GENEVA, September 4 /PRNewswire/ --

- Merck Serono and Ablynx to Equally Contribute to Discover and Develop Nanobodies(R) Against two Targets in Oncology and Immunology and Equally Share the Resulting Profits

Merck Serono, a division of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, today announced that it has entered into an agreement with Ablynx (Euronext Brussels: ABLX), to co-discover and co-develop Nanobodies(R) against two targets in oncology and immunology. The agreement includes an upfront cash payment to Ablynx of EUR10 million.

Bumblebees learn to avoid camouflaged predators by sacrificing foraging speed for predator detection, according to scientists from Queen Mary, University of London.

One of the bumblebee's main predators is the crab spider. Crab spiders hunt pollinating insects like bees and butterflies by lying in wait on flowers, and are particularly difficult for their prey to spot because they can change their colour to blend in with their surroundings.

Dr Tom Ings and Professor Lars Chittka from Queen Mary's School of Biological and Chemical Sciences wanted to discover whether bumblebees could learn to avoid these crab spiders. Their study, funded by the NERC and published in the journal Current Biology, shows how a run in with a spider affected the bees' foraging patterns.

Why is it that the origins of many serious diseases remain a mystery? In considering that question, a scientist at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine has come up with a unified molecular view of the indivisible unit of life, the cell, which may provide an answer.

Reviewing findings from multiple disciplines, Jamey Marth, Ph.D., UC San Diego Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine and Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, realized that only 68 molecular building blocks are used to construct these four fundamental components of cells: the nucleic acids (DNA and RNA), proteins, glycans and lipids. His work, which illustrates the primary composition of all cells, is published in the September issue of Nature Cell Biology.

Like the periodic table of elements, first published in 1869 by Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev, is to chemistry, Marth’s visual metaphor offers a new framework for biologists.

Sarah Palin, the Republican nominee for vice president, is different from many female leaders around the world in at least one respect – her political career does not follow that of a male relative, according to an expert on women in global politics.

Many female leaders around the world had a family connection to a politically powerful male, said Pamela Paxton, associate professor of sociology and political science at Ohio State University.

“In many countries with traditional cultures, women are easily seen as ‘stand-ins’ for their father or husband,” said Paxton, who is co-author of the book "Women, Politics, and Power: A Global Perspective" (Pine Forge Press, 2007) with Melanie Hughes from the University of Pittsburgh. Often, women leaders achieve power when their male relative dies, is martyred, or otherwise is forced to leave office.

As if things weren’t tough enough for premature babies who have tubes down their throats and noses to survive, once the tubes are removed, they are often unable to take nourishment orally — that is, suck.

But 20 tube-fed preterm infants with respiratory distress syndrome treated with the NTrainer, a therapeutic device patented by the University of Kansas, rapidly learned to suck far better and transitioned to oral feeding faster than a control group of babies with the syndrome.

Respiratory distress syndrome, also known as hyaline membrane disease, is a common condition of prematurity, particularly in the youngest infants, because babies’ lungs are too immature to survive outside the womb without the help of a ventilator and/or oxygen. Overall, it is the seventh leading cause of death among infants younger than one year, fifth for African-American and third for Hispanic infants.

Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Seoul National University (SNU) have learned how to tweak a new class of polymer-based semiconductors to better control the location and alignment of the components of the blend.

Their recent results—how to move the top to the bottom—could enable the design of practical, large-scale manufacturing techniques for a wide range of printable, flexible electronic displays and other devices.

Organic semiconductors—novel carbon-based molecules that have similar electrical properties to more conventional semiconducting materials like silicon and germanium—are a hot research topic because practical, high-performance organic semiconductors would open up whole new categories of futuristic electronic devices. Think of tabloid-sized “digital paper” that you could fold up into your pocket or huge sheets of photovoltaic cells that are dirt cheap because they’re manufactured by—basically—ink-jet printing.

The largest study ever conducted of DNA evidence extracted from long-dead woolly mammoths points to a rockier past for the iconic Ice Age giants than many had suspected. The last mammoths left in Siberia 50,000 to 5,000 years ago weren't natives, they report in the September 4th Current Biology. Rather, they were North Americans that had migrated in and replaced the dwindling Siberian populations.

In the new study, the researchers analyzed mitochondrial DNA from 160 mammoth samples from across Holarctica (a region encompassing present day North America, Europe and Asia), representing most of radiocarbon time.

Down Syndrome (DS) belongs to the group of conditions called 'aneuploidies', defined by an abnormal loss or gain of genetic material, i.e. fragments of chromosomes or whole chromosomes. Aneuploidies cause congenital anomalies that are a prime cause of infant death in Europe and the USA, and are currently on the increase with advancing maternal age in European countries. The number of people with DS in Europe exceeds half a million.

The condition is more common than muscular dystrophy and cystic fibrosis, but the development of new therapeutic concepts is hindered by the fact that unlike muscular dystrophy and cystic fibrosis, where a single mutated gene causing the disease is known, the entire human chromosome 21 (containing around 300 genes) still has to be dissected into individual gene-dose contributions to the DS symptoms.

Scientists investigating the mechanisms of Down Syndrome have revealed the earliest developmental changes in embryonic stem cells caused by an extra copy of human chromosome 21 – the aberrant inheritance of which results in the condition. Their study is published in the American Journal of Human Genetics.

INGELHEIM, Germany, September 4 /PRNewswire/ --

- For Non-US Healthcare Media

INGELHEIM, Germany, September 4 /PRNewswire/ --

- Global QUEST Study Reveals Dogs With Congestive Heart Failure Have Significantly Improved Survival Outcomes With Vetmedin(R) (pimobendan)

Veterinarians and dog owners are today welcoming new research that delivers the promise of an extended happy life together for millions of dog owners and their pets. The three-year study demonstrates that dogs suffering from the most common type of heart failure live on average 91% (267 days vs. 140 days) longer when treated with the product Vetmedin(R) (pimobendan) compared with another common treatment option(1).

TORONTO, September 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Therapure Biopharma Inc., a Canadian biopharmaceutical company, announced that it is open for business and has its first contracts with customers in biopharmaceutical development and manufacturing.

Located in Mississauga, Ontario, just 30 minutes from Toronto's Pearson International Airport, Therapure Biopharma provides clients with customized solutions for the development and manufacture of complex biological products. Leveraging its unique and flexible, 130,000 square foot cGMP manufacturing facility, its extensive quality systems, and the dedication of its highly experienced staff, Therapure Biopharma is able to develop effective and innovative solutions to advance therapeutic proteins from the lab to the market.