News

Food for Thought: Weekly Wrap-Up

Joachim Müller-Jung in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) reports on the rapid spread of infections with enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) in Germany. In about 20-25% of cases, the disease leads to the life-threatening hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) associated with kidney failure. Jung reports about promising treatment strategies using Soliris eculizumab. The monoclonal antibody by Alexion Pharmaceuticals has been approved in the US and the EU in 2007 for the treatment of paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria.

Also in FAZ, Nicola von Lutterotti features results from molecular psychiatry studies in children brought up in orphanages and adults suffering from trauma. Results demonstrate that there is a strong association between length of stay in an orphanage and factors like learning ability as well as length of telomers. Adults suffering severe trauma during childhood also have significantly shorter telomers.

In Focus, Monika Preuk reports on instant dental implants for diabetics, osteoporosis patients and smokers. These patients often cannot undergo conventional implantation procedures that need careful planning and complex steps of building bone material, placement of titanium posts and periods of long healing times. The new method involves skewed planting of very long implants into the healthy parts of the jawbones. The method stabilizes the jawbone so that implants can be planted within a day.

Matthew Herper in Forbes introduces the 25 most innovative countries in biology and medicine based on data provided by SciVal analytics, an Elsevier division. The complex analysis is based on publications output, number of citations, etc. Still the US dominates the fields, and papers by US scientists are more likely to be cited by other researchers than those in any country – except the Netherlands and Switzerland.

Andrew Pollack in the New York Times introduces Sherwood L. Gorbach, a researcher who helped to develop Dificid, a novel antibiotic against severe diarrheas. The drug by Optimer Pharmaceuticals has just been approved by FDA for the treatment of Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea.

The Economist features new attempts to vaccinate people against drug abuse. The challenging task is to develop an effective vaccine against  really small and therefore very flexible molecules. A new trick applied for the design of a metamphetamine vaccine uses computer models to design haptens mimicking various metamphetamine-shapes and using these haptens to generate antibodies. Already it has been possible to generate efficacious metamphetamine-antibodies in mice with this method.

And finally, Die Zeit this week deals with the question whether mosquitos get drunk upon sucking blood from drunk people. The answer to the question is that after the blood meal, the mosquitos have about half the blood alcohol concentration of their victim. However, it is unclear whether they show behavioral deficits thereafter. 😉

Company News: SuppreMol Obtains Option to In-License Antibody Against Interleukin 3 for Rheumatoid Arthritis

SuppreMol GmbH, a privately held biopharmaceutical company developing innovative therapeutics for the treatment of autoimmune diseases, today announced that it has closed an agreement to in-license an antibody directed against interleukin 3 (IL-3), which has been developed by the Molecular Immunology research group led by Prof. Dr. Matthias Mack at the University of Regensburg.

IL-3, a growth factor primarily produced by activated T cells, stimulates growth and differentiation of monocytes, basophils and other leukocyte populations from the bone marrow in an immune response. Recently, the team of Prof. Mack was able to demonstrate that IL-3 plays an important role in the onset of Rheumatoid Arthritis, an autoimmune disease characterized by a chronic inflammation of the joints and other organs affecting up to one percent of the population in the industrialized world. The disease commonly leads to significant disability and reduction in the quality of life and is connected with significant costs for patients and the health care systems.

Therapy with an antibody-based IL-3 inhibitor, either in early stages or during flares and exacerbations, may provide a new class of treatment for patients suffering from Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Further details can be found here.

 

Company News: Curetis AG Successfully Increases Series A Round to EUR 24.5 Million

Curetis AG, an innovative molecular diagnostics company focusing on the development and commercialization of in-vitro diagnostic products for infectious diseases, today announced an extension of its Series A financing, bringing the total size of the round to € 24.5 million. CD-Venture joined the funding as a new investor, while all of Curetis’ existing VC investors participated in the round. Several private investors also continued to co-invest.

Following the appointment of Oliver Schacht, PhD, as the new CEO of Curetis last month, this financing transaction is the first step towards funding next year’s commercial launch and roll-out of the Unyvero product platform together with the first CE marked IVD test cartridge for pneumonia and antibiotic resistances in Europe. The additional funds will allow Curetis to pursue a more aggressive strategy towards initiating a US clinical trial in H2-2011 with a goal of filing for FDA approval in 2012. This Series A financing positions Curetis as a solidly funded molecular diagnostics company with near-term commercial-stage products and its unique platform solution addressing a clear unmet medical need in the rapid diagnosis of infectious diseases and antibiotic resistance.

Curetis’ CEO Oliver Schacht will present an update on the company at the upcoming BioEquity 2011 in Paris. The presentation is scheduled for May 23, 2011, at 5:00 pm CET, Room Pont de Sully.

Further details can be found here.

 

Food for Thought: Weekly Wrap-Up

Sascha Karberg in Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (FAS) features the latests attempts of biologists to understand and replicate the endosymbiosis of cyanobacteria and cells of eucaryotes that led to the chloroplasts found in all green plants. Already in the 1970s, biologists successfully incorporated cyanobacteria into an amoeba and meanwhile, several animals carrying endosymbionts providing them with extra energy from the sun have been discovered. This is now replicated in the lab. Using genetically engineered cyanobacteria, scientist recently created zebrafish larvae as well as mice and hamster cells with endosymbionts that not only survive but replicate. Karberg also explains why this will not lead to green cows living on sunlight.

Silvia von der Weiden in Die Welt introduces novel findings about the role of water molecules in protecting and maintaining the DNA geometry. Reducing or expanding the size of the water sheath covering the DNA changes the conformation of the molecule as if activating a switch. The findings may be used to create novel DNA-based nanotools or develop DNA-binding drugs to influence gene activation.

In Forbes, Mattew Herper features a graph proving Moore’s law wrong – at least in the decline of cost of DNA sequencing: the cost of getting DNA data (i.e. cost per genome as well as per megabyte of DNA sequence) is dropping way faster than the cost of processing data on computers. In a separate article, Herper endorses Wall Street’s forecast, that Pfizer’s Prevnar 13 vaccine against pneumococcus infections will be the company’s biggest seller in five years.

The Economist features an Italian engineering firm developing a system to collect oil spills in the sea that is based on wool. Already the company has been granted a patent of its containerized, ship-based kit. After absorbing the oil, the wool is pressed to recover the oil and the reused.

Andrew Pollack in the New York Times reports about setbacks in the development of treatments based on stem cells. Experiments recently  showed that induced pluripotent stem cells – which are thought to be superior both ethically and technically to embryonic stem cells – are rejected by the immune system. However, it is not yet clear whether the results obtained in mice hold true for humans, too.

 

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