For being so small, fruit flies have had a large impact on genetic research. Thomas Werner, an assistant professor of biological sciences at Michigan Technological University, has bridged the miniscule and the massive in an effort to better understand the mechanisms behind several unique features of fruit fly genes.
Tech
Today the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) joint meeting of the Bone, Reproductive and Urologic Drugs Advisory Committee, and the Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee determined by an 18 to 6 vote that the benefit/risk profile of ADDYI (flibanserin) supports FDA approval for Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder (HSDD) in premenopausal women, but only if certain risk management options beyond labeling are implemented.
n artificial intelligence system has for the first time reverse-engineered the regeneration mechanism of planaria--the small worms whose extraordinary power to regrow body parts has made them a research model in human regenerative medicine.
Treatment options for chronic hepatitis C, a serious and life-threatening infection, have improved substantially and several new regimens with shorter durations and improved efficacy and safety profiles are now available.
Groups have raised concerns about the evidence used to support the approval of some newer drugs, however, and the issue has been used to cast doubt on their efficacy and even to question treatment or deny reimbursement.
Amgen announced the initiation of the ARROW trial(1), a global Phase 3 study evaluating the benefit of Kyprolis (carfilzomib) for Injection administered once-weekly with dexamethasone versus the current U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved twice-weekly administration schedule in patients with relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma who have received prior treatment with bortezomib and an immunomodulatory agent (IMiD).
In recent years, the biopharmaceutical industry has seen an explosion in the availability of Big Data that can generate valuable insights. Despite this, the inherent costs and challenges that come with utilizing Big Data have caused the biopharmaceutical sector to embrace Big Data analytics much slower than other industries.
Singapore -- Scientists from A*STAR's Bioinformatics Institute (BII) have developed an analytical model and computational tool to rapidly and accurately predict the occurrence and locations of R-loop Forming Sequences (RLFSs) in any genome or artificial nucleic acid sequences. R-loops, which are three-stranded RNA and DNA hybrid structures, can be crucial to many normal biological processes and have also been associated with triggering mutations, DNA breaks and diseases.
SanDisk Corporation introduced the new SanDisk Z400s SSD, which they are touting as a cost effective solid-state drive (SSD) designed to replace hard-disk drives (HDDs) in computing platforms and embedded applications.
They say the Z400s outperforms HDDs by 20X, while providing 5x the reliability with 20x lower average power consumption, all at a price point on par with HDDs.
Many have recently questioned the efficacy of the most common antidepressant medications, the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). The conclusion that these drugs are ineffective is however partly based on a misinterpretation of the outcome of the clinical trials once conducted to demonstrate their efficacy. This was the finding of a study conducted by researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy.
A recent study with Kansas State University researchers details vaccine development for two new strains of avian influenza that can be transmitted from poultry to humans. The strains have led to the culling of millions of commercial chickens and turkeys as well as the death of hundreds of people.
The new vaccine development method is expected to help researchers make vaccines for emerging strains of avian influenza more quickly. This could reduce the number and intensity of large-scale outbreaks at poultry farms as well as curb human transmission.
The Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) issued a positive opinion recommending a change to the terms of the marketing authorization for IMBRUVICA (ibrutinib) in the European Union to indicate the treatment of adult patients with Waldenström's macroglobulinemia (WM) who have received at least one prior therapy, or in first line treatment for patients unsuitable for chemo-immunotherapy.
Results of the 72-patient, placebo-controlled Phase II study evaluating RGN-259 (RegeneRx preservative-free eye drops) for the treatment of dry eye patients using Ora Inc.'s controlled adverse environment (CAE) model have been published and identify the key efficacy targets for a larger, multi-center, Phase IIb/III U.S. clinical trial targeted for later this year. The trial will be sponsored by ReGenTree, LLC, a U.S. joint venture owned by RegeneRx and G-treeBNT.
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have developed algorithms that enable robots to learn motor tasks through trial and error using a process that more closely approximates the way humans learn, marking a major milestone in the field of artificial intelligence.
They demonstrated their technique, a type of reinforcement learning, by having a robot complete various tasks -- putting a clothes hanger on a rack, assembling a toy plane, screwing a cap on a water bottle, and more -- without pre-programmed details about its surroundings.
OrthoTrophix, Inc., has completed subject enrollment and all scheduled dosing in its Phase 2 clinical study of TPX-100 in subjects with bilateral osteoarthritis of the knee. 115 subjects have completed all scheduled intra-articular injections. The last subject's last visit of the clinical site is scheduled in April 2016, and the study results are expected in mid-2016.
Imagine someone hands you a smoothie and asks you to identify everything that went into it.
You might be able to discern a hint of strawberry or the tang of yogurt. But overall it tastes like a blend of indiscernible ingredients.
Now imagine that the smoothie is made of 20,000 ground-up cells from, say, the brain.