The Institute of Metabolic Science in Cambridge UK is set to receive £24 million from the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council to expand its work in metabolic disease and investigate the causes and consequences of obesity.
Research funded by a Norwegian-based group has recently shown that primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC), a rare disorder affecting the liver, is a distinct disease with its own genetic architecture. Previously it was thought to be a sub-set of inflammatory bowel disease. Published in Nature Genetics on 21 April, the research associates nine new genetic regions with PSC, raising the total to 16.
A consortium led by Merus BV of the Netherlands is set to receive €5.9 million from the European Union’s FP7 programme to develop a prospective antibody-based therapy and screening tools for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.
Scientists at the University of Cambridge have reported identifying a pathway that generates aberrant forms of proteins said to be at the root of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.
Advocates of stem-cell research have applauded the recent report that US scientists have successfully reprogrammed human skin cells to become embryonic stem cells capable of transforming into any other cell type in the body.
Researchers at Harvard University have reported the discovery of a hormone, betatrophin, that appears to control the proliferation of beta cells, which are essential in the storage and release of insulin in the human body.
A rare genetic mutation that confers a high risk for osteoporosis and osteoporosis-related traits has been reported by investigators in Iceland. The finding, which was reported on 5 May in Nature, relates to a nonsense mutation of the gene LGR4.
Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California have discovered an antibody that can trigger the transformation of bone marrow stem cells directly into brain cells – something that reportedly has not been done before.
A revolutionary T-cell immunotherapy developed by scientists at the University of Pennsylvania in the US has demonstrated a positive result in acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), an aggressive form of childhood cancer. The results of the treatment, which was administered to two patients aged seven and 10, are scheduled to appear in the 18 April 2013 edition of The New England Journal of Medicine. A summary of the study was released early on 25 March.
The management of large pharmaceutical companies often struggle in deciding which products to bring forward into the expensive final stage of development. However, two venture capital companies have developed a way of ‘underwriting’ so that pharma can have more choices.