An international team that developed a new gene therapy approach to treatment of Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome, a fatal inherited form of immunodeficiency has reported results.

Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome is a disorder that weakens the body's immune system. It is caused by a mutation in a gene that encodes the protein WASP. The most often used therapy is a bone marrow or stem cell transplant from a matching donor, often a sibling or relative. It can be curative for some patients, mostly those who have a strongly matching donor.

In October of 2011, NASA's Operation IceBridge flights over the continent over Antarctica spotted a rift that soon became the focus of international scientific attention. Seeing the rift grow and eventually form a 280-square-mile ice island gave researchers an opportunity to gather data that promises to improve our understanding of how glaciers calve.

Hospira received a positive opinion from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP), recommending European Commission approval of Inflectra (infliximab) for rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and plaque psoriasis.

Inflectra (infliximab) is a biosimilar medicine to the reference medicinal product, Remicade (infliximab), and is the first monoclonal antibody therapy to reach a positive opinion following review via the EMA biosimilars regulatory pathway. A biosimilar developed in-line with EU requirements can be considered a therapeutic alternative to an existing biologic, with comparable quality, efficacy and safety to the reference product.[1] 

New geologic evidence that casts doubt on one of the conventional explanations for how Antarctica's ice sheet began forming, says a team of researchers writing in Geology.

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), an ocean current flowing clockwise around the entire continent, insulates Antarctica from warmer ocean water to the north, helping maintain the ice sheet.

For several decades, scientists have surmised that the onset of a complete ACC played a critical role in the initial glaciation of the continent about 34 million years ago.

Geophysicists conducting an analysis of earthquakes in the area around the Salton Sea Geothermal Field in southern California found a strong correlation between seismic activity and operations for production of geothermal power, which involve pumping water into and out of an underground reservoir. 

Using the same kind of mathematical formulas used to draw political redistricting maps, Johns Hopkins researchers say they have developed a model that would allow for the more equitable allocation of livers from deceased donors for transplantation.

They claim that where you live dictates the availability of a liver transplant - geography can mean the difference between a 10 percent chance of dying while on the waiting list for a donor liver, and a 90 percent chance.

Their new model ignores the longstanding relationships among medical centers used to create the current unbalanced system and makes the distribution of organs as equitable as possible, they say.