ADVANCELL has initiated a phase IIb clinical study of the Company's ATH008, for the treatment of the palmar-plantar erythrodysesthesia syndrome, also known as hand-foot syndrome, a painful side-effect of certain chemotherapies such as capecitabine and fluoropyrimidines. No treatment currently exists for this condition. ADVANCELL expects to launch the product on the market by the end of 2015 or beginning of 2016. 

Based on last week's indictment of vaccine-autism researcher Dr. Poul Thorsen for money laundering and mail fraud, the Coalition for Mercury-free Drugs (CoMeD), a Maryland-based non-profit organization, is calling for further investigation. 

Amira Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that AM152, the company's lead LPA1 antagonist, has been granted an orphan drug designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Commonly referred to as IPF,  
idiopathic pulmonary fibrosisis scarring or thickening of the lungs without a known cause.   This fibrotic disease affects the lungs of patients and their ability to breathe. 

No one knows what causes pulmonary fibrosis or why some people get it but the condition is believed to result from an inflammatory response to an unknown substance. "Idiopathic" means no cause can be found.     

Access to water is a pressing global issue; the World Health Organization and UNICEF estimate that nearly 900 million people worldwide live without safe drinking water.   Taking a cue from the beetle Stenocara gracilipes, researchers from MIT think one solution to providing water in dry regions may be doing what the Namib beetle does - harvest fog for water.

The Namib Desert is on the west coast of Africa and when the morning fog rolls in, the Namib Beetle collects water droplets on its bumpy back, then lets the moisture roll down into its mouth, allowing it to drink.

Nephila, orb web weavers of golden silk traps up to five feet in diameter that snare bats in tropical regions, have a new relative that lived with the dinosaurs 165 million years ago and named it Nephila jurassica.   

The previous oldest member of the family found was Cretaraneus vilaltae from Spain and the new find stretches nephila genus evolution back another 130 million years - and to Mongolia, when the north China block was part of the Pangaeasupercontinent.

Nephila jurassica is also only the second female fossil nephilid to be described.

A new study says that an individual’s intestinal bacteria flora organizes itself in certain clusters and they hypothesize this intestinal bacteria flora will have an influence on how we react to diet and medicine absorbed through the gastro-intestinal tract.