in ion and small molecule transport, scientists using rapid-fire lasers in Japan have revealed that water molecules adopt three distinct local structures around model lipid monolayers. The finding could help drive drug development.
Pfizer: Cancer drug narrowly misses study goal
October 17, 2012 8:11 am | by The Associated Press | News | CommentsPfizer Inc.'s advanced kidney cancer treatment Inlyta missed its main late-stage study goal when compared to another drug in patients who had not been treated for the disease. The New York drugmaker said Wednesday that patients taking Inlyta had a median progression-free survival that exceeded that of patients taking the drug sorafenib, but the difference was not statistically significant.
Two U.S. scientists win Nobel chemistry prize
October 10, 2012 11:05 am | by Karl Ritter and Louise Nordstrom, Associated Press | News | CommentsIn awarding to Americans the Nobel Prize in chemistry Wednesday, The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said Robert Lefkowitz and Brian Kobilka had made groundbreaking discoveries, mainly in the 1980s, on an important family of receptors, known as G-protein-coupled receptors. Studies of these protein receptors have been key for developing better drugs.
Nanoscale drug discovery approach relies on in silico, in vivo, in vitro
October 10, 2012 10:58 am | News | CommentsUsing in silico computational tools to complement the results of in vivo and in vitro experiments, researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have revealed an atomic-level understanding of the mechanism by which nanoparticles inhibit the growth and metastasis of pancreatic tumors. The findings are promising for the development of particle-based therapies.
