Latest Biotechnology, Pharmaceutical and Healthcare News

Melanoma drug joins ‘breakthrough’ club

Earlier this year, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted its first ‘breakthrough therapy designations’ to a pair of cystic fibrosis drugs (see Nat. Med. 19, 116–117, 2013). But since then, it’s been all about the cancer agents.
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Bioengineered kidney makes urine after transplantation

Here’s research that could take the piss out of disease—and it’s no joke. For the first time, scientists reporting in Nature Medicine have created lab-grown kidneys in rats that produce urine after transplantation.  Read more

3D-printed material has tissue-like properties

A rubbery material made using a three-dimensional printer can transmit electrical signals and mechanically fold like biological tissue in predictable ways. The work, published in this week’s issue of Science by researchers at the University of Oxfo...

74 new susceptibility genes found for breast, ovarian and prostate cancer

In the largest cancer genotyping study to date, an international team of scientists spanning more than 160 research groups has identified 74 new genetic regions associated with breast, ovarian or prostate cancer—a near doubling of the number of sus...

Hopkins scientist to lead the NIH’s basic science branch

The US National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)—the $2.4 billion branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) tasked with laying the foundation for research into disease diagnosis, treatment and prevention—has a new leader. Ear...

Patients should learn about secondary genetic risk factors, say recommendations

Imagine getting a chest X-ray to identify the cause of a serious cough. The radiologist finds a shadow that wasn’t causing the cough but could be a tumor. In many cases, it is obvious what to do upon uncovering these sorts of secondary or incidenta...

Stem cell tracking system promises more targeted regenerative therapies

Stem cells hold enormous potential for repairing or regenerating damaged tissue. But delivery of these cells to their target location remains a major obstacle. Now, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine in California have develope...

Red blood cell production relies on white blood cell help

Red blood cell production in the bone marrow is a precarious process. Too few RBCs and you can become anemic; too many and you could be suffering from polycythemia vera, a rare, so-called ‘myeloproliferative’ genetic disorder marked by an abnorma...

Rallying for the future of medical research: Q&A with Jon Retzlaff

Less than a month from now, science advocates hope to bring thousands of people together on the Carnegie Library Grounds at Mt. Vernon Square in Washington, DC,  to stand together in the Rally for Medical Research. The move is, in large part, a resp...

From tumors to tapeworms: parasite’s genome points to new uses for cancer drugs

Commonly used cancer drugs could be repurposed to help eliminate tapeworm infections, according to the first full genome analysis of the human gut pathogen.  Read more

New, intensive trials planned on heels of Mississippi HIV ‘cure’

ATLANTA — Until recently, the medical community held a consensus that children born with HIV might be obliged to take antiretroviral drugs for the rest of their lives. But the announcement made last week that an infant in rural Mississippi who stop...

Potential treatment for severe influenza found in Omega-3 fatty acids

Omega-3 fatty acids, which have an important role in promoting healthy growth and development, have made headlines in recent years for, among other things, their possible cardiovascular benefits. Found in high levels in fish oil, these fatty acids ar...

Antidotes edge closer to reversing effects of new blood thinners

The US approval late last year of the blood thinner Eliquis (apixaban) made it the third blood-thinner pill option to come online in the last three years, all of which have proven to be as or more effective as the old go-to warfarin, with lower rates...

Q&A: How the Brain Activity Map came together—and what its proponents hope to achieve

It was a single tweet. On 12 February, after US President Barack Obama made a subtle nod to a new neuroscience project in his annual State of the Union address, Francis Collins, director of the country’s National Institutes of Health (NIH), posted...

Competition intensifies over market for DNA-based prenatal tests

Prenatal DNA testing has been a fiercely contested market of late. Yet another competitor entered the fray last week when Natera, a startup based in San Carlos, California, announced the 1 March launch date of a commercial test that can detect chromo...

US budget cuts imperil domestic and global biomedical research

In the medical world, the term ‘sequestration’ is usually preceded by the word ‘pulmonary’ or ‘splenic’ and is used to describe rare diseases that are the focus of research grants funded by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). But...

Anemia drug recalled amid safety concerns in dialysis patients

After less than a year on the market, a long-acting anemia drug called Omontys (peginesatide), a once-monthly injection used by people with chronic kidney disease, was recalled over the weekend, after US regulators received 19 reports of severe all...

Antibody–drug combo approved for fighting breast cancer

Drug regulators in the US have already approved a handful of drugs for the treatment of HER2-positive breast cancer, an aggressive form of the disease in which a cell surface protein known as human epidermal growth factor receptor type 2, or HER2, is...

Under scrutiny, India’s premier medical research council faces review

BANGALORE — A high-powered panel set up at the request of India’s Ministry of Finance is reviewing the work of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the country’s primary funding and coordinating body for biomedical research, based in...

Nanoparticles engineered to shuttle cancer drug past immune system

The body’s first line of defense, known as the innate immune system, protects against foreign invaders, including tiny microbes, bacteria or viruses. Yet it also poses a major challenge for therapeutic applications that rely on microscopic drug-del...

Injectable gel repairs damage after heart attack in pigs

As you read this sentence, on average at least one person in the US will have started to clutch her chest. The blood flow to her heart will become blocked and cardiac muscle cells will start to die off and get replaced with scar tissue. This person...

Biotech comes to its ‘antisenses’ after hard-won drug approval

“With any brand new technology, you never know when the world will be ready for it.” So said Paul Boni, an analyst at Punk, Ziegel & Knoll, in 1998 (as quoted by the New York Times), after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved i...

US report calls for international action in the fight against counterfeit drugs

The distribution of counterfeit drugs represents a significant and ever increasing public health concern. Estimated to generate $70 billion in annual sales worldwide, fake or ineffective medications can harm or kill patients, increase legitimate medi...

Mutations that drive early-onset prostate cancer identified, pointing way to specific treatments

Prostate cancer affects an estimated one in every six males who live past the age of 70, making it the most common type of cancer among men worldwide. The majority of prostate cancer cases occur in men 65 years of age or older, but about 2% of cases...

Psychiatrist Sasha Bardey discusses Hollywood’s Side Effects

Life has its ups and downs and everyone gets sad once in a while, but the toll of mental illness can be grave. The numbers reveal that one in ten people in the US takes antidepressants and the nationwide rate of antidepressant use has quadrupled in t...