Applied Genetics News articles from August 2002

Applied Genetics News archives from August 2002

GENOMICS: Phage Genes Make Bad Bug Worse.
August 1, 2002... Group A "Streptococcus" (GAS) bacteria have acquired virulence factors from bacteriophage, according to Stephen Beres and James Musser of Rocky Mountain National Laboratories (903 South 4th St., Hamilton, MT 59840; Tel: 406/363-9255, Fax:...

Macular Degeneration Caused by Mutation.
August 1, 2002... How can a single gene cause two very different eye diseases, each affecting a different segment of vision? Research scientist Radha Ayyagari from the University of Michigan W.K. Kellogg Eye Center (1000 Wall St., Ann Arbor, MI; Tel:...

Enzyme Defective in Bleeding Abnormality.
August 1, 2002... Researchers the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine (9500 Gilman Dr., La Jolla, CA 92093; Tel: 858/534- 2230; Website: www.ucsd.edu) found that mutations in an enzyme, sialyltransferase ST3Gal-IV, greatly reduced...

Defective Gene Causes Bone Defects.
August 1, 2002... Mice lacking a protein called SHIP (Src homology 2-containing inositol-5-phosphatase) have twice as many cells that break down bone as normal mice, according to a study led by F. Patrick Ross at the Washington University School of Medicine (660...

Malaria Is an Ancient Parasite.
August 1, 2002... From genetic data, researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20892; Tel: 301/496-4000; Website: www.nih.gov) have concluded that the parasite is genetically more diverse and much older-at least...

Mouse Gene Map Published Online.
August 1, 2002... An international consortium, whose work was coordinated by the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SA, U.K.; Tel: +44 (0)1223-834244, Fax: +44 (0)1223 494919; Website: www.sanger.ac.uk), has...

Fugu Fish Sequenced.
August 1, 2002... An international research consortium led by the U.S. Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute (JGI, 2800 Mitchell Dr., Walnut Creek, CA 94598; Website: www.jgi.doe.gov) has reported on the draft sequencing, assembly, and analysis of the...

ANTIBODIES: Erbitux: Tale of Two Continents.
August 1, 2002... Despite the controversy surrounding cancer drug Erbitux in the United States (along with the related Imclone insider trading scandal), European licensee Merck KgaA (Frankfurter Strasse 250, D-64293 Darmstadt, Germany; Tel: +49-6151-72-0,...

Dendrimers Form Artificial Antibodies.
August 1, 2002... Antibody molecules will search out and bind with high affinity a single foreign molecule from a milieu filled with other natural substances. This type of exquisite molecular recognition has long inspired chemists, who for decades have tried to...

CELL THERAPY: Cell Separation System Approved.
August 1, 2002... BioTransplant, Inc. (Building 75, Third Ave., Charlestown Navy Yard, Charlestown, MA 02120; Tel: 617/241-5200, Fax: 617/241-8780) has received European Union authorization to affix the CE Mark to its third HDM Cell Separation product,...

China Clones Humans to Produce Organs.
August 1, 2002... According to a Straits Times report, China has cloned dozens, if not hundreds, of human embryos but Chinese scientists say the aim is to develop cloned human organs for transplant, not produce cloned babies. Chinese experts say that cloned...

Collaboration to Regenerate Heart Tissue.
August 1, 2002... Bioheart, Inc. (2400 N. Commerce Pkwy., Suite 408, Weston, FL 33326; Tel: 954/217-7259, Fax: 954/385-5340) and Ortec International, Inc. (3690 Broadway, New York, NY; Tel: 212/740- 6999, Fax: 212/740-6963) have initiated a non-exclusive...

Stem Cell Gene Expression Studied.
August 1, 2002... Lynx Therapeutics, Inc. (25861 Industrial Blvd., Hayward, CA 94545; Tel: 510/670-9300, Fax: 510/670-9302; Website: www.lynxgen.com) has entered into a service agreement with Cue Therapeutics (Salt Lake City, UT) to study stem cell gene...

Human Neural Cells Derived from Stem Cells.
August 1, 2002... BresaGen, Ltd. (P.O. Box 259, Rundle Mall, Adelaide, South Australia 5000; Tel: +61 8 8234 2660, Fax: + 61 8 8234 6268; Website: www.bresagen.com.au) has successfully derived neural cell-types from human embryonic stem (ES) cell lines using its...

Artificial Heart Tissue Beats.
August 1, 2002... A collaboration between cardiologist and orthopedist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, NC 27599; Tel: 919/962-2211; Website: www.unc.edu) has yielded a bioengineered, rhythmically beating experimental model of...

BIOMANUFACTURING Aprotinin Made in Plants.
August 1, 2002... ProdiGene, Inc. (101 Gateway Blvd., Suite 100, College Station, TX 77845; Tel: 409/690-8537, Fax: 409/690-952; Website: www.prodigene.com) has begun commercial scale-up of plant-derived aprotinin, a protease inhibitor used in cardiac surgery,...

HORMONES AND CYTOKINES: Biomed 101 Makes IL-2 Less Harmful.
August 1, 2002... BioMedicines, Inc. (2000 Powell St., Suite 1640, Emeryville, CA 94608; Tel: 510/652-2600, Fax: 510/652-2657; Website: www.biomedicinesinc.com) has announced the issuance of U.S. Patent 6,423,744 entitled "Method of diminishing the adverse...

AG-BIO: Rice Fungus Sequenced.
August 1, 2002... The genome of Magnaporthe grisea-the fungus that causes rice blast-is now available online at http://www- genome.wi.mit.edu/annotation/fungi/magnaporthe/. Each year rice blast destroys enough rice worldwide to feed approx. 60 million people....

Gene Essential for Pollen Production.
August 1, 2002... A new gene shown to be essential for pollen production in flowering plants has been discovered by scientists at Penn State University, led by Hong P. Ma, professor of biology. A paper describing the team's discovery of the gene was published in...

INDUSTRY NEWS: Syngenta Sues Other Firms.
August 1, 2002... Syngenta (P.O. Box, CH-4002, Basel, Switzerland; Tel: +41 61 323 1111; Website: www.syngenta.com) filed suit yesterday against a host of biotech seed producers, including Monsanto, DeKalb Genetics, Pioneer Hi-Bred, Delta and Pine Land, Dow...

Chlamydia Sequences Licensed to Ricerca.
August 1, 2002... Genset S.A. (24 rue Royal, 75008 Paris, France; Tel: 212/815-2510, Fax: 212/571-3050) and Ricerca Biosciences, LLC (7528 Auburn Rd., P.O. Box 1000, Concord, OH 44077-1000; Tel: 888/742-3722, Fax: 440/357-4939; Website: www.ricerca.com)...

Bayer Acquires Visible Genetics.
August 1, 2002... Bayer Diagnostics (511 Benedict Ave., Tarrytown, NY 10591; Tel: 914/524/3837, Fax: 914/524-3978; Website: www.bayerdiag.com) hopes to acquire Visible Genetics (VG, 700 Bay St., Toronto, Ontario M5G 1Z6, Canada; Tel: 416/813-3240, Fax:...

CALENDAR.
August 1, 2002... September 12-20, 2002. World Antibody Summit 2002, Long Branch, NJ. Contact: Strategic Research Institute; Tel: 212/967-0095, ext. 251; Email: sshah@srinstitute September 18-20, 2002. World Genomics Symposium and Exposition, Atlantic City,...