This is my occasional bulletin for journalists with an interest in science stories.
Today:
Geelong researchers are trialling a drug that may stabilise adult onset diabetes. It’s an old drug reborn – it was used for many years to treat eye disease. Why Geelong? Apparently “Geelong is developing a global reputation as a good area in which [...]
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People with diabetes invited to participate in trial
Media release: Geelong, Friday 23 April 2010
Modern drugs can stabilise adult onset diabetes but with some serious side effects. A Geelong-based company, Verva Pharmaceuticals, has a new approach – a drug used for many years to treat eye disease. In animal testing, the drug restored sensitivity to insulin. [...]
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Most vaccines need a ‘magic’ booster or adjuvant to boost our immune response to the vaccine. But the best adjuvants are too toxic for human use.
Now NZ scientists believe they have created a powerful and safe adjuvant and are trialling it as part of a new cancer vaccine.
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How many viruses are there in your blood? How many dangerous nano-particles in your car exhaust?
qViro is a revolutionary New Zealand invention that offers the potential to quickly and cheaply answer these questions. It’s a feature of Ausbiotech – the national biotechnology conference – being held in Melbourne today.
The beta version is the size of a coffee grinder and can muster and count the number of viruses in a sample in minutes. This is a truly portable, desktop instrument that is powered from the USB drive of a computer.
Its competitors are the size of washing machines, may take days to get a result, or cost upwards of $50,000.
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Ian Frazer
Follow this link to Ian Frazer’s acceptance speech: http://www.uq.edu.au/news/?article=16238
A hero of women and science
Ian Frazer has created four vaccines to fight cervical cancer. Two of them-Gardasil and Cervarix-are now on the market. Both prevent infection with the virus responsible for most cervical cancers. The other two vaccines are in clinical trials and are designed [...]
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Carola Vinuesa
When quality control fails in our immune system
Nature paper, child, Nature paper, child, Nature paper… Carola Vinuesa has had a busy few years. Her research has revealed key steps in how our immune system produces high quality, long lasting antibodies to fight disease.
And she has discovered what happens when things go wrong: that a [...]
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New vaccine rollout through the GAVI Alliance expected to help extinguish childhood killer
Canberra, Australia — Papua New Guinea will begin immunising children this month with a vaccine that promises to rid the nation of Haemophilus Influenzae type b, or Hib disease, one of the deadliest causes of meningitis and pneumonia.
An Australian [...]
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Jamie Rossjohn
Proteins are the molecular machines of all life. Their shape is the key to understanding how they function, or malfunction. We can use this knowledge to understand the natural world, and to guide the development of tests, vaccines and drugs to fight disease.
Jamie Rossjohn is one of Australia’s leaders in structural biology and X-ray [...]
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