Science news
- Australian Diabetes researcher receives Kellion Award
- Diabetes drug may be effective against cancer
- Edible vaccines may be the way of the future
- Experimental vaccine for pancreatic cancer produces encouraging results
- Human immunity and biodefence research awarded US$85 million
- National Institutes of Health award US$51million for autoimmune research
- New two-step AIDS treatment
- Software package to streamline DNA sequencing experiments
Australian Diabetes researcher receives Kellion Award
September 19 – Diabetes researcher Professor Paul Zimmet has been honoured with the Kellion Award for his contribution to the field. Zimmet is currently director of the International Diabetes Institute and chairman of AGT Bioscience's scientific advisory board. The award was presented at the Australian Diabetes Society / Australian Diabetes Educators Association scientific meeting in Melbourne. Zimmet presented the keynote lecture at the conference entitled 'The devil that is diabetes', likening the disease to the AIDS epidemic of the last century.
[Source: Australian Diabetes Society]
Diabetes drug may be effective against cancer
September 15 – Researchers at Georgetown University's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center have decoded the molecular process by which a class of anti-diabetes drugs inhibit cancer tumour growth. The results were published in Molecular and Cellular Biology, and the researchers are now investigating whether these anti-diabetes drugs, known as glitazones, could eventually be used as anti-cancer drugs. Glitazones are marketed by SmithKline Beecham as Avandia and by Eli Lilly as Actos. The study is the first to find a direct link between a gene causing breast and other cancers, and a gene linked to diabetes and the production of fat cells.
[Source: Georgetown University]
Edible vaccines may be the way of the future
September 16 – Singaporean researchers have created zebrafish that produce hepatitis B vaccine in their muscles, and believe the same could done with more commonly eaten fish such as salmon. The catch is that the fish would have to be eaten raw because cooking would destroy the vaccine. The next stage of the research is to test the fish on animals to see if eating it has a protective effect against the disease. Previous attempts to create edible vaccines in plants or animals have failed because they do not produce enough protein, however zebrafish produce large amounts of protein. Also, using fish would be cheaper than any other animal, and the risk of disease being passed on to humans would be minimised.
[Source: Checkbiotech]
Experimental vaccine for pancreatic cancer produces encouraging results
September 23 – Early tests of an experimental pancreatic cancer vaccine have raised hopes for a new treatment for one of the deadliest cancers. Although pancreatic cancer is not as common as other cancers it is one of the most difficult to treat because of how far the disease spreads before being diagnosed. A pilot study conducted by researchers at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre in New York found that three out of 10 patients treated with the vaccine were still alive between two and five years after treatment. Although the research is still at a very early stage the results are looking promising.
[Source: Reuters]
Human immunity and biodefence research awarded US$85 million
September 18 – The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases recently announced the award of US$85 million in grants over four-and-a-half years. The funds will be used by five US research institutes and universities to develop a better understanding of the human immune response to potential agents of bioterror, and to develop vaccines and therapies. The program will form a biodefence network and is focussed on moving new findings about the functioning of the human immune system out of the lab and into clinical trials.
[Source: National Institutes of Health]
National Institutes of Health award US$51 million for autoimmune research
September 26 – The National Institutes of Health have awarded nine five-year grants for research into autoimmune diseases, which result from the body turning on itself. The grants total approximately US$51 million and were made to the Autoimmunity Centers of Excellence. The Centers will conduct clinical trials and basic research on new immune-based therapies for autoimmune disease. The program is aimed at speeding up the translation of research findings into medical applications by increasing interaction between scientists and medical practitioners. More than 80 clinically distinct autoimmune diseases have been identified, and are caused by the misdirection of an immune response toward the body's own tissue.
[Source: National Institutes of Health]
New two-step AIDS treatment
September 17 – US researchers claim a new two-step approach to the treatment of AIDS may offer the first hope for controlling a lifelong infection. The treatment involves first flushing the virus out of hiding then killing it with a toxic antibody. The technique works in mice and is ready to be tested on monkeys. The treatment will not provide an AIDS cure, but may eventually stop people having to take the powerful drug cocktails that are currently used to keep the virus at bay, resulting in severe side-effects from diarrhoea to heart disease. Highly active antiretroviral therapy can keep patients healthy for decades, but fails to reach a latent virus which lays dormant for long periods of time. This new treatment offers a way to reach the latent virus, but is not a cure because the virus is believed to hide in other reservoirs, including certain brain cells.
[Source: Reuters]
Software package to streamline DNA sequencing experiments
September 16 – Two research scientists have developed a new software package aimed at speeding up DNA sequencing experiments by streamlining the process of creating virtual clones and choosing vectors. The Virtual Cloning Suite is expected to be available for beta testing by late this year or early next year. Currently available programs are cumbersome and time consuming, according to the researchers, causing molecular biologists to either do a lot of work by hand or to create their own software. The new software generates an assembly of DNA sequences from the criteria for a particular cloning experiment, which is entered into the program by the scientist.
[Source: IDG News Service]
