Archives for the 'news2' Category
[Video Profile] TearLab Corporation
Patients who dread traditional blood tests (and the accompanying needles) may one day have reason to rejoice. San Diego device company TearLab is developing a point-of-care diagnostic test that uses tears to identify disease-indicating protein biomarkers.[Video Profile] Inovio Biomedical Corporation
Solid tumors represent 85 percent of all cancers, creating a huge clinical need for localized, site-specific cancer treatment. Inovio Medical Corporation of San Diego is developing DNA-based vaccines that harness the body’s immune system to prevent and treat chronic diseases such as cancer and HIV.New Test May Predict Risk of Breast Cancer Metastasis
Center have created a test that could help doctors identify which breast cancer patients need aggressive therapy. The study, published in the online version of Clinical Cancer Research, could prevent many women from undergoing unnecessary chemotherapy or radiation treatment.Recommended Reading: Navigating the Sea Change
After 40-plus years since the biotechnology industry began, it finally turned a profit in 2008. Yet this “good news” story has been overshadowed by the events that besieged the industry in the final four months of the year.
With life sciences leaders struggling to make sense of this turbulent period, Biotech 2009: Life Sciences arrives just in time. Entitled Navigating the Sea Change, the 23rd edition of Burrill & Company’s annual report on the industry provides a compass to guide you through the current financial turmoil. Smart, accessible, and indispensable, it contains unique analysis and perspective on the performance of the industry in 2009 and projections for 2009 and beyond.
Companies had enjoyed nearly 40 years of easy access to inexpensive capital, but now markets have permanently restructured, making access to capital more difficult and expensive. Navigating the Sea Change will help you
Two Studies Cast Doubt On Common Prostate Cancer Test
A common prostate-cancer screening test may be largely ineffective, according to two new studies. Scientists in the U.S. and Europe found that the PSA blood test saves few lives and leads to unnecessary treatments for large numbers of men.[Video Profile] eCardio Diagnostics
Identifying a cardiac arrhythmia is an important first step in diagnosing a potentially life-threatening heart condition. Texas-based eCardio Diagnostics, a leading provider of digital holter monitors, seeks to improve the speed and accuracy of this process.State of the Art: Anti-Adhesion Barriers
Many patients are concerned about the external scars that form following surgical procedures, but a much greater risk can come from internal scarring. Adhesions are a type of post-surgical scar tissue that forms between two internal organs or surfaces that are normally separated.Two Studies Show Potential for Treating Drug-Resistant TB
Tuberculosis, or TB, is one of the world’s most widespread lethal diseases, killing someone every 20 seconds. An estimated one-third of the world’s population is infected with tuberculosis. Current medications for TB must be taken for six months, but many patients stop before they’ve completed the full course, which has caused drug-resistant strains of TB to develop in recent years. However, two new studies are showing promise in treating this highly infectious disease. According to Science Daily, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University found that a combination of two FDA-approved antibiotics showed potential for treating drug-resistant TB. One of the drugs, clavulanate, inhibits a bacterial enzyme that normally protects TB bacteria from the other antibiotic (meropenem). Clinical trials of the combined treatment are scheduled to take place later this year in South Africa and South Korea.The Medical Home: Babysitting the Baby Before it’s Born
Israel-based Biopad has developed a device to monitor a baby’s kicking inside the womb, reports Israel21c. The product was developed to help prevent stillbirths, which are 10 times more likely than deaths resulting from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and amount to about 30,000 of all births each year in the US. The makers of the device claim that some of these deaths could be avoided if women had a way to monitor the kick rate of their babies starting from the 22nd week of pregnancy. They are referring to the correlation between fetal movement and stillbirth that has been found. Today, clinicians rely on kick rates in the womb as an indicator of the baby’s health, asking expectant mothers to pay attention to it and to report to an emergency room immediately should the movements stop or decrease significantly. This
In Septic Shock: Are We in the Early Stages of a Sepsis Epidemic?
Few people outside the medical profession have even heard of Sepsis, the third most common cause of death for hospitalized patients in the developed world, behind heart disease and cancer. 30% of the 1 million people afflicted each year die because a bacterial infection, originating anywhere in the body, has lead to Sepsis, an “overreaction” by the immune system causing destructive inflammation throughout the body, leading to multiple organ failure. Even the best intensive care units are challenged not only by finding an adequate treatment for the disease; but by simply being able to diagnose it before it is too late. While the condition is not unexpected amongst sick and elderly hospital patients, there have been an alarming number of recent cases where a young and healthy person has died within days as the result of a small scratch. Some
