Predicting the Future of Green Energy and Technolo...

The past few years have shown us advancement in green technology that people never thought could ever be possible. Harvesting energy from everyday things has shown that there are serious and cost efficient alternatives to fossil fuels and other environmental pollutants. While the green technology that we have right now is nothing short of amazing, it’s the technology that should start appearing in the next few decades that...

Why Lab Pregnancy Tests Promote Better Health

Becoming pregnant is a milestone in most women’s lives, and testing for pregnancy is an exciting time when a concrete “yes” or “no” are needed in answering the big question at hand. Having a 100% accurate answer is not only detrimental to the emotional and psychological health of the potential mother-to-be, but it is also vital to ensure the healthy development of the baby. There are many options available for...

Battered Helicos Files for Chapter 11

Battered by years of rough financial sledding and tough competition from rival next-generation sequencing companies, Helicos Biosciences filed Thursday for protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. In its filing (Case 12-19091) in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Massachusetts, Helicos listed $15.478 million in liabilities and only $3.503 million in assets. On the day of its...

StemCyte and UC Davis Tethered in Umbilical Cord B...

StemCyte entered an agreement with the UC Davis Umbilical Cord Blood Collection (UCB) Program to advance the collection, processing, and registration of high quality and diverse cord blood cells from California mothers for public banking. According to the company, the agreement is the first of its kind under California’s statewide program. Legislation signed into law in 2010 called for the University of California to...

Developing Chicken-Derived mAbs

Crystal Bioscience and Integral Molecular launched a research collaboration to generate panels of chicken monoclonal antibodies against undisclosed therapeutic GPCR and ion channel targets. According to the firms, the collaboration will leverage the synergy between Integral Molecular’s Lipoparticle technology for immunization with native conformation multispanning membrane proteins and Crystal’s GEM technology...

What You Shouldn’t be Doing for Your Health

While the American population is not as healthy as it should be right now, we’re at a wonderful point in history, whereby there are cures and treatments for the most common diseases and conditions. Regardless of age, gender or race, there are many maladies to which you may be prone, and some of them may be hereditary and/or preventable. Various types of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity and blood pressure issues,...

Developing a New Blood Test for Multiple Sclerosis

DioGenix formed an alliance with Fast Forward, a subsidiary of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, to develop a novel blood test for multiple sclerosis (MS). Fast Forward will provide up to $500,000 as part of a Sponsored Research Agreement that will enable DioGenix to expand an ongoing clinical trial of its MS diagnostic, MSPrecise™, a next-generation sequencing assay that measures changes to the adaptive immune...

Horizon Applies Gene Editing to Huntington’s Disea...

Horizon Discovery inked a gene-editing research collaboration with the Institute of Neurology, University College London. The partnership will focus on the creation of human isogenic disease model cell lines with insertion of Huntington’s disease-causing triplet repeats. The company will provide UCL with access to GENESIS, its rAAV-mediated human gene-editing platform. This collaboration is a novel one for Horizon:...

HPV Vaccine Benefits Women with HIV

A vaccine for human papillomavirus (HPV) may benefit women with HIV, even if they have already been exposed to HPV, according to a study released by an NIH research network. The study, published in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes in an article titled “Prevalence and Risk Factors for HPV in HIV-Positive Young Women Receiving Their First HPV Vaccination”, notes that more than 45% of women...

XenoPort and GSK End Horizant Collaboration

XenoPort has reached an agreement with Glaxo Group (GSK) to terminate their collaboration agreement concerning Horizant® (gabapentin enacarbil) extended-release tablets, for which GSK held commercialization rights and certain development rights in the United States. GSK is returning Horizant rights to XenoPort and providing certain assistance during a transition period. The termination and transition agreement also...