Applied Genetics News articles from February 2000

Applied Genetics News archives from February 2000

BASIC SCIENCE: Prions in Yeast, Mice and Man.
February 1, 2000... Results from a number of laboratories have found some interesting properties of prions that may lead to treatments for prion- mediated neurodegenerative diseases such as Creutzfeld-Jacob disease and Alzheimer's disease. It has been found 1)...

Smad6 Reports Latest Results.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2000... Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (640 Memorial Dr., Cambridge, MA 02139; Tel: 617/679-7000, Fax: 617/374-9379, Website: www.mlnm.com) and Eli Lilly (Lilly Corporate Center, Indianapolis, IN 46285; Tel: 317/276-2000, Fax: 317/277-3354, Website:...

BIOMANUFACTURING: New Venture Is Egg-ziting.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2000... TranXenoGen, Inc. (Shrewsbury, MA) and U.S. Transgenics, Inc. have formed a joint venture to develop recombinant human serum albumin (HSA) and a collaboration to produce other proteins in the albumin fraction of transgenic chicken eggs. The...

GENOMICS: Watch the DNA Dance.(scientists observe DNA strands)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2000... A probe designed by chemists at Ohio State University has revealed a new secret in the life of DNA: The strands of compounds making up the molecule vibrate, stretch, and swing to and fro in tiny movements that last only a fraction of a second....

Mutations Cause Eye Disorder.(enhanced S-cone syndrome)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2000... The cause of an eye disorder called enhanced S-cone syndrome (ESCS) has been discovered. Affected individuals are sensitive to blue light and develop night blindness at an early age. A research team led by Val C. Sheffield, a Howard Hughes...

Duplicated Regions Indicate Autism.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2000... Duke University Margaret Pericak-Vance and her collaborators have found evidence of chromosomal defects that may be linked to autistic spectrum disorder. Individuals with this disorder display a combination of behavior abnormalities that may...

Gene Defects Precede Degeneration.(scientists research spinocerebellar ataxia type 1)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2000... Researchers studying mice that develop a neurodegenerative disorder similar to spinocerebellar ataxia type 1 (SCA1) have pinpointed abnormalities in gene expression that occur long before signs of the disease appear. Howard Hughes investigator...

Chip Distinguishes Lymphoma Types.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2000... Gene expression profiling experiments, involving 18,000 genes in a single microarray, revealed that diffuse large-cell B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is actually at least two distinct forms of cancer. "This work shows that the molecular portrait of a...

GENE THERAPY: Proteins Delivered by Disaggregation.(Ariad Pharmaceuticals develops new drug)
February 1, 2000... In a research article published in the February 4, 2000 issue of Science, Rivera et al. report the development of a novel gene regulation technology that allows rapid, pulsatile delivery of therapeutic proteins, such as insulin, using gene...

ANTISENSE AND RIBOZYMES : Patents Granted for Antisense.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2000... Genta, Inc. (99 Hayden Ave., Suite 200, Lexington, MA 02421; Tel: 781/860-5150, Fax: 781/960-590) has recently been granted two U.S. patents and has received a notice of allowance for an additional U.S. patent application. A fourth recently...

Ribozymes Advance Down the Pipeline.(Ribozyme Pharmaceuticals collaborates on new drugs)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2000... Ribozyme Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (2950 Wilderness Place, Boulder, CO 80301; Tel 303/449-6500, Fax: 303/449-6995) announced that two major collaborations involving ribozymes as therapeutics are moving forward, and that they have received a major...

Antisense Potent Against p53.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2000... Scientists Patrick Iversen and Vikram Arora, from AVI BioPharma, Inc. (One SW Columbia St., Suite 1105, Portland, OR 97258; Tel: 503/227-0554, Fax: 503/227-0751, Website: www.avibio.com) and researchers from the University of Nebraska Medical...

ANTIBODIES: Antibodies Used to Deliver Drugs.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 1, 2000... Two developments have occurred recently concerning the use of antibodies to direct toxic substances directly to the tumor site: Prolifaron, Inc. (11494 Sorrento Valley Rd., Suite K, San Diego, CA 92121; Tel: 858/794-6330, Fax:...

HORMONES AND CYTOKINES : Growing Bones in Space.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 1, 2000... Scientists at NPS Allelix Corp. (6850 Goreway Dr., Mississauga, Ontario L4V 1V7, Canada; Tel: 905/677-0831, Fax: 905/677-9595, Website: www.allelix.com), a subsidiary of NPS Pharmaceuticals, Inc., in collaboration with scientists and...

CLONING: Patent Awarded for Dolly's Technology.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2000... Geron Corp. (230 Constitution Dr., Menlo Park, CA 94025; Tel: 650/473-7700, Fax: 650/473-7701) recently announced the issuance of two U.K. patents covering nuclear transfer technology, which was used to clone the first animal, the famous sheep...

VACCINES AND ANTI-INFECTIVES : Proteins Kick Start Immune System.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2000... Therapore technology for the development of a vaccine candidate against HIV will be advanced by a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) between Avant Immunotherapeutics (119 Fourth Ave., Needham, MA 02494; Tel: 781/433-0771,...

Bacterial Suicide Pathway Found.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 1, 2000... Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (332 N. Lauderdale, Memphis, TN, 38105-2729, 901/495-3300) have discovered a signal that brings about the death of Streptococcus pneumoniae (also known as pneumococcus). A secreted peptide...

Immunostimulatory DNA for Vaccines.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2000... Dynavax Technologies Corp. (3099 Science Park Rd., San Diego, CA 92121; Tel: 619/625-4242) and Aventis Pasteur (formerly Pasteur Merieux Connaught)(2 Ave. Pont Pasteur, f-69367 Lyon cedex 07, France; Tel +33 (0) 4 37 37 75 27, Fax: +33 (0) 4...

Alpha-Galactose Supercharges Vaccines.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2000... Immunomedics, Inc. (300 American Rd., Morris Plains, NJ 07950; Tel: 973/605-8200, Fax: 973/605-8282, Website: www.immunomedics.com) has received notification of a patent allowance by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a new method of...

INDUSTRY NEWS: UN Safety Protocol Reached.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 1, 2000... After months of wrangling and posturing, an agreement over rules to govern trade in genetically engineered organisms. The UN Biosafety Protocol requires exporter to explicitly label shipments of food or fiber commodities derived from...

Genentech Patent Ruled Invalid.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 1, 2000... Bio-Technology General Corp. (BTG, 70 Wood Ave. South, Iselin, NJ 08830; Tel: 732/632-8800, Fax: 732/632-8844) claimed success in a lawsuit filed by BTG against Genentech, Inc., (1 DNA Way, South San Francisco, CA 94080; Tel: 650/225-1000,...

All God's Creatures in One Database.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 1, 2000... A database that pools information on the earth's 1.5 million named animals, plants, and microorganisms will be accessible via the Internet later this year. This resource will be called the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). The...

AG-BIO: Argentinian Ag Company Formed.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2000... InterLink Biotechnologies (221 Commons Way, Princeton NJ 08540- 1508; Tel: 609/252-0446, Fax: 530/889-8833) and Darwich Asociados (Avellaneda 3354, Mar del Plata 7600, Argentina; Tel: 54-2234- 729813, Fax: 54-2234-729813) have jointly created...

Evolving Better CO2 Fixation.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2000... Maxygen (515 Galveston Dr., Redwood City, CA 94063; Tel: 650/298- 5300, Fax: 650/364-2715) has signed a three-year research and commercialization agreement with the mining company Rio Tinto, Plc. Maxygen will use its proprietary...

Gene Therapy for Chickens.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 1, 2000... Demegen, Inc. (1051 Brinton Rd., Pittsburgh, PA; Tel: 412/241- 2150, Fax: 241-2161, Website: www.demegen.com, Email: info@demegen.com) and AviGenics, Inc. (425 River Rd., Athens, GA 30602-2771; Tel: 706/227-1170, Fax: 706/227-2180, Website:...

Separating Genes from Chaff.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 1, 2000... Orion Genomics, LLC (4141 Forest Park Ave., St. Louis, MO; Tel: 314/615-6977, Fax: 314/615-6975, Website: www.oriongenomics.com) has successfully applied its GeneThresher technology to the corn (maize) genome. GeneThresher sequencing is a new...

CALENDAR.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2000... February 16-18, 2000, Sixth International Antibody Production and Downstream Processing, San Diego, CA. Contact: IBC USA Conference, Inc., 225 Turnpike Rd., Southborough, MA 01772-1749; Tel: 508/481- 6400, Fax: 508/481-7911. March 26-30,...