Scientists map new mechanism in brain's barrier tissue
Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have documented a previously unknown biological mechanism in the brain's most important line of defence: the blood-brain barrier. Scientists now know that the barrier helps maintain a delicate balance of glutamate, a vital signal compound in the brain. The research results have just been published in the scientific journal GLIA.
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IMI funds platform to discover new medicines
The Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) has officially announced the construction of an EU-wide public-private partnership, the "European Lead Factory", to combine a comprehensive collection of candidate drug molecules - a Joint European Compound Collection - with an industry-like European Screening Centre.
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New approach to stroke therapy
LMU researchers developed a new strategy for the treatment of stroke, which could help to improve blood flow to ischemic brain. Strokes are due to a localized reduction in the blood supply to the brain, mainly due to the blockage of a vessel by a blood clot. This can lead to the death and irreversible loss of nerve cells. In about 90% of cases, no dedicated treatment is available that can effectively prevent serious damage following an acute stroke.
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iSOFT Partners with Southampton on Groundbreaking Life Science Project
iSOFT, a CSC company, and University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust are to jointly explore using new software to extract and anonymise clinical information for research and clinical trials, in one of the first projects of its type in the UK. "Clinical information held by NHS trusts is of huge value in clinical research and offers these trusts a potential income stream," said Dr Joerg Kraenzlein, iSOFT's director of life sciences.
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VTT searches for novel biomarkers and targets for preventing or treating type 2 diabetes
VTT is participating in two new European projects focusing on type 2 diabetes. The projects aim at identifying new therapeutic choices and strategies for preventing the disease. Focus is on obtaining information on cellular dysfunction in diabetes and the effects of changes in lifestyle. The goal includes planning individual lifestyle instructions for people at high risk of diabetes and exploiting the results in a major European health insurance system.
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The USP15 biological thermostat: A promising novel therapeutic target in cancer
After years studying the molecular bases of glioblastoma - the most common brain tumor and one of the most aggressive of all cancers, the group led by Dr. Joan Seoane, Director of Translational Research at the Vall d'Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO) and ICREA Research Professor has published a study in Nature Medicine identifying USP15 as a critical protein in cancer which, thanks to its molecular characteristics, shows enormous therapeutic promise.
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New method makes it easier to treat prostate and pancreatic cancer
Laser light in combination with certain drugs - known as photodynamic therapy - can destroy cancer tumours, but is today used mostly to cure skin cancer. The reason that internal tumours are not treated with the method is that the technology does not exist to check that the precise amount of light is administered. However, software developed by researchers in atomic physics at Lund University in Sweden looks like being able to solve the problem.
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