Scientists believe they have explained why some cancers that appear to have been cured can recur many years or even decades later.
It is well known that in rare cases, cancers can come back even when patients have been free of disease for so long that doctors regard them as cured. Now researchers at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, have found genetic evidence that cancer cells can go to sleep – avoiding the effects of treatment – only to ‘wake up’ many years later. Their study could suggest ways of rooting out dormant cancer cells – eradicating the small...
Horizon’s standards to support proficiency testing of CareDx solid organ transplantation injury monitoring diagnostic assay
CareDx, Inc. (Nasdaq: CDNA), a molecular diagnostics company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of clinically differentiated, high-value, diagnostic surveillance solutions for transplant recipients and Horizon Discovery Group plc (Horizon), an international life science company supplying reagent tools and services that power genomics research and the development of personalized medicines, today announced they have...
Specialised Imaging reports on how UK academic research groups have benefited from use of its SIM series ultra-high speed imaging camera.
The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) has since 1985 offered UK academic institutions free loans of the latest scientific instruments to help further their research projects. In 2008 the EPSRC added a state-of-the-art SIM16 ultra-high speed imaging camera from Specialised Imaging Ltd. to its loan pool facility. Wai Chan, Managing Director of Specialised Imaging commented "Over the last 7 years the EPSRC Loan Pool SIM16...
Smaller, faster and with the gold standard in pathogen killing efficacy, the next generation of microbial eradication technology has just been launched by the world leader in bio-decontamination.
The Bioquell BQ-50 is the result of an innovative R&D endeavour conducted by Bioquell following in-depth market research. Using the latest hydrogen peroxide vapour (HPV) technology to eradicate pathogens, the company has been developing this new system to provide the healthcare sector with an even more efficient and flexible bio-decontamination process. The BQ-50 works by depositing an even layer of ‘micro-condensation’ of HPV over all surfaces to eradicate...
Starting point of a broader drug discovery and development alliance
The Lead Discovery Center GmbH (LDC), a renowned translational drug discovery organization established by Max Planck Innovation, and Qurient Co., Ltd have signed a licence deal providing Qurient with exclusive worldwide rights to a series of highly-selective CDK7 inhibitors discovered at the LDC for the treatment of cancer, inflammation and viral infections. The partners will closely collaborate to advance the approach from the validated lead stage into clinical development. Upon successful proof-of-concept in humans they will jointly identify a suitable partner for follow-on licensing...
University of Leicester study investigates how cardiac surgery can lead to organ damage
A University of Leicester-based research group funded by the British Heart Foundation is drawing on support from patients and members of the public to investigate why cardiac surgery can often result in serious or fatal damage to other organs in the body. The Cardiac Surgery Research team are conducting a series of trials into why almost half of patients having heart surgery develop failure of one or more other organs, such as the lungs or...
Market leaders in temperature controlled microscopy, Linkam Scientific Instruments, are working in partnership with the School of Pharmacy at the University of East Anglia to evaluate a new analytical technique known as TASC - Thermal Analysis by Structural Characterisation.
Dr Sheng Qi is a senior lecturer in pharmaceutics in the School of Pharmacy at the University of East Anglia. Sheng's current research interests focus on gaining a fundamental understanding of the behaviour of drug-polymer/lipid dispersions in solid (phase behaviour) and liquid (in biological fluids) states. She is also developing new approaches for stabilising supersaturated drug dispersions. By working with industrial partners as well as...
Vapourtec have announced a research collaboration with Professor Pengfei Li of the Frontier Institute of Science and Technology (FIST) at Xi'an Jiaotong University in China to develop novel, continuous flow, photochemical reactions using Vapourtec's easy-Photochem reactor system.
The partnership will involve photochemical techniques for the synthesis of novel bioactive molecules and will include both direct and photo-catalysed photochemical reactions. An example of Professor Li's previous work in this area involves a visible light-induced singlet oxidative dearomatization as documented in the following published article: 'Stereocontrolled Construction of the Tricyclic Framework of Tiglianes and Daphnanes by an Oxidative...
As the pace of innovation increases, many companies are switching from the traditional process of ‘one-at-a-time’ analogue synthesis, which is time consuming and highly labour intensive, to more efficient methods.
This was the case in the small, space-limited R&D laboratory at the School of Pharmaceutical Science, Sun Yat-Sen University where they wanted to improve the productivity of experiments, consistency and safety. Using their existing setup of a simple water condenser, heated magnetic stirrer and glass flask for drug synthesis / combination reactions they experienced long reaction times and with limited space, project progress was always slow. After testing...
Wyatt Technology Corporation, the world leader in light scattering tools for nanoparticle and macromolecular characterization, is pleased to announce that this year’s International Light Scattering Colloquium (ILSC) will present a special symposium on the characterization of manufactured, environmental and therapeutic nanoparticles.
Sporting the theme of “Light Scattering in the Nano World”, ILSC 2015 will be held at the beautiful Four Seasons Biltmore Resort in Santa Barbara, CA on November 3-4. Online Registration is available. The full program includes additional presentations on the characterization of biomolecules and polymers in cutting-edge research. Satellite events planned include short courses and a focus meeting on method development...
AMSBIO reports on a study, published in Cell (1), that demonstrates the power of organoids to capture, in three dimensions, the multiple mutations that occur in tumours.
Organoids, small clusters of cells that accurately mimic the behaviour of human tissue, can be used to test cancer drugs and, eventually, to identify effective personalised treatments for patients. In the described research samples from healthy tissue and cancerous tissue were taken from 20 patients with colorectal carcinoma and used to form the organoids. The organoids were then exposed to a range of colorectal cancer treatments as part of a...
Liverpool Chirochem (LCC), a supplier of specialist chemical building blocks within pharmaceutical research and development (R&D), is pleased to announce that it has begun to manufacture its own proprietary chiral building blocks using a unique patented process.
Benefitting from significantly fewer production steps, the process reduces production times by 75% and lowers production costs by 92.5%, for R&D areas within laboratories, universities and research centres. In order to produce new drugs, medicinal chemists require a continual supply of new chiral building blocks; these building blocks are of high importance and financial value to pharmaceutical R&D, which is reflected in their market size...
The Exeter Analytical Model 440 CHN microanalysis instrument can easily determine the percentage Carbon, Hydrogen & Nitrogen in liquid samples.
Volatile liquids can be routinely analyzed without sacrificing accuracy or precision. Exeter Analytical Inc. has produced an application note that describes how a proprietary liquid sample preparation technique together with controlled introduction of the sealed capsules into the Model 440 eliminates the problems associated with analyzing even volatile liquids. In the described method, liquid samples are simply injected into sample containers and...
A genetically engineered herpes virus can halt the progression of skin cancer by killing cancer cells and sparking the immune system into action against tumours, a landmark clinical trial has shown.
It is the first time that a phase III trial of viral immunotherapy has definitively shown benefit for patients with cancer. The trial was led in the UK by researchers at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, and involved 64 research centres worldwide including the University of Oxford. Researchers randomised 436 patients with aggressive, inoperable malignant melanoma to receive either an...
Microarray and sequencing specialists Arraystar, based in Rockville, Maryland, are taking RNA analysis to new heights.
Their cutting-edge technologies focus on regulatory non-coding RNAs – Long non-coding RNAs (LncRNAs) and LncRNA pathways, microRNAs and their target mRNAs, circular RNAs, piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) and more. These non-coding RNAs have shown tissue and development-specific expression patterns along with diverse cellular functions. They are attracting intense research interest with the possibility that they could offer...
Landmark study hails new era of personalised treatment for cancers that have spread round the body
Almost 90 per cent of men with advanced prostate cancer carry genetic mutations in their tumours that could be targeted by either existing or new cancer drugs, a landmark new study reveals. Scientists in the UK and the US have created a comprehensive map of the genetic mutations within lethal prostate cancers that have spread around the body, in a paper being hailed as the disease’s ‘Rosetta Stone’. Researchers say that...
Merck Millipore, the Life Science business of Merck, and Singulex, the developer and leading provider of Single Molecule Counting (SMCTM) technology for clinical diagnostics and scientific discovery, today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Merck Millipore will control and manage the Singulex Life Science Research business.
Under the terms of the agreement, Merck Millipore will pay Singulex an upfront payment, royalties and additional payments based upon achievement of certain commercial milestones. Merck Millipore will have exclusive rights to further develop and commercialize the SMC technology for research applications worldwide....
IDT facilitates a unique, scalable method for analyzing hundreds of enhancer:promoter interactions in a single assay
Advancing the development of novel methods for understanding gene expression, Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT) has enabled Dr Jim Hughes, Associate Professor at the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, Oxford, UK, to optimize his unique Capture-C method, based on Chromosomal Conformational Capture (3C). As outlined in the recent DECODED Online article, Understanding How Distal Regulatory Elements Control Gene...
The white paper “Adopting Next Generation Labeling Technology Enhances Enterprise Agility and Reduces Costs” published by NiceLabel identifies the hidden costs, inefficiencies and risks resulting from legacy labeling operations and explains why a modern label management platform is well suited to current enterprise and extended supply chain needs.
In today’s networked economy, organizations are challenged with volatile market requirements, massive connectivity driven by the "Internet of Things", and increased product, process, and supply chain complexity. Enterprises are continually looking deeper into their operations and farther across their supply chains for opportunities to become more efficient. Labeling is frequently considered a background process that does not get...
Pittcon and its sponsoring society, The Spectroscopy Society of Pittsburgh (SSP) are pleased to announce Juergen Popp as the recipient of the 2016 Pittsburgh Spectroscopy Award.
Popp studied chemistry at the universities of Erlangen and Wuerzburg, Germany. Since 2002, he has been a chair for Physical Chemistry at the Friedrich-Schiller University Jena, and in 2006, became the Director of the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology, Jena.He has published more than 540 journal papers, has been named as an inventor on 12 patents in the field of spectroscopic instrumentation and is the founding editor and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Biophotonics. In 2012, he...
Selah and GHS partner to pave the way for accessible, low-cost personalized medicine
EKF Diagnostics subsidiary, Selah Genomics, has announced the launch of its next generation sequencing (NGS) technology PrecisionPath™ in partnership with Greenville Health Systems (GHS), one of the leading community-based cancer institutes in the US. For the first time patients will have wider access to affordable advanced NGS testing that can help doctors determine the most effective cancer treatments based on an individual’s genetic...
The European Investment Bank (EIB), the world’s largest multilateral bank, today reaffirmed its firm commitment to respond to the Ebola pandemic.
The Bank has provided a EUR 50 million loan to Bavarian Nordic, an international biopharmaceutical company, for accelerated development of an Ebola vaccine with long-term efficacy. The financing is also backing research into vaccines for treating other infectious diseases and multiple cancer indications. EIB Vice-President Jonathan Taylor stated: “We are pleased to be partnering with Bavarian Nordic in this breakthrough operation, as it enables...
It is well known that in rare cases, cancers can come back even when patients have been free of disease for so long that doctors regard them as cured. Now researchers at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, have found genetic evidence that cancer cells can go to sleep – avoiding the effects of treatment – only to ‘wake up’ many years later. Their study could suggest ways of rooting out dormant cancer cells – eradicating the small...
CareDx, Inc. (Nasdaq: CDNA), a molecular diagnostics company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of clinically differentiated, high-value, diagnostic surveillance solutions for transplant recipients and Horizon Discovery Group plc (Horizon), an international life science company supplying reagent tools and services that power genomics research and the development of personalized medicines, today announced they have...
The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) has since 1985 offered UK academic institutions free loans of the latest scientific instruments to help further their research projects. In 2008 the EPSRC added a state-of-the-art SIM16 ultra-high speed imaging camera from Specialised Imaging Ltd. to its loan pool facility. Wai Chan, Managing Director of Specialised Imaging commented "Over the last 7 years the EPSRC Loan Pool SIM16...
The Bioquell BQ-50 is the result of an innovative R&D endeavour conducted by Bioquell following in-depth market research. Using the latest hydrogen peroxide vapour (HPV) technology to eradicate pathogens, the company has been developing this new system to provide the healthcare sector with an even more efficient and flexible bio-decontamination process. The BQ-50 works by depositing an even layer of ‘micro-condensation’ of HPV over all surfaces to eradicate...
A University of Leicester-based research group funded by the British Heart Foundation is drawing on support from patients and members of the public to investigate why cardiac surgery can often result in serious or fatal damage to other organs in the body. The Cardiac Surgery Research team are conducting a series of trials into why almost half of patients having heart surgery develop failure of one or more other organs, such as the lungs or...
Dr Sheng Qi is a senior lecturer in pharmaceutics in the School of Pharmacy at the University of East Anglia. Sheng's current research interests focus on gaining a fundamental understanding of the behaviour of drug-polymer/lipid dispersions in solid (phase behaviour) and liquid (in biological fluids) states. She is also developing new approaches for stabilising supersaturated drug dispersions. By working with industrial partners as well as...
The partnership will involve photochemical techniques for the synthesis of novel bioactive molecules and will include both direct and photo-catalysed photochemical reactions. An example of Professor Li's previous work in this area involves a visible light-induced singlet oxidative dearomatization as documented in the following published article: 'Stereocontrolled Construction of the Tricyclic Framework of Tiglianes and Daphnanes by an Oxidative...
This was the case in the small, space-limited R&D laboratory at the School of Pharmaceutical Science, Sun Yat-Sen University where they wanted to improve the productivity of experiments, consistency and safety. Using their existing setup of a simple water condenser, heated magnetic stirrer and glass flask for drug synthesis / combination reactions they experienced long reaction times and with limited space, project progress was always slow. After testing...
Sporting the theme of “Light Scattering in the Nano World”, ILSC 2015 will be held at the beautiful Four Seasons Biltmore Resort in Santa Barbara, CA on November 3-4. Online Registration is available. The full program includes additional presentations on the characterization of biomolecules and polymers in cutting-edge research. Satellite events planned include short courses and a focus meeting on method development...
Organoids, small clusters of cells that accurately mimic the behaviour of human tissue, can be used to test cancer drugs and, eventually, to identify effective personalised treatments for patients. In the described research samples from healthy tissue and cancerous tissue were taken from 20 patients with colorectal carcinoma and used to form the organoids. The organoids were then exposed to a range of colorectal cancer treatments as part of a...
Benefitting from significantly fewer production steps, the process reduces production times by 75% and lowers production costs by 92.5%, for R&D areas within laboratories, universities and research centres. 
Volatile liquids can be routinely analyzed without sacrificing accuracy or precision. Exeter Analytical Inc. has produced an application note that describes how a proprietary liquid sample preparation technique together with controlled introduction of the sealed capsules into the Model 440 eliminates the problems associated with analyzing even volatile liquids. In the described method, liquid samples are simply injected into sample containers and...
It is the first time that a phase III trial of viral immunotherapy has definitively shown benefit for patients with cancer. The trial was led in the UK by researchers at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, and involved 64 research centres worldwide including the University of Oxford. Researchers randomised 436 patients with aggressive, inoperable malignant melanoma to receive either an...
Their cutting-edge technologies focus on regulatory non-coding RNAs – Long non-coding RNAs (LncRNAs) and LncRNA pathways, microRNAs and their target mRNAs, circular RNAs, piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) and more. These non-coding RNAs have shown tissue and development-specific expression patterns along with diverse cellular functions. They are attracting intense research interest with the possibility that they could offer...
Under the terms of the agreement, Merck Millipore will pay Singulex an upfront payment, royalties and additional payments based upon achievement of certain commercial milestones. Merck Millipore will have exclusive rights to further develop and commercialize the SMC technology for research applications worldwide....
Advancing the development of novel methods for understanding gene expression, Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT) has enabled Dr Jim Hughes, Associate Professor at the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, Oxford, UK, to optimize his unique Capture-C method, based on Chromosomal Conformational Capture (3C). As outlined in the recent DECODED Online article, Understanding How Distal Regulatory Elements Control Gene...
In today’s networked economy, organizations are challenged with volatile market requirements, massive connectivity driven by the "Internet of Things", and increased product, process, and supply chain complexity. Enterprises are continually looking deeper into their operations and farther across their supply chains for opportunities to become more efficient. Labeling is frequently considered a background process that does not get...
Popp studied chemistry at the universities of Erlangen and Wuerzburg, Germany. Since 2002, he has been a chair for Physical Chemistry at the Friedrich-Schiller University Jena, and in 2006, became the Director of the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology, Jena.He has published more than 540 journal papers, has been named as an inventor on 12 patents in the field of spectroscopic instrumentation and is the founding editor and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Biophotonics. In 2012, he...
EKF Diagnostics
The Bank has provided a EUR 50 million loan to Bavarian Nordic, an international biopharmaceutical company, for accelerated development of an Ebola vaccine with long-term efficacy. The financing is also backing research into vaccines for treating other infectious diseases and multiple cancer indications. EIB Vice-President Jonathan Taylor stated: “We are pleased to be partnering with Bavarian Nordic in this breakthrough operation, as it enables...