The announcement that an extra 64 clinical pharmacists will be employed in NSW hospitals has been welcomed by the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia. President of the NSW Branch of the PSA, Peter Gissing, said the decision by NSW Health Minister, John Della Bosca, to appoint extra hospital pharmacists was timely and recognised the pivotal role that pharmacists play in all aspects of patient health care in Australia.
Lees meer..

AARP today applauded the Senate introduction of bipartisan legislation to lower the cost of prescription drugs. The Promoting Innovation and Access to Life-Saving Medicine Act, introduced by Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY), Susan Collins (R-ME), Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and David Vitter (R-LA), will create a needed pathway for the approval of safe generic versions of costly biologic drugs.
Lees meer..

The Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of science, is to open a new centre for the advancement of science at Chicheley Hall, outside Newport Pagnell. The Royal Society has purchased the historic stately home and will be developing it to establish a new residential centre where scientists from all over the UK and the world will be able to meet to discuss and develop their work.
Lees meer..

The NYU School of Medicine Biotechnology Study Center will recognize three outstanding pioneers in the field of biotechnology next month at its annual awards symposium: Mark S. Ptashne, of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, for his pioneering work on the lamda phage repressor, key to a molecular switch that controls gene transcription, a discovery that forms the basis for much of modern biotechnology. Leonard P.
Lees meer..

A team of scientists from the Morgridge Institute for Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison reports that it has created induced human pluripotent stem (iPS) cells completely free of viral vectors and exotic genes. By reprogramming skin cells to an embryonic state using a plasmid rather than a virus to ferry reprogramming genes into adult cells, the Wisconsin group’s work removes a key safety concern about the potential use of iPS cells in therapeutic settings.
Lees meer..

The Howard Hughes Medical Research Institute has announced that two researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center are among 50 scientists nationwide to be appointed HHMI Early Career Scientists. Harmit Singh Malik, Ph.D., an associate member of the Center’s Basic Sciences Division, and Toshiyasu Taniguchi, M.D., Ph.D.
Lees meer..

Northeastern University and MIT researchers have observed-for the first time-the origin of a mass gathering and the subsequent migration of hundreds of millions of animals. Utilizing a new imaging technology invented by the researchers, they were able to instantaneously image and continuously monitor entire shoals of fish containing hundreds of millions of individuals stretching for tens of kilometers off Georges Bank near Boston.
Lees meer..

Two University of Texas at Austin biologists join 50 of the nation’s best early career science faculty to focus on their boldest and potentially transformative research ideas with support from a new initiative from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). As Early Career Scientists, Dr. Dan Bolnick and Dr.
Lees meer..

In a new study in Nature, researchers at Brandeis University and the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (Cambridge, U.K.) for the first time shed light on a crucial step in the complex process by which human genetic information is transmitted to action in the human cell and frequently at which point genetic disease develops in humans.
Lees meer..

Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) on Thursday introduced legislation (S 726) that would allow FDA to approve generic versions of biotechnology drugs after a five-year period of brand-name patent exclusivity, the New York Times reports.
Lees meer..