Applied Genetics News articles from September 1999

Applied Genetics News archives from September 1999

BASIC SCIENCE: HIV Fragment Leads Protein into Cell.
September 1, 1999... Damage or deficiency of proteins causes many human diseases, including cancer and genetically inherited disorders such as sickle- cell anemia and phenylketonuria. Inserting a working version of a damaged or missing protein into affected cells...

SOCS Genes Play Critical Roles.
September 1, 1999... Removing either of two SOCS proteins that regulate cell proliferation is deadly to mice. An explanation for that lethality is contained in two papers in the September issue of Cell by James Ihle and colleagues at St. Jude's Children Hospital...

Tumors Make Their Own Blood Vessels.
September 1, 1999... Inhibition of angiogenesis is being widely investigated as a means to discourage the growth of tumors. Tumors are believed to attract the ingrowth of nearby blood vessels as a means of vascularization. However, in a study published in the...

Why Prostate Cancer Grows in Bone.
September 1, 1999... Prostate cancer seems to home-in on nearby bone tissue rather than nearby organs like the kidney or the liver. Why it does so has been a mystery until now. Karin Jacob and Hynda Kleinman from the Craniofacial Developmental Biology and...

BIOMANUFACTURING Sheep Manufacture Anti-Trypsin.
September 1, 1999... Six patients whose bodies manufacture inadequate amounts of alpha- 1-antitrypsin (AAT), leaving them vulnerable to emphysema, have begun receiving inhaled doses of the protein that is produced in the milk of transgenic sheep. The sheep were...

Cloning Patent Issued.
September 1, 1999... Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. (One Innovation Dr., Worcester, MA 01650; Tel: 508/756-1212, Fax: 508/756-0931; Website: advancedcell.com) has been issued U.S. Patent 5,945,577 covering an improved method of cloning nonhuman mammals using...

GENOMICS: Science Creates a Smarter Mouse.
September 1, 1999... The sci-fi dream of genetically enhancing human intelligence has come a bit closer, as researchers have succeeded in creating smarter mice by giving them extra copies of a normal gene. The feat was performed by Princeton (Princeton, NJ...

Gene Identified for Insulin Resistance.
September 1, 1999... A mutation in the gene for the protein PC-1 has been identified as contributing to insulin resistance in a report in the September issue of Diabetes. The senior author on the paper is Vincenzo Trischitta of the Instito Scientifico Ospedale Casa...

POMC Implicated in Obesity.
September 1, 1999... Ute Hochgeschwender of the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation (800 Research Pkwy., #100, Oklahoma City, OK 73102-3600; Tel: 465/271- 1555) and Miles Brennan of the Eleanor Roosevelt Institute (Denver, CO) have engineered a strain of mice...

CuraGen Discovers 55,000 SNPs.
September 1, 1999... CuraGen Corp. (555 Long Wharf Dr., 11th Fl., New Haven, CT 06511; Tel: 203/401-3330, Fax: 203/401-3331; Website: curagen.com), an integrated genomics-based company, has discovered more than 55,000 genetic variations in the form of single...

GENE THERAPY: Chimeraplasty Fixes SNP in Rats.
September 1, 1999... Researchers at the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, MN) and Albert Einstein College of Medicine (New York, NY) have used chimeraplasty, gene repair technology developed by Kimeragen (300 Pheasant Run, Newtown, PA 18940; Tel: 215/504-4444,...

Genzyme, Genovo in Alliance.
September 1, 1999... Genzyme General, Inc. (One Kendall Sq., Cambridge, MA 02139-1563; Tel: 617/252-7500, Fax: 617/374-7368; Website: genzyme.com) and a private company, Genovo, Inc. (512 Elmwood Ave., Sharon Hill, PA; Tel: 610/522- 8500, Fax: 610/522-8548), will...

Lipoplexes Transport Lots of DNA.
September 1, 1999... Bioengineers from the Institute for Medicine and Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, led by Associate Professor Scott Diamond (Tel: 215/573-5702; Email: ld@seas.upenn.edu), have successfully used nonviral vectors to deliver DNA to...

ANTIBODIES: Passive Antibodies Control Hep. C Virus.
September 1, 1999... Scientists studying Nabi-Civacir, a drug being developed by Nabi (5800 Park of Commerce Blvd. N.W., Boca Raton, FL 33487; Tel: 561/989- 5800, Fax: 561/989-5801) reported results of studies in chimpanzees at the XI International Congress of...

Abgenix Receives XenoMouse Patent.
September 1, 1999... Abgenix, Inc. (7601 Dumbarton Circle, Fremont, CA 94555; Tel: 510/608- 6500, Fax: 510/608-6511) has received a patent covering a key step used in the generation of the transgenic mice that Abgenix uses for the production of fully human...

VACCINES AND ANTI-INFECTIVES Staph Vaccine on Track.
September 1, 1999... Nabi (5800 Park of Commerce Blvd. N.W., Boca Raton, FL 33487; Tel: 561/989-5800, Fax: 561/989-5801) believes that, based on an analysis of interim data from its pivotal clinical trial of Nabi-StaphVAX, statistical significance may be achievable...

New Hosts for Old Microbes.
September 1, 1999... Global warming and pollution allow old diseases to afflict new groups of animals according to 13 biologists in the September 3, 1999, issue of the journal Science. The authors have expertise in microbiology, ecology, evolutionary biology,...

CELL THERAPY: Nanomachined Cell Capsules.
September 1, 1999... Mauro Ferrari, professor of biomedical engineering at Ohio State (Columbus, OH), has devised a method for machining pinhead-size silicon capsules that could be placed beneath a patient's skin. Such capsules would be used to carry healthy...

Desmos, Theracyte Team Up.
September 1, 1999... Desmos, Inc. (3550 General Atomics Ct., San Diego, CA 92121; Tel: 619/455-3700, Fax: 619/455-3708) and TheraCyte, Inc. will collaborate to explore the combined technologies of Desmos and TheraCyte as a potential treatment for insulin-dependent...

No Viral Transmission in Pig Xenotransplants.
September 1, 1999... A large retrospective study to assess the safety of xenotransplantation revealed no evidence of porcine endogenous retrovirus (PERV) infection in 160 patients previously treated with living pig tissue. The study was conducted by Imutran Ltd....

HORMONES AND CYTOKINES: Cyclic Somatostatin Analogs Patented.
September 1, 1999... Diatide, Inc. (Nine Delta Dr., Londonderry, NH 03053; Tel: 603/437- 8970, Fax: 603/437-8977) has been awarded U.S. Patent 5,932,189, "Cyclic Hexapeptide Somatostatin Analogs," which covers the composition and methods of use of somatostatin...

AG-BIO: Chemicals from Corn.
September 1, 1999... Eastman Chemical Co. (100 N. Eastman Rd., P.O. Box 511, Kingsport, TN 37662-5075, Tel: 423/229-2000; Website: eastman.com) and Genencor International Inc. (4 Cambridge Pl., 1870 S. Winton Rd., Rochester, NY 14618; Tel: 716/256-5200, Fax:...

SafeScience Partners with Prince Agri Products.
September 1, 1999... SafeScience, Inc. (31 St. James St., Suite 520, Boston, MA 02116; Tel: 617/4222-0674, Fax: 617/422-0675; Website: safesci.com) and Prince Agri Products, Inc. have entered into an exclusive technology and marketing partnership to distribute...

Plant Toxin Kills Fungus.
September 1, 1999... A Purdue University (West Lafayette, IN) researcher, Horticulture Professor Ray Bressan (Tel: 765/494-1336; Email: bressan@hort.purdue.edu), has discovered that a natural plant toxin can stop invading fungi by turning a fungus's protein...

Forage Legume Collaboration.
September 1, 1999... The National Center for Genome Resources (NCGR, 1800-A Old Pecos Trail, Santa Fe, NM 87505; Tel: 505/982-7840, Tel: 800/450-4854, Fax: 505/995-4432; Website: ncgr.org) and the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation (2510 Sam Noble Pkwy., Ardmore, OK...

INDUSTRY NEWS: Impath Acquires Research Network.
September 1, 1999... Impath Inc. (521 W. 57th St., 6th Fl., New York, NY 10019; Tel: 212/698- 0300, Fax: 212/698-0305) has purchased the major assets of BioClinical Partners, Inc. (BCP), a global medical research network that obtains and provides access to benign...

New Company to Attack Alzheimer's.
September 1, 1999... NeuroLogic, Inc.'s (5335 Wisconsin Ave. N.W., Suite 440, Washington, DC 20015) new biotechnology company focused on treatments for Alzheimer's disease and other central nervous system disorders has recently joined Central Maryland's...

GM Food Policy Pot Boils Over.
September 1, 1999... Reactions from all over the world kept the cauldron boiling on the genetically modified (GM) foods controversy. A symbolic gesture neatly expressed the depth of the disagreement between the U.S. and Europe. In response to French Agriculture...

CALENDAR.
September 1, 1999... September 29-October 1, 1999 9th Annual Pharmaceutical Strategic Alliances Conference 1999, New York, NY. Contact: Windhover Information, P.O. Box 67, Yorktown Heights, NY 40598; Tel: 914/245- 7764, Fax: 914/245-1211. October 1-2, 1999,...