Research & University News

ImevaX gets funding for vaccine project

Country
Germany

ImevaX GmbH, a 2014 spin-out of the Technische Universität Mϋnchen (TUM) in Germany, has completed a €7.5 million Series A financing round to advance a candidate vaccine against Helicobacter pylori,  a major cause of stomach ulcers.

Plaudits for Harvard beta-cell regeneration

Country
United States

Data showing that robust human pancreatic beta cells can be produced in vitro is being described as a breakthrough for modern science and specifically for the future treatment of Type 1 diabetes.

Genomics England lists candidate suppliers

Country
United Kingdom

A project aimed at sequencing the genomes of patients in the UK with cancer and rare, genetic disorders has moved a step closer towards implementation with the selection of a group of potential commercial suppliers of gene analysis services.

Discoveries about the brain win the Nobel Prize

Country
Norway

A scientist at University College London and two from Norway have been awarded the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work in describing how the brain operates a positioning system enabling spatial navigation.

TB trial results published in the NEJM

Country
United States

A Phase 3 study of a new drug regime for tuberculosis, which involved replacing the antibiotic moxifloxacin for one of two other drugs, failed to shorten the treatment time for the disease from six to four months. But the new regime was safe, according to the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development.

Malaria protein described

Country
Denmark

A protein that plays a key role in the blood stage of the malaria parasite has been described by scientists from the University of Oxford, the Jenner Institute and the Denmark-based contract research organisation Expres2ion Biotechnologies. The findings were published online in the journal Nature.

Data said to support cancer hypothesis

Country
United Kingdom

Scancell Holdings Plc said that a study in animals which combined its cancer vaccine SCIB1 with a checkpoint inhibitor showed enhanced tumour destruction and longer survival times, supporting the hypothesis that the best outcomes in humans may be from combination therapy.

How bacteria evade treatment

Country
United Kingdom

Scientists from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute have for the first time located single-letter changes in the DNA code of Streptococcus pneumoniae which enable the bacterium to evade treatment with antibiotics. The discovery was made using a genome-wide association study.

UK to launch genome project

Country
United Kingdom

The UK government has enlisted the services of Illumina Inc and a number of public bodies to launch a project aimed at sequencing the genomes of up to 100,000 patients with cancer or a rare disease in order to discover new ways of treating the disorders.

NIH to fund epigenetic database

Country
United States

A division of the US National Institutes of Health is to support the creation of a new database that will enable the study of the interaction of more than 1,400 Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs and drug-like compounds with more than 30 epigenetic enzymes.