Category Archives: Life Sciences

Exhaled Breath is Unique Fingerprint

Posted by BeiBei Song on April 5, 2013 None comments

BBC News

By Jason Palmer, Science and Technology Reporter

Many "peaks" present in the breath analyses have not yet been identified - and could be diagnostic of disease

Compounds present in exhaled breath can act as a “fingerprint” for individuals, scientists say.

These “metabolites” represent the waste products of the body’s chemistry – but their uniqueness had never been shown.

A study in PLOS ONE suggests they could be as useful to medical diagnosis as those found in urine or blood.

Because a breath test is non-invasive and the results are instantaneous, it could prove even more convenient for example in anaesthesia or doping tests. Read more »

Scientists “Read Dreams” Using Brain Scans

Posted by BeiBei Song on April 5, 2013 None comments

BBC World Service

By Rebecca Morelle, Science Reporter

Scientists have found a way to “read” dreams, a study suggests.

Researchers in Japan used MRI scans to reveal the images that people were seeing as they entered into an early stage of sleep.

Writing in the journal Science, they reported that they could do this with 60% accuracy.

The team now wants to see if brain activity can be used to decipher other aspects of dreaming, such as the emotions experienced during sleep.

Professor Yukiyasu Kamitani, from the ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories, in Kyoto, said: “I had a strong belief that dream decoding should be possible at least for particular aspects of dreaming… I was not very surprised by the results, but excited.” Read more »

What Will It Take To Fully Understand The Brain? Scientists Debate @ Swissnex

Posted by Rhonda Shrader on March 19, 2013 None comments


Swissnex San Francisco recently hosted a discussion between top scientists from the University of Geneva and Stanford on how neuroscience is changing the understanding of the mind and cognition, and the impact in other fields. The debate is part of an ongoing World Economic Forum series exploring the link between neuroscience, economics and policy.

Like every other science, neuroscience has its fashions. Two enormous theoretical projects have just been introduced–the EU’s Human Brain Project aiming to “simulate a complete human brain in a supercomputer” and the NIH’s $3B Brain Activity Map. Read more »

Webinar – How Equity Crowdfunding Can Help Life Science Companies

Posted by BeiBei Song on February 19, 2013 None comments

The past five years have been one of the more challenging periods for raising capital in the biotechnology industry, especially for early-stage companies. Numerous factors, including a challenging FDA environment upon NDA submission, long timelines to approval and the high rate of drug failure, have contributed to a dim venture capitalist view of the sector’s prospects. As a result, emerging growth biotechnology companies are increasingly pursuing alternative financing vehicles, including Equity Crowdfunding, to advance their drug development programs. Read more »

California’s Unprecedented Role in New Treatments

Posted by BeiBei Song on February 1, 2013 None comments

From BayBio

Life sciences companies in California developed nine of the 39 novel medicines approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2012, according to the annual California Biomedical Industry Report, published today by BayBio, California Healthcare Institute (CHI) and PwC US. The pace of product approvals and pipeline productivity of California-based biomedical companies reinforces the state’s position as the nation’s leading source of biomedical innovation. Read more »

Health Innovation Challenge Winners: Simplicity Carries The Day

Posted by Rhonda Shrader on October 30, 2012 None comments

Technology doesn’t have to be complicated.  That’s the message from Health Innovation Challenge winners profiled at the recent Health 2.0 conference.

Winners included IN-R-FOOD, an iPhone/Android app that allows users to scan barcodes on foods to see their nutritional value, and Sqord, an incentive-based game sparking kids’ exercise using wrist-worn accelerometers. Read more »

Two American Scientists Win Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Posted by BeiBei Song on October 10, 2012 None comments

New York Times

By

Two Americans shared this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry for deciphering the communication system that the human body uses to sense the outside world and send messages to cells — for example, speeding the heart when danger approaches. The understanding is aiding the development of new drugs.

The winners, Dr. Robert J. Lefkowitz, 69, a professor at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute researcher, and Dr. Brian K. Kobilka, 57, a professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine in California, will split eight million Swedish kronor, or about $1.2 million. Read more »

Gurdon and Yamanaka Share Nobel Prize for Stem Cell Work

Posted by BeiBei Song on October 9, 2012 None comments

BBC News

By James Gallagher, Health and science reporter

 

Two pioneers of stem cell research have shared the Nobel prize for medicine or physiology.

John Gurdon from the UK and Shinya Yamanaka from Japan were awarded the prize for changing adult cells into stem cells, which can become any other type of cell in the body. Read more »

Personalized Medicine: It’s All About You

Posted by Rhonda Shrader on September 22, 2012 None comments

According to the Personalized Medicine Coalition, 90% of currently prescribed drugs only work in 30% to 50% of the population.  In 2011, this resulted in as much as $350 billion in waste.  Surprised?  You’re not alone.

Personalized medicine is more than a buzzword and a catch all phrase.  In simple terms, it describes a number of diagnostic, therapeutic and technology tools working in concert to deliver the right intervention in the right dosage at the right time.  Genentech’s diagnostic/therapeutic combo Herceptin and Pfizer’s recently approved Xalcori are the two most visible examples.

Read more »

Imagine: The Science of Creativity

Posted by Rhonda Shrader on June 11, 2012 1 comments

Steve Wozniak is an interesting dude.

Although the co-founder of Apple is a proud, card-carrying “geek”, he is also one of the most creative folks ever.  Does his creative success come from the processing speed of his sheer brainpower?  According to the man himself, no.

Read more »

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