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By Category: Biotechnology

Looking to the Bio-Defense Sector as Nuclear Fears Mount

As Japan’s nuclear crisis deepens, Wall Street may begin to focus on a small group of almost-ignored young biotechs. Known as the bio-defense group, these firms develop products that help protect the population from radiation leaks resulting from nuclear accidents or attacks.

March 21, 2011
| Filed under Asia/Pacific, North America, Biotechnology, and International
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New vaccine candidate shows strong potential to prevent highly contagious norovirus

Scientists have found that an experimental vaccine against human norovirus — the bug behind 90 percent of highly contagious nonbacterial illnesses causing diarrhea and vomiting — generates a strong immune response in mice without causing the animals any harm. Using a novel viral vector-based method to grow and deliver the vaccine that has shown promise Read More »

March 16, 2011
| Filed under North America, Biotechnology, and Research
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Army Enlists ‘DNA Origami’ to Spot Outbreaks

What do you get when you cross DNA, origami and the body’s natural defenses against disease? The Army’s newest way to spot smallpox outbreaks, apparently. Billions of defense dollars have gone into the military’s quest for sensors that will sniff out “bio-warfare” molecules. But today’s technologies just don’t cut it. In our bodies though, these Read More »

March 10, 2011
| Filed under North America, Biotechnology, Countermeasures, Public Health, and Research
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U.S. Touts Faster Anthrax Environmental Testing Method

A newly amended U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report details a new, faster environmental testing process for checking for the presence of live anthrax spores, the Center for Disease Research and Policy reported on Monday, July 20, 2010. The rapid-variability polymerase chain reaction testing process could be used in confirming that a contaminated area has been Read More »

March 9, 2011
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, Biotechnology, and Countermeasures
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AVI BioPharma & Dept. of Defense Successfully Complete Rapid Response Exercise

AVI BioPharma, Inc., a developer of RNA-based therapeutics, announced today the successful completion in 11 days of a second formal rapid response exercise centered around the dengue virus, a potentially fatal pathogen that infects up to 100 million people globally each year. In 2009, AVI successfully completed its first formal TMT rapid response exercise against Read More »