Month: December 2014

Group at Osaka University finds amelioration of MS in experimental animals after ingestion of Candida kefyr

The group of Yuji NAKATSUJI at Osaka University Medical School studied the effect of 18 types of yeasts contained in fermented food on experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) in experimental animals by analyzing the intestinal microflora and the systemic immune states. It turned out that administration of Candida kefyr (an emerging pathogen) had a beneficial effect […]

NIAS team uses piggyBac transposon technology to obtain insect-resistant rice

The group of Seiichi TOKI at the Biological Laboratory of NIAS has applied Transposagen’s footprint-free piggyBac transposon technology to obtain insect-resistant rice by genomic modification. This is the first application of this technology to plants, and the authors comment on the wide use of this method, even for tomatos NIAS news release, Dec. 25, 2014

RIKEN abendons claims for STAP procedure

After 8 months of experiments to reproduce the technology on “stimulus triggered pluripotent cell” formation (STAP), RIKEN representatives admittedly were not able to reproduce the findings published in “Nature” earlier this year. The main author of the Nature Paper, Ms Haruko Obokata (31) resigned from RIKEN’s Kobe Center for Developmental Biology (CDB) which is being […]

Immuno-Biological Laboratories plans pilot-plant for recombinant products expressed in silkworms

The pilot-plant will be built in Maebashi, Gunma Prefecture, and allow for the production under GMP regulations. At present, IBL does joint research with Astellas Pharma for the production of human fibrinogen from the silkworm cocoon and studies the expression of recombinant antibodies and enzymes in this organism. IBL news release, Dec. 19, 2014

University of Tokyo announces clinical trial for cancer treatment using recombinant Herpes virus

The virus used in the experiments will be G47Δ, a third-generation recombinant Herpes simplex type I virus, and the target will be patients suffering from advanced glioblastoma. Clinical studies on patients suffering from advanced olfactory neuroblastoma and from hormone treatment-resistant recurrent prostate cancer are also underway. University of Tokyo press release, Dec. 18, 2014

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