South Korea reports new case of suspected bird flu

SEOUL, April 29 (Reuters) - South Korea on Tuesday reported a suspected bird flu outbreak at a chicken farm in Ulsan City, which if confirmed would be the first in the southeast, as the country grapples with its worst outbreak of avian influenza।

South Korea previously confirmed 20 cases of the H5N1 strain in poultry in less than one month, despite having killed more than 5 million chickens and ducks, as the virus spreads at its fastest rate since the country reported its first case in 2003।

No human deaths from the disease have been reported in the country।On Tuesday, the Agriculture Ministry said a chicken farm in Ulsan, some 390 km (242 miles) southeast of Seoul, reported deaths of more than 100 chickens in a week and initial tests gave positive readings for the avian virus.

Seoul has stepped up the culling of birds in affected areas and launched an investigation into all of the country's 260 duck farms in a bid to prevent the spread of the virus.South Korea had to kill 5.29 million birds during the first outbreak between late 2003 and early 2004. The second outbreak in 2006-2007 saw about half that number culled.

(Reporting by Miyoung Kim; Editing by Ken Wills and Sanjeev Miglani)

Study finds that minimally invasive robotic bypass surgery provides health and economic benefits

Study finds that minimally invasive robotic bypass surgery provides health and economic benefits

Added costs are offset by shorter hospital stay and fewer complications

Minimally invasive heart bypass surgery using a DaVinci robot means a shorter hospital stay and faster recovery for patients, as well as fewer complications and a better chance that the new bypass vessels will stay open. And, according to a University of Maryland study, robotic heart bypass surgery also makes good economic sense for hospitals. The study will be presented at the American Surgical Association on April 26, 2008.

Using a surgical robot increases the cost of each bypass case by about $8,000, according to Robert S. Poston, M.D., a cardiac surgeon formerly at the University of Maryland Medical Center who is the lead author of the study. He says those additional expenses, which are due to equipment and supplies, are offset by a shorter hospital stay, reduced need for transfusions and fewer post-surgical complications that would require a patient to be re-admitted to the hospital. Especially with high risk patients who have lung or kidney disease or other health problems, the researchers found that the minimally invasive, robotic approach saves costs.

“These findings are significant because payers are considering linking reimbursement for coronary artery bypass surgery to patient outcomes,” says Stephen T. Bartlett, M.D., professor and chairman of the Department of Surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and chief of surgery at the University of Maryland Medical Center.

“Our study shows that there are health benefits to patients from the minimally invasive approach, both in terms of a shorter recovery and also looking at the function of the bypass graft months after the surgery,” adds Dr. Bartlett, who is one of the study’s co-authors.

While the DaVinci surgical robot is in widespread use for prostate surgery, the University of Maryland Medical Center is among only a few hospitals nationwide, and was one of the first in the U.S., to use the robot to perform multiple vessel heart bypass surgery.

The researchers studied 100 consecutive patients who had minimally invasive coronary bypass surgery using a robot at the University of Maryland Medical Center. The technique requires no incisions except for a few small holes to insert instruments. These cases were compared to a matched group of 100 patients who had the traditional “open” bypass surgery with a sternotomy, a surgical incision through the sternum.

The average length of the hospital stay for the patients with the minimally invasive surgery was about four days compared to seven days for the traditional bypass operation; however the difference was even greater among patients considered to be at high risk. In that group, the average stay was five days with robotic surgery compared to 12 days with the traditional technique.

The complication rate for those who had the robotic bypass was also much lower, with 88 percent of patients free of complications after having the minimally invasive surgery compared to 66 percent of those with the “open” operation.

The patients in the study were followed up one year after their surgery. Using a CT angiography scan, the researchers found that those who had the robotic bypass were much less likely to have narrowing or clots in the bypass graft than those with the traditional bypass surgery from six months to a year after the operation.

“We saw a long term benefit to patients after their bypass in terms of the patency, or openness, of the bypass graft, according to Bartley Griffith, M.D., head of Cardiac Surgery at the University of Maryland Medical Center and professor of surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Dr. Griffith, also a co-author of the study, says the grafted vessels of more than 99 percent of the patients who had robotically-assisted bypass surgery were still open and functioning well compared to about 80 percent of those who had the “open” operation.

The reason for the difference is that for patients who need multiple bypasses, surgeons can easily access two internal mammary arteries to use as the new bypass vessels rather than taking a section of vein from another part of the body. In traditional bypass operations, only one internal mammary artery is used while other bypasses are performed using a vein. The long-term success of the bypass, or patency of the target vessel, is superior with an internal mammary artery versus a vein.

Dr. Poston says hospitals have been waiting for data on the costs and benefits of robotic-assisted heart bypass programs before investing in them. “Our conclusion from this study is that robotically-assisted coronary artery revascularization presents quality of life benefits for patients along with financial savings for those hospitals which care for large numbers of high risk patients,” says Dr. Poston, who recently moved from the University of Maryland to be the chief of cardiac surgery at Boston Medical Center.

The study, “Superior Financial and Quality Metrics with Robotically-assisted (DaVinci) Coronary Artery Revascularization,” will be presented at the 128th annual meeting of the American Surgical Association in New York on April 26, 2008.

Gene Express Licenses Technology from USF to Develop a Prognostic Test for Chemotherapy Resistance

Gene Express Licenses Technology from USF to Develop a Prognostic Test for Chemotherapy Resistance

GEN News Highlights

Gene Express is licensing certain gene-expression technologies from the University of South Florida (USF) to develop tests for cisplatin and irinotecan chemoresistance. The firm believes that it will submit a prognostic test to the FDA for approval in the first half of next year.

The deal, signed with the Division of Patents & Licensing Research Office at USF, includes the ERCC1 and RRM1 genes. USF researchers say that they have discovered a correlation between expression of ERCC1 (excision repair cross-complementing-1) and the survival of patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). They also found that RRM1 is a clinically important determinant of malignant behavior in NSCLC.

“By adding these genes to our growing collection of gene standards, we will be able to develop the most accurate, sensitive, and reproducible molecular diagnostic tests for identifying tumors that are resistant to specific chemotherapeutics,” remarks Jonathan D. Rowe, Ph.D., svp of strategy and clinical innovation for Gene Express.

Gene Express intends to complete clinical validation for correlation of gene expression versus chemoresistance for cisplatin treatment by April 2009 and submit a 510K class II prognostic test to the FDA by May 2009. The company anticipates receiving approval of the 510K medical prognostic test in August 2009 and commercial application completed by December 2009.

Genetic Variant Identified in African Americans that Aids Survival After Heart Failure

Genetic Variant Identified in African Americans that Aids Survival After Heart Failure

GEN News Highlights

About 40% of African-Americans have a genetic variant in GRK5 that can protect them after heart failure and prolong their lives, according to researchers. GRK5 codes for the enzyme GRK5, which depresses the response to adrenaline and similar hormonal substances.

The human heart has two forms of GRK: GRK2 and GRK5. The researchers searched the DNA sequence of these genes in 96 people of European-American, African-American, or Chinese descent.

They found most people, no matter their race, had exactly the same DNA sequence in GRK2 and GRK5. There was one, however, one common variation called GRK5-Leu41 in the DNA sequence of more than 40% of African-Americans.

To determine the effect of the variant in GRK5, the team studied the course of progression of heart failure in 375 African-American patients. They looked for survival time or time to heart transplant, comparing people with the variant to those without. Some of these patients were taking beta blockers and some were not.

In patients who did not take beta blockers, the researchers found that those with the variant lived almost twice as long as those with the more common version of the GRK5 gene. Beta blockers prolonged life to the same degree as the protective GRK5 variant but did not further increase the already improved survival of those with the variant.

“These results offer an explanation for the confusion that has occurred in this area since clinical trials of beta blockers began,” says senior author Gerald W. Dorn II, M.D., professor of medicine, associate chairman for translational research, and director of the center for pharmacogenomics at Washington University. “Our study demonstrates a mechanism that should lay to rest the question about whether beta blockers are effective in African-Americans; they absolutely are in those who don't have this genetic variant.”

The investigators involved in the research were from Washington University, the University of Cincinnati, University of Michigan, Thomas Jefferson University, and University of Missouri. The study was published online on April 20 in Nature Medicine.

Two cases of coinfection with HIV and simian foamy virus (SFV) are reported

Two cases of coinfection with HIV and simian foamy virus (SFV) are reported in the May 1st edition of the Journal of Infectious Diseases. Although the exact clinical significance of infection with SFV is unknown for HIV-positive individuals, there is some laboratory evidence that SFV may alter the natural history of SIV, which is similar to HIV, and that SFV-infected cells are more vulnerable to infection with HIV.

The investigators recommend that measures should be introduced to protect the blood supply from SFV, and that strategies to reduce human contact with mandrills and other primates should be developed to prevent transmission of SFV and other simian infections to humans. People in contact with nonhuman primates have a risk of infection with the parasites, viruses and bacteria with which these creatures can be infected. HIV originated as a simian virus and was subsequently spread by person-to-person contact showing the potential public health consequences of infections harboured by nonhuman primates.

SFV is a retrovirus that is common in nonhuman primates that are caught from the wild or held in captivity. It can be spread easily between nonhuman primates by contact with infected bodily fluids, usually through grooming, biting, and possibly sexual contact. Although laboratory studies have shown that SFV can damage the cells of nonhuman primates, it does not appear to cause disease in these species. There is a growing body of evidence suggesting transmission of SFV from nonhuman primates to humans is possible.

Transmission of SFV from a wide range of ape and monkey species, including chimpanzee, gorilla, macaque, African green monkey, baboon and mandrill to humans have been suggested. The ability of SFV to cause illness in humans, or be transmitted between humans is not yet fully understood, but no cases of disease in humans or sexual transmission between humans has been recorded so far. Little is known about the geographical distribution of SFV among humans, including those infected with HIV in west central Africa.

Investigators therefore conducted an analysis of blood samples obtained from 139 sex workers, 41 patients with sexually transmitted infection, and 179 blood donors . The commercial sex workers and individuals with sexually transmitted infections were located in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the blood donors in the Cameroon. Samples were obtained between 1985 and 2000. Of the 139 samples obtained from commercial sex workers, one (0.72%) was found to be infected with SFV. This sample was also infected with HIV and was obtained in 1985. In addition, one sample (0.56%) from the 179 blood donors in the Cameroon was also SFV-infected, and once again this sample came from an HIV-positive individual. Genetic analysis was performed on the sample from the blood donor and this showed that infection with SFV originated in a mandrill. “Our identification of what are, to our knowledge, the first reported cases of coinfection with SFV and HIV heightens the importance of defining the clinical and public health consequences of zoonotic SFV infection, especially in the context of AIDS”, write the investigators.

Although it is unclear if infection with SFV will cause illness in HIV-positive individuals, they point to laboratory evidence that suggests that this may be possible. For example, SFV may alter the course of SIV-associated disease in the gut of macaques that have SIV-associated immunosuppression. Laboratory studies also suggest that SFV-infected human cells are more “permissive” of infection with HIV. As SFV infection was found in both a sex worker and a blood donor, this suggests to the investigators that both sexual and bloodborne transmission of SFV may be possible.

They note that blood donations are not screened for SFV and propose that their findings may indicate that such precautions need to be introduced. Canada, for example, recently banned blood donations from individuals who had had contact with nonhuman primates “to prevent the introduction of SFV and other primate microbes into the blood supply.” Other studies in the Cameroon show that transmission of SFV, SIV and HTLV-1 from mandrills to humans has occurred, probably because of hunting and butchering. The investigators conclude, “these results suggest that frequent contact with mandrills in this region may explain the widespread zoonotic transmission of mandrill retroviruses.

Effective strategies to reduce hunting of mandrills and other nonhuman primates are needed to help preserve these endangered species and to prevent their viruses from being transmitted to humans.” Reference Switzer WM et al. Coinfection with HIV-1 and simian foamy virus in West Central Africans. J Infect Dis 197: 1 – 5, 2008.

Eastland’s under the tongue, Bionomics disrupts further, Novogen adds on and Mesoblast’s arthritic sheep.

Eastland’s under the tongue, Bionomics disrupts further, Novogen adds on and Mesoblast’s arthritic sheep.

WA-based Eastland Medical Systems says it will become profitable this year after releasing early results of its sublingual malaria treatment ArTiMist proved positive.

Eastland has completed Phase 1 single-dose trials in Malaysia and Phase 1 multi-dose trials in South Africa of the under-the-tongue spray delivery.

Both trials showed the formulation was well-tolerated, the company said. It hopes to move into Phase III trials later this year.

SA's Bionomics presented data at the American Association of Cancer Research annual meeting this week that showed its lead anti-cancer compound, the vascular disrupting agent BNC105, has a dual mode of action.

Bionomics said the compound both disrupted blood vessels and inhibited tumour growth in animal models of human lung and brain cancers.

It is also being studied for breast, colon and prostate tumours. The data also showed that low doses of BNC105 in combination with the drug Avastin (bevacizumab) resulted in an enhanced anti-cancer effect on cancer blood vessels and tumours, the company said.

BNC105 is currently in clinical trial in patients with advanced cancer at three Melbourne cancer centres: the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, the Western Hospital and the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

Also at the AACR annual meeting, Sydney's Novogen announced a new compound in development, NV-128, with which it is targeting ovarian cancer.

NV-128 is an analogue of the company's phenoxodiol, which is in a Phase III multi-centre trial for late stage ovarian cancer, and triphendiol, which has FDA orphan drug status for pancreatic and bile duct cancers and late stage melanoma and enters Phase II late this year.

These drugs have been licensed to Marshall Edwards, a Novogen subsidiary that is listed on the Nasdaq index and was established to commercialise Novogen's multiple signal transduction regulators.

The company says NV-128 induces caspase-independent DNA degradation and cancer cell death.

Melbourne's Mesoblast has also been busy recently, announcing good long-term results in its osteoarthritis preclinical trials.

The mesenchymal stem cell specialist said a single injection of its allogeneic product into the arthritic knees of sheep provided sustained protection against cartilage destruction and degeneration for up to nine months.

"On the basis of these results, Mesoblast will proceed to commence its Phase II clinical trial program for cartilage protection in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee," the company said in a statement.

A new Excellence in Biotechnology Investment 2008 conference is being held next Monday and Tuesday at the Hilton Hotel in Sydney.

The event involves a gala awards dinner, with categories such as broker of the year, best CEO, transaction of the year and debut company of the year.

There's also a 'Legends' award, with contenders including Resmed's Dr Peter Farrell, CSL's Dr Brian McNamee, Cochlear's Dr Chris Roberts and everyone's Professor Ian Frazer.

Scientists Reprogram Fully Mature B Cells into Stem Cell Like State

Scientists Reprogram Fully Mature B Cells into Stem Cell Like State

GEN News Highlights

Scientists found that fully mature, differentiated B cells can be reprogrammed to an embryonic stem cell like state without the use of an egg.

In previous research, induced pluripotent stem (IPS) cells had been created from fibroblasts, but it was unknown if they were fully differentiated. Mature B cells have a specific part of their DNA cut out as a final maturation step, giving researchers a way to make sure the resulting IPS cells were not from immature cells.

Similar to the process used to create IPS cells from fibroblast cells, the scientists successfully reprogrammed immature B cells into IPS cells by using retroviruses to transfer four genes (Oct4, Sox2, c-Myc, and Klf4) into the cells’ DNA. An additional factor CCAAT/enhancer-binding-protein-a, however, was needed to nudge mature B cells to be reprogrammed into IPS cells.

The IPS cells from both the mature and immature B cells could be used to create mice. The mice grown from the reprogrammed mature B cells were missing the same part of their DNA as the mature B cells, demonstrating that they were reprogrammed from fully differentiated cells.

This work offers the ability of creating new mouse models for autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes, according to the investigators. For example, mature B or T cells specific for glia could be reprogrammed to IPS cells and then used to create mice with an entire immune system primed to only attack the glia cells, thereby creating a mouse model to study multiple sclerosis.

The researcher was performed by investigators at Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and MIT. The study will be published in the April 18 issue of Cell.

Significantly Reduced Brain Atrophy and Tissue Loss over Five Years in Treatment-Naive Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis Patients

COPAXONE(R) Significantly Reduced Brain Atrophy and Tissue Loss over Five Years in Treatment-Naive Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis Patients

News source: Business Wire

Final results from a five-year comparative imaging study examining the long-term effect of disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) in treatment-naive, early relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) patients, demonstrated that COPAXONE(R)-(glatiramer acetate injection) treated patients experienced significantly less brain tissue loss, as measured by percent change in brain volume, compared with patients on other DMTs. In the study, patients receiving COPAXONE(R) experienced a reduced mean annualized rate of brain atrophy (ARBA) of -0.46 percent over five years, while patients receiving Avonex(R) or Betaseron(R)/Rebif(R) experienced mean ARBA of -0.52 percent and -0.64 percent, respectively. Patients in the untreated control group with an average follow-up of 15.2 months experienced the highest rate of brain atrophy (-0.95 percent). These data were presented at the 60th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN).

"Brain atrophy is a clinically relevant tool to measure disease progression and subsequent neurological disability in RRMS patients," said Omar Khan, M.D., Professor of Neurology, Director, Multiple Sclerosis Center, Wayne State University and lead investigator of the study. "Long-term brain volume measurements may be more appropriate than short-term examination to assess the ability of DMTs to affect brain tissue loss in RRMS. Although patients showed a significantly lower ARBA in all three treatment groups compared with the untreated group, COPAXONE(R)-treated patients demonstrated significantly reduced brain atrophy versus patients treated with either low-dose or high-dose interferon-beta."

About the Study

The study analyzed 309 treatment-naive RRMS patients who began and remained on the same DMT for five years. Patients included were those with disease duration of five years or less and an Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) score of 3.0 or less at baseline. All patients had brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans (at onset of DMT and five years later) on the same 1.5T scanner. Untreated RRMS patients with follow-up ranging from 8 to 24 months were enrolled as controls. A fully automated technique known as SIENA was used to measure brain volume change. Image analysis was performed blinded to treatment allocation.

There were 121 patients on COPAXONE(R), 101 on high-dose interferon beta (Betaseron(R) or Rebif(R)) and 53 on Avonex(R). All treatment groups were well-matched at baseline. The mean ARBA over five years was -0.46 percent, -0.52 percent, and -0.64 percent in the COPAXONE(R), Avonex(R) and Betaseron(R)/Rebif(R) groups, respectively. The untreated control group with an average follow-up of 15.2 months had a mean ARBA of -0.95 percent. The ARBA was lower in all three treatment groups compared to the untreated group (p less than 0.0001).

COPAXONE(R)-treated patients demonstrated significantly reduced ARBA than patients treated with either Avonex(R) or Betaseron(R)/Rebif(R) (p=0.0336 and p less than 0.0001).

"This study also demonstrated that brain atrophy is a dynamic process that can be detected in mildly affected early MS patients. Therefore, in accordance with National MS Society recommendations, it is important to initiate therapy soon after the diagnosis of MS is confirmed," said Omar Khan, M.D.

The study was supported by Wayne State University Neuroscience Program.

About COPAXONE(R)

COPAXONE(R) (glatiramer acetate injection) is indicated for the reduction of the frequency of relapses in RRMS.
The most common side effects of COPAXONE(R) are redness, pain, swelling, itching, a lump or an indentation at the site of injection, weakness, infection, pain, nausea, joint pain, anxiety, and muscle stiffness.

COPAXONE(R) is now approved in 51 countries worldwide, including the United States, all European countries, Canada, Mexico, Australia, and Israel. In Europe, COPAXONE(R) is marketed by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. and sanofi-aventis. In North America, COPAXONE(R) is marketed by Teva Neuroscience, Inc.

See additional important information at http://www.COPAXONE.com/pi/index.html or call 1-800-887-8100 for electronic releases. For hardcopy releases, please see enclosed full prescribing information.

About Teva Neuroscience

Teva Neuroscience is dedicated to investigating, developing and marketing ground-breaking products and technologies, with emphasis on cutting-edge treatments for patients who are living with neurological conditions, including multiple sclerosis (MS) and Parkinson's disease (PD). Therapies developed by Teva Neuroscience include COPAXONE(R) (glatiramer acetate injection) for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) and AZILECT(R) (rasagiline tablets) for the treatment of PD.
Teva Neuroscience's suite of innovative products continues to demonstrate the company's commitment to fulfilling unmet medical needs and has helped the company evolve into a global leader in RRMS. Teva Neuroscience is a North American division of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., the world's largest generic drug company. Teva Neuroscience is proud of the role it plays in providing effective treatment options to patients worldwide. For more information, please visit www.tevaneuro.com or www.tevaclinicaltrials.com.

Teva's Safe Harbor Statement under the U. S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995:
This release contains forward-looking statements, which express the current beliefs and expectations of management. Such statements are based on management's current beliefs and expectations and involve a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause Teva's future results, performance or achievements to differ significantly from the results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include risks relating to: when and whether the proposed acquisition will be consummated, Teva's ability to rapidly integrate Bentley's' operations with its own operations and achieve expected synergies, the diversion of management time on merger-related issues, Teva's ability to accurately predict future market conditions, potential liability for sales of generic products prior to a final resolution of outstanding patent litigation, including that relating to the generic versions of Allegra(R), Neurontin(R), Lotrel(R), Famvir(R) and Protonix(R), Teva's ability to successfully develop and commercialize additional pharmaceutical products, the introduction of competing generic equivalents, the extent to which Teva may obtain U.S. market exclusivity for certain of its new generic products and regulatory changes that may prevent Teva from utilizing exclusivity periods, competition from brand-name companies that are under increased pressure to counter generic products, or competitors that seek to delay the introduction of generic products, the impact of consolidation of our distributors and customers, the effects of competition on our innovative products, especially Copaxone(R) sales, the impact of pharmaceutical industry regulation and pending legislation that could affect the pharmaceutical industry, the difficulty of predicting U.S. Food and Drug Administration, European Medicines Agency and other regulatory authority approvals, the regulatory environment and changes in the health policies and structures of various countries, our ability to achieve expected results though our innovative R&D efforts, Teva's ability to successfully identify, consummate and integrate acquisitions, potential exposure to product liability claims to the extent not covered by insurance, dependence on the effectiveness of our patents and other protections for innovative products, significant operations worldwide that may be adversely affected by terrorism, political or economical instability or major hostilities, supply interruptions or delays that could result from the complex manufacturing of our products and our global supply chain, environmental risks, fluctuations in currency, exchange and interest rates, and other factors that are discussed in Teva's Annual Report on Form 20-F and its other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made and the Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Biotechnology EDUCATION News

Biotechnology EDUCATION news

Parkinson's Research Sends Burlington, NC, Student to China. After spending last summer researching a protein that's significant in Parkinson's disease, writing a research paper about it and presenting it to educators, a Burlington teen is heading to China to share what she's learned. Melanie Wiley, 18, who currently attends the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics in Durham, is one four students from the state representing the American delegation in Beijing, China this week at the Beijing Youth Science Creation Competition. Wiley and the others in the delegation won't actually compete while in China, but they will present their research. On March 14, Wiley won third place for the research in the biotechnology section at the N.C. Student Academy of Science competition. On Monday, she attended the Junior Science and Humanities Symposium hosted by the University of North Carolina at Charlotte where she won second place for a poster presentation of the same research. (Burlington Times News, 3/21/08.)

Distance Learning About Biotech. A cake isn't just a tasty treat. It's also a science experiment full of chemical reactions and molecular structures. Through the ACCESS Distance Learning program, teachers across Alabama recently got to watch a lesson on the science of cooking, including a group at Bob Jones High School. From Montgomery, Dr. Daniel Adamek and Judy Brown prepared 14 cakes, with variations in each cake's ingredients, to show how teachers can talk about science in what can seem like just an everyday activity. Brown, a state education specialist and a former culinary arts teacher at Bob Jones, said she had been working on the Savory Science& lesson since September. It is the first in what she hopes will be a series of distance learning programs. Adamek, who is with AZ Technologies in Huntsville, worked with Brown to develop their cake experiments, write the script for the ACCESS broadcast and to write a lesson plan teachers can use in their classes. About 80 teachers took part in the first lesson, heading to Bob Jones and eight other ACCESS sites after school. Huntsville's HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology did the filming for Savory Science free of charge. (Huntsville Times, 3/17/08.)

Invitrogen Launches Philanthropic Foundation. Invitrogen Corporation, a provider of essential life science technologies for research, production and diagnostics, today announced the launch of the Invitrogen Foundation, a non-profit philanthropic organization aimed at increasing participation in and understanding of the life sciences among students, teachers, scientific professionals and the public. Invitrogen has granted an initial $1 million to the Foundation and plans to provide additional funding in the future. (Business Wire, 2/22/08.)

DC-Area Schools Heed Science Industry's Warning. Universities in the Washington region are in the forefront of a movement to train more people to enter science and technology professions and meet what industry leaders call an urgent need to expand the workforce to keep the U.S. economy competitive. At least eight schools in the District and Maryland are offering or drawing up plans for a two-year professional science master's degree. The PSM program is designed to provide more advanced training in science or mathematics -- with a dose of business skills -- and entice more students who receive bachelor of science degrees to stay in the field without having to pursue a doctorate. The PSM degree, sometimes described as a science version of the MBA degree, is being hailed as one of the most promising innovations in graduate education in years. Last year, Congress provided funding for schools to establish or improve PSM programs through the America Competes Act. About 1,300 students are enrolled in PSM programs at more than 50 schools nationwide, officials say. (Washington Post, 1/28/08.)

Gwinnett, GA, Students Try to Answer Organic Questions. The lesson called on students to detect GM (genetically modified) foods by PCR (polymerase chain reaction). Basically, students run an experiment to see if any food had its DNA altered. The activity is one of several high-level lessons students work on in the biotechnology program. The course lets Gwinnett high-schoolers perform experiments most students don't work on until junior year of college. Think of the course as a classroom version of the television show "CSI." (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 1/28/08.)

Maryland and Swedish Students Compare Marine Biotechnology Projects. The Maryland Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics program is meant to challenge students and prepare them for college. Students from Carroll County high schools sank disks into waterways around their homes and schools in recent months, pulling them out to photograph and identify the organisms living in different environments, and to compare their results with what students in Sweden discovered. (The DC Examiner, 1/16/08.)

New Jersey State Education Program Supports Biotechnology. Monmouth University was awarded a portion of a $5.1 million grant to be used to ignite a biotechnology education program in the state. The Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED) grant from the U.S. Department of Labor was awarded to the Central New Jersey BIO-1 regional partnership, which consists of key education and industry members in central New Jersey involved in supporting bioscience education and training programs necessary to support the pharmaceutical workforce. (Atlanticville News, 12/13/07.)

Amgen Scholars Program Accepting Applications. The Amgen Scholars Program, a partnership of the Amgen Foundation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and premier universities around the country, is now accepting applications for the summer of 2008. The annual Amgen Scholars Program provides undergraduates the opportunity for hands-on research at 10 of the nation's leading universities to explore an area of research under a faculty mentor beyond what they may be able to do as part of their regular undergraduate education. (Business Wire, 12/4/07.)

$1m for stem cell research

NSW and Victoria join forces to fund stem cell research।

Kate McDonald 11/04/2008 11:42:41

The Victorian and NSW governments have announced a fund of $1 million for a collaborative stem cell research program।

Each state will provide $500,000 to the program, which will require research collaboration between both states, although national and international collaboration is being encouraged।

The grants will also require compliance with legislation involving human embryonic stem cells.
The main aim of the program is to improve the sustainability of techniques, technical expertise and the range of applications for stem cell research and in particular the advancement of somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) techniques.

NSW Minister for Science and Medical Research, Verity Firth, said the new funding, along with regulatory certainty regarding human embryonic stem cell research, will help further research into producing tailored human stem cell lines for therapeutic use।

Guidelines and application forms are available from Business Victoria and the NSW Office for Science and Medical Research

Biomarkers may reduce need for biopsies

Heart and lung transplant patients may no longer need biopsies and could receive personalized care from biomarkers

BOSTON, MA April 10, 2008 – Data presented at this week’s 28th Annual Meeting and Scientific Sessions of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT) suggest the potential of a significant impact of using biomarkers to reduce the need for biopsies and personalize transplant patient care. Non-invasive testing using gene-based blood or urine samples called biomarkers could offer transplant patients personalized care and medication and may replace the need for costly, invasive biopsy procedures that can be risky for patients. The meeting will run through Saturday at the Boston Marriott Copley Place and Hynes Convention Center.
Personalized care is an integrative process of tailoring care to an individual patient’s characteristics or preferences, based on each individual’s unique biology, behavior and environment। At this year’s meeting, researchers are presenting data from gene and protein based blood testing that may be helpful for reducing immunosuppression. Related data suggests gene analysis may allow for prediction of future occurrence of cardiac allograft rejection and its diagnosis.

FEATURED DISCUSSION
Today’s plenary lectures provide current perspectives on biomarkers in transplantation. In Biomarkers: What Are They" How Might They Aid in Care of Allograft Recipients and Other Patients, Christopher J. O’Donnell, MD, MPH, from NIH National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute/Framingham Heart Study, Framingham, MA, will present data pertaining to personalized care, its benefits and future impact on heart and lung patients.
Following, Dr. Christoph Borchers, Director of the Genome Canada Proteomics Platform at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, will provide a look at the emerging strategies for plasma protein analysis in New Tools, Technologies and Results for Probing Proteomic Biomarkers in Plasma of Transplant Patients.
Finally, Dr। Ralph Weissleder from Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard will discuss Imaging Biomarkers: New Horizons and Opportunities in Transplantation, and will share the latest information on imaging biomarkers and how advanced imaging techniques may soon help in the management of transplant patients. Three related biomarker abstracts are also slated for presentation during the session.

“In recent years, there has been an intensive focus on enhancing our ability to provide the most particular predictive, diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic guidance for patients. This intent has been enabled by unbiased and targeted examination of genotypes and haplotypes that may convey risk or protection against certain disease processes like immune rejection, as well as by defining the molecular signatures of a disease process like rejection by measuring mRNA, proteins or metabolites in the blood or urine. Distillation of such data, along with clinical features, is intended to improve care, reduce costs, and make patients lives more enjoyable,” said Bruce McManus, MD, PhD, University of British Columbia, one of the Co-Chairs for the biomarkers plenary session.
Until recently, heart muscle biopsy was the only method available to rule out heart transplant rejection and guide treatment with anti-rejection, or immunosuppressive, therapy। Aside from the invasive and painful nature of the procedure, a biopsy is only able to detect rejection after damage has already occurred to the heart tissue. Similar dilemmas exist in the monitoring of lung transplant recipients.

Alternatively, non-invasive molecular testing of a routine blood sample allows analysis of gene expression in white blood cells, proteins in the plasma, and metabolites in blood and urine. The latter biomarkers provide information on the immune, inflammatory and injury status of the transplanted heart before tissue damage occurs. The new and original information on biomarkers and personalized care in lectures given at ISHLT will offer a deeper knowledge of this innovative direction that is revolutionizing health care. The discussion will also raise awareness of alternatives to biopsy procedures that are on the horizon.
###

About ISHLT
The International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the science and treatment of end-stage heart and lung diseases. Created in 1981, the society now includes more than 3,000 members from more than 45 countries, representing a variety of disciplines involved in the management and treatment of end-stage heart and lung disease.
ISHLT maintains two vital databases. The International Heart and Lung Transplant Registry is a one-of-a-kind registry that has been collecting data since 1983 from 223 hospitals from 18 countries. The ISHLT Mechanical Circulatory Device (MCSD) database has been collecting data since 2002 with the aim of identifying patient populations who may benefit from MCSD implantation; generating predictive models for outcomes; and assessing the mechanical and biological reliability of current and future devices. In fall 2006, ISHLT released the first international guidelines for heart failure patient management. For more information, visit http://www.ishlt.org/.

Small molecule miRNAs regulate female mouse fertility

Small molecules known as miRNAs, which are generated naturally by the body,
regulate the conversion of genetic information into proteins.

New data, generated by Jiahuai Han and colleagues, at The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, have now indicated that miRNAs can control the fertility of female mice.

The generation of miRNAs is a complex process that involves a protein known as Dicer. In the study, mice expressing substantially lower levels of Dicer than normal mice (Dicerd/d mice) were found to have only one defect — the female mice were infertile. Infertility was a result of impaired functioning of the corpus luteum, the structure that forms at the site of release of the fertilized egg and that is required to maintain pregnancy at the early stages.

Detailed analysis indicated that the functioning of the corpus luteum was impaired because it was unable to form new blood vessels, and that this was associated with increased expression of the protein TIMP1, which inhibits blood vessel formation.

As injection of the miRNAs miR17-5p and let7b into the ovaries of Dicerd/d mice decreased expression of TIMP1 and increased the number of blood vessels in the corpus luteum, the authors concluded that the development and function of the corpus luteum in mice is tightly regulated by miRNAs.

###

TITLE: Impaired microRNA processing causes corpus luteum insufficiency and
infertility in mice

AUTHOR CONTACT:

Jiahuai Han
The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California, USA.
Phone: (858) 784-8704; Fax: (858) 784-8665; E-mail: jhan@scripps.edu.

Scientists develop technique to "clean" stem cells

Scientists in Singapore have developed a strategy to "clean up" embryonic stem cells, which researchers hope can one day be used to replace damaged tissues and for other tailor-made personal treatments.

Embryonic stem cells are master cells that can grow, or "differentiate", into any type of cell or tissue, and are subsequently transplanted into the body.
But some studies have shown that residual stem cells that fail to differentiate can turn cancerous later on.

In the journal Stem Cells, scientists in Singapore said they generated antibodies that successfully killed off these residual stem cells in mice.

"Although human embryonic stems cells are a very powerful source to make differentiated cells, like heart cells, the problem is that you can have residual cells and there is a safety concern because they can form ... a mass of tumour cells," said Andre Choo, senior scientist at the Bioprocessing Technology Institute in Singapore.

"So if you give a product that is 95 percent heart cells, but 5 percent embryonic stem cells, it may be a problem later on," he said by telephone.

The researchers managed to generate antibodies in mice after injecting human embryonic stem cells into the animals.

The antibodies were then harvested and added to cultured embryonic stem cells that had been newly differentiated on laboratory dishes.

"It (the antibody) specifically eliminated undifferentiated cells within 30 minutes but left differentiated cells untouched," the researchers wrote.

The mixture was later injected into a batch of mice, while another batch of mice were given untreated stem cells.

After 6 to 8 weeks, the researchers detected tumours in the mice that received untreated stem cells, but those that received the mixture of stem cells and antibodies were free of tumours even after 20 weeks.

"We made antibodies that can kill them (undifferentiated stem cells) ... it acts as a clean up step for you to remove any of these rogue cells or potentially problematic cells," Choo said. (Reporting by Tan Ee Lyn; Editing by Alex Richardson)

Cell Replacement Strategy for Parkinsons Disease Perhaps Not Effective, Study Finds GEN News Highlights

Scientists reported that neurons grafted into the brain of a patient with Parkinsons disease 14 years ago developed Lewy body pathology, the defining pathology for the disease.

In the impacted study, individuals with Parkinsons disease received fetal cell transplants to reverse the loss in the brain of striatal dopamine. The patient affected, a woman with a 22-year history of Parkinsons disease who underwent transplantation in 1993, had the longest survival after transplantation that had been reported to date among the study’s participants.

The finding suggests that Parkinsons disease can affect cells grafted into the brain in the same way the disease affects host dopamine neurons in the substantia nigra of the brain, according to the researchers.

After transplantation, the patient experienced improvements in disease symptoms into1997, but exhibited progressive worsening of disease symptoms by 2004 and died in 2007.

Studies that followed did not establish clinical benefit although significant improvement was observed in a subpopulation of patients. Post-mortem studies of individuals in these studies showed a robust survival of grafted neurons, suggesting that the cells were not affected by Parkinsons, but the researchers now think that the individuals did not live long enough for the Parkinsons disease pathology to develop in the grafted cells.

Involved researchers came from Rush University Medical Center, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, and the University of South Florida, Tampa. The study was published in the April 6 issue of Nature Medicine.

Generex Biotechnology Announces North American Initiation of Generex Oral-lyn Phase III

Diabetes StudyMonday April 7, 9:30 am ET

Patient Screening Underway in North America for the Company's Non-Injectable Insulin That is Absorbed in the Lining of the Mouth and Does Not Enter the Lungs

WORCESTER, Mass., April 7, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Generex Biotechnology Corporation (NasdaqCM:GNBT - News), the leader in drug delivery for metabolic diseases through the inner lining of the mouth, announced today that it has initiated the Phase III protocol in North America for its proprietary buccally-absorbed oral insulin spray product, Generex Oral-lyn(tm), with the commencement of patient screening. The first screening took place in late March in Texas. Other clinical sites participating in the study located in the United States are in Texas, Maryland, Minnesota and California, and in Canada in the province of Alberta.

The Phase III protocol, identified as GEN084-OL, calls for a six month trial which is expected to include 750 patients with Type-1 diabetes mellitus. The primary objective of the study is to compare the efficacy of Generex Oral-lyn and the RapidMist(tm) Diabetes Management System with that of standard regular injectable insulin therapy as measured by Hba1c in patients with Type-1 diabetes mellitus. Generex Oral-lyn is delivered into the mouth via the Company's proprietary RapidMist device. Unlike inhaled insulin products, buccally-absorbed Generex Oral-lyn does not enter the lungs.

``This clinical milestone represents a long history of research and development to optimization for Generex Oral-lyn which is now entering the final clinical stage in major jurisdictions,'' said George Markus, the Company's Vice President of Regulatory Affairs. ``Our product is designed to offer a safe and convenient alternative to prandial insulin injections which can improve treatment compliance and quality of life for patients with diabetes.''

Generex Oral-lyn is presently approved for commercial sale in India and Ecuador. The delivery of Generex Oral-lyn clinical supplies to global sites and centers, including Ukraine and Russia, is on-going with roll-out to other regions to follow.

About Generex

Generex is engaged in the research, development, and commercialization of drug delivery systems and technologies. Generex has developed a proprietary platform technology for the delivery of drugs into the human body through the oral cavity (with no deposit in the lungs). The Company's proprietary liquid formulations allow drugs typically administered by injection to be absorbed into the body by the lining of the inner mouth using the Company's proprietary RapidMist(tm) device. The Company's flagship product, oral insulin (Generex Oral-lyn(tm)), which is available for sale in Ecuador for the treatment of patients with Type-1 and Type-2 diabetes and which was approved for sale in India in October 2007, is in various stages of clinical development around the world. For more information, visit the Generex website at

http://www.generex.com.

Safe Harbor Statement: This release and oral statements made from time to time by Generex representatives concerning the same subject matter may contain ``forward-looking statements'' within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements can be identified by introductory words such as ``expects,'' ``plans,'' ``intends,'' ``believes,'' ``will,'' ``estimates,'' ``forecasts,'' ``projects'' or words of similar meaning, and by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. Forward-looking statements frequently are used in discussing potential product applications, potential collaborations, product development activities, clinical studies, regulatory submissions and approvals, and similar operating matters. Many factors may cause actual results to differ from forward-looking statements, including inaccurate assumptions and a broad variety of risks and uncertainties, some of which are known and others of which are not. Known risks and uncertainties include those identified from time to time in the reports filed by Generex with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which should be considered together with any forward-looking statement. No forward-looking statement is a guarantee of future results or events, and one should avoid placing undue reliance on such statements. Generex undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Generex cannot be sure when or if it will be permitted by regulatory agencies to undertake additional clinical trials or to commence any particular phase of clinical trials. Because of this, statements regarding the expected timing of clinical trials cannot be regarded as actual predictions of when Generex will obtain regulatory approval for any ``phase'' of clinical trials. Generex claims the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements that is contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act.

First hybrid embryos created

First hybrid embryos created

UK scientists have successfully created human-animal hybrid embryos using nuclear transfer.

Scientists from the UK's Newcastle University say they have successfully created hybrid embryos derived from human cells and a cow egg.

The team, led by Dr Lyle Armstrong, presented preliminary data to a conference in Israel last week but stressed that the results are only preliminary and have yet to
be validated by the peer review process.

In a statement, the university said the embryos were created from one of its human embryonic stem cell lines, Ncl-1. The human cells were injected into an
enucleated cow egg, which was then encouraged to divide. The team said the hybrid embryos survived for three days.

The university's Professor John Burn told the BBC that the team now had "preliminary data which looks promising but this is very much work in progress".

He said the next step was to "get the embryos to survive to around six days when we can hopefully derive stem cells from them".

Armstrong and his co-researcher Dr Majlinda Lako have a licence from the UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), granted in January, to
conduct the research.

The UK Parliament will debate next month further regulation of the research under its Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill.

Under the current law, any hybrid embryos created have to be destroyed at 14 days

Organ growth, warts and allSalvador

Organ growth, warts and allSalvador, Warts, Hippo and Yorkie are an eclectically named group of genes that form the core components of a signalling pathway in Drosophila that regulates
control of organ size and may have some important parallels with human cancer.

Dr Kieran Harvey from the Laboratory of Cell Growth and Proliferation at the PeterMac Centre in Melbourne is interested in how organ growth and size are
regulated during development by the newly discovered Salvador-Warts-Hippo (SWH) signalling pathway. Activation of this pathway restricts organ size by limiting
cell growth and proliferation and by stimulating cell death via apoptosis.

Harvey's primary interest is how this system works in Drosophila melanogaster, where the pathway was identified, but the work also has important implications for
human tumorigenesis as control of proliferation and cell survival are also central to the development of cancer.

At the Hunter Cell Biology meeting this week, Harvey will present his group's latest findings on this important signalling cascade in fruit flies and how this might
translate to human disease.

Harvey's interest in the pathway with the eclectic name is more than academic - he was part of its discovery. After completing a PhD in cell biology with Sharad
Kumar at the University of Adelaide in 2000, Harvey took up a five-year postdoctoral position at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center in Boston and
the University of California, Berkeley. In the laboratory of developmental cell biologist Iswar Hariharan, Harvey started working with Drosophila as a model organism
for the first time.

"We were screening flies for genes that gave cells a growth advantage, looking for outgrowth of tissues such as eyes and wings," Harvey says. The group identified
two components of a previously undiscovered pathway - a novel gene called Salvador, and a previously known gene called Warts (published in Cell, 2002).

They subsequently found Hippo and Yorkie, and together, these four genes comprise the core components of the Drosophila SWH pathway, required for normal cell
growth, proliferation and apoptosis.

Identifying Hippo and showing that it controlled tissue growth with Salvador and Warts comprised a second Cell paper for Harvey in 2003. Deregulation of the SWH
pathway causes a significant and abnormal increase in organ size, which is lethal for developing flies and clearly of more general biological significance.

Twelve components of the SWH pathway have now been identified in flies, mostly using clonal screens for genes that affect organ size. All of these have
mammalian counterparts and several have been implicated as tumour suppressors or oncogenes.

According to Harvey, many of these were known genes, discovered in the 1980s and 90s by different groups and later slotted into the SWH pathway. The
components belong to a range of protein classes: kinases (Hippo and Warts and Discs overgrown), scaffold molecules (Salvador), membrane-associated
signalling proteins (Expanded and Merlin), and cytoskeletal motors (Dachs) to transcriptional regulators (Yorkie).

Fat and tissue growth

In early 2006, Harvey moved back to Australia to set up a group at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and continue his work on Salvador-Warts-Hippo signalling.

"Our major focus at the time was to fill out the pathway [as only five components were then known]," Harvey says.

"Initially we looked for a transmembrane receptor for the pathway that might signal to one or more of the so-far all intracellular components." Taking a candidate
approach, Harvey looked for plasma membrane proteins previously shown to regulate tissue growth in Drosophila and came across Fat, an atypical member of the
cadherin family of adhesion proteins.

According to Harvey, mutations in Fat were first discovered in flies in the 1920s with dominant alleles that affected wing size and abdomen shape.

"Then, in the late 1980s, Fat was shown to regulate tissue growth and cell proliferation, before cloning of the gene in the 90s identified it as a cadherin, but still no
one knew how it worked to regulate organ development."
Cadherins span the membranes of adjacent cells to stick them together and form a barrier, but are also important for signalling to intracellular pathways.
In the first part of his presentation at the Hunter meeting, Harvey will discuss how they identified Fat as a component of the SWH pathway. "Based on earlier work by
others, we did genetic studies in our flies and also stained Fat-mutant tissues for different target genes of the SWH pathway such as cyclin E, which drives cell
proliferation, and DIAP1, which inhibits apoptosis."

There were strong genetic interactions between Fat and multiple components in the pathway, and animals lacking Fat were phenotypically similar to those with
depressed SWH signalling.

Further studies revealed a potential mechanism by which Fat regulates SWH pathway activity. It seemed that Fat regulates the apical membrane localisation of an
intracellular protein called Expanded, another upstream regulatory protein in the pathway associated with the plasma membrane.

"We are not sure at the moment how all this happens," Harvey says. "Expanded sits at the apical membrane of developing cells and presumably acts as some sort
of bridge between the surface proteins and either the actin cytoskeleton or downstream signalling proteins. We therefore think that Fat restricts organ size by
stimulating downstream SWH pathway components to limit transcription."

The current goal of Harvey's group is to nut out the entire SWH pathway. "We now want to know exactly how Fat signals to the downstream components, but also
how Fat itself is regulated. Evidence is mounting in both Drosophila and mammals that the SWH pathway is controlled by cell adhesion, but we do not know how.
"Fat is a likely candidate to mediate adhesion dependent-signalling given that it is a cadherin, but other proteins might also be involved, such as another cadherin,
Dachsous."

Fat and Expanded

At the Hunter meeting, Harvey will also discuss new findings on the temporal control of SWH pathway activity throughout Drosophila development.

"To date, all pathway components were thought to function throughout development in flies. However, we have found that although the four core components of the
pathway act early on to regulate growth and proliferation and later on in development to drive apoptosis, other upstream components act differentially.

"In particular, Fat and Expanded appear to control organ size during the growth phase, but play no role in triggering apoptosis once the organ reaches critical size."
Harvey's group has also started to look at the role of SWH pathway components in different human cancers, and several members have been implicated already.

According to his recent article in Nature Reviews Cancer (Harvey and Tapon, 2007), "evidence from patient samples, cancer cell lines and mouse models indicate
that disruption of the analogous human pathway is involved in tumorigenesis".

At the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Harvey has access to a large array of tumour samples from patients across the cancer spectrum. Using this resource, his
team will search for mutations in individual pathway genes, as well as staining tumours for expression of transcriptional enhancer protein, YAP, which is the
mammalian orthologue of the fly protein yorkie.

"Essentially, instead of going in and sequencing all known pathway components in each sample, we are looking for expression of this common key downstream
protein," Harvey says. "All of the upstream components of the pathway impinge on this one oncoprotein and regulate its stability, phosphorylation and shuttling
between nucleus and cytoplasm."

Once his team has found a class of tumours with increased YAP expression, they will sequence the tumour suppressor genes involved and do functional assays.
Career development

Kieran Harvey received funding from the Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) in 2006 to set up his laboratory in Australia. HFSP is a prestigious international
granting body that has Australian membership through the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), involving more than $70 million in grants and
fellowships each year.

Harvey also won a Career Development Award from the Leukemia Lymphoma Society and a Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre Junior Investigator Award to help
kick-start his independent research career back in Australia.

As testament to those funding decisions, Harvey has continued to make pivotal findings in the field of development cell biology, and last year secured a four-year
Australia Career Development Award Fellowship from the NHMRC.


Thanks : Austalralian news

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