A clinical trial to evaluate the safety of using a so-called gene vector to deliver a corrective gene to 12 patients with a common hereditary disorder that causes lung and liver disease is completed at the University of Florida. The gene therapy has caused no harmful effects in patients and hints at being effective.
To find a cure for cancer, the modern-day plague of our society — is synonymous to finding the holy grail of science. At a recent EuroDYNA conference in Brno, Czech Republic, scientists from around Europe came together to share their research carried out in the field of genetics and cell nucleus architecture. A greater understanding of the body’s building blocks might ultimately lead to a better understanding of human disease.
Being exposed to high levels of nutrition before birth can influence the development of networks within the brain that regulate appetite to permanently set a pattern of appetite for life, according to researchers from the University of South Australia.
The runners had significantly more signs of non-melanoma skin cancer compared with age- and sex-matched controls, reported Christina M. Ambros-Rudolph, M.D., Medical University of Graz, and colleagues, in the November issue of the Archives of Dermatology.
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is launching the largest randomized clinical trial of the effectiveness and safety of long-term, home oxygen therapy for COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). The six-year, $28 million project will study patients with moderate disease.
The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) today announced the results of the recent competition for support of its three large-scale sequencing centers, strengthening efforts to use the power of DNA sequencing to unlock the genomic secrets of human diseases. Also today, NHGRI and the National Cancer Institute (NCI), both part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), announced that all three sequencing centers will devote a significant part of their efforts to The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Pilot Project, which is testing the feasibility of a large-scale, systematic approach to identify important genomic changes involved in cancer.
After a doctor sees a patient, he or she often prescribes medications. But what if such a doctor also wants to direct a patient to up-to-date, reliable, consumer-friendly information about a genetic condition, or an explanation of the basics of genetic science? Under a new program launched today, practitioners are being encouraged to refer their patients to Genetics Home Reference, a free, patient-friendly Web site of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), at http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov.
On the occasion of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Centennial year, the FDA hosted an inaugural international summit of heads of medical products regulatory agencies in Washington, D.C., November 16-17, 2006.
GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK), one of the world?s largest vaccine manufacturers, today announced it has been awarded a contract to supply pre-pandemic vaccines to the US strategic national stockpile. The company has received an initial $40 million order under the contract from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for bulk H5N1 antigen – the substance in the vaccines that will help produce an immune response.
Compounds known to play an important role in how insects develop from larvae to adults have been shown in a mouse model for congestive heart failure to be effective in preventing and reducing cardiac cell overgrowth and irregular heart rhythms, according to UC Davis research published in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.