MISSISSAUGA, Canada, January 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Vasogen Inc. (NASDAQ:VSGN; TSX:VAS) today announced that The Lancet, a world-leading medical journal, will publish an article entitled 'Results of a non-specific immunomodulation therapy in chronic heart failure (ACCLAIM trial): a placebo-controlled randomised trial' in its January 19th issue (Lancet 2008; 371: 228-36). The article describes the results from Vasogen's 2,400-patient ACCLAIM trial of its Celacade(TM) system in patients with chronic heart failure. Celacade is designed to target the destructive chronic inflammation underlying the development and progression of chronic heart failure.

CAMBRIDGE, England and LILLE, France, January 18 /PRNewswire/ --

- Irish and UK Blood Services Continue Pre-Adoption Clinical Evaluation of Filter

- Recent Case of vCJD Now Means That All the Population is Susceptible to the Disease

- Increased Concerns Over "Second Wave" of vCJD in Individuals With Much Longer Incubation Times

- P-Capt(R) Prion Reduction Filter Still the Only Proven Method of Protecting Against Potential Transmission of the Disease in Blood

- ProMetic and MacoPharma Gearing up for Implementation in Watershed Year for the Product

EVRY, France, January 18 /PRNewswire/ --

- Not for Distribution in the United States, Canada or Japan

Novagali Pharma, an emerging ophthalmic pharmaceutical company announced today that the Company's Investigational New Drug Application (IND) to conduct a Phase I clinical trial of its Nova63035, an ophthalmic injectable emulsion based on EYEJECT(R) technology containing a corticosteroid prodrug for the treatment of Diabetic Macular Edema (DME), has been granted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

LEUVEN, Belgium and LUND, Sweden, January 18 /PRNewswire/ -- ThromboGenics NV (Euronext Brussels: THR) and co-development partner BioInvent International AB (Nordic Exchange: BINV) announce today that they have received approval from the regulatory authorities in Denmark to initiate a Phase I clinical trial of the novel anti-cancer agent TB-403. TB-403 is a monoclonal antibody that targets the angiogenic factor PlGF (placental growth factor). TB-403 has demonstrated strong inhibition of PlGF-associated angiogenesis and tumour growth in animal models, without affecting healthy tissues. This product candidate is being developed within the framework of the alliance between ThromboGenics and BioInvent.

SINGAPORE, January 18 /PRNewswire/ --

International Group, Ltd. (Bloomberg: BIG SP, Company or Biosensors), today announced that the Company has received Conformite Europeenne (CE) Mark approval for its BioMatrix(R) drug-eluting stent system, enabling commercialization of this product in the European Union and the countries in Asia and Latin America that recognize the CE Mark. The BioMatrix drug-eluting stent system, developed internally by the Company, consists of a unique drug-eluting stent that incorporates a biodegradable polymer and the Company's proprietary drug, Biolimus A9(R), which inhibits restenosis, or re-narrowing of the arteries, following stent implantation.

Labels such as “European American”, “white”, or “Caucasian” are often viewed as representing a homogeneous category in gene mapping studies and census reports, but each of these labels actually groups together multiple populations, which have diverse origins due to the complex history of European immigration to the United States.

In a recent study, published PLoS Genetics an international team of researchers provide the first genetic dissection of the population structure of European Americans, focusing on identifying the contributions from different genetic ancestries that are important for disease gene mapping.

Entamoeba histolytica, which causes inflammation of the colon (colitis), plays dirty. It attacks and kills human immune cells in seconds. Then the parasite hides the evidence by eating the cells’ corpses. While doing so, it kills nearly 100,000 people each year.

Researchers from the University of Virginia and the University of Vermont have discovered a means of inhibiting this most voracious of parasites. The study targets a protein which aids the parasite in its ingestion of immune cell corpses.

The research team, led by Dr. William Petri, hypothesized that identifying molecules involved in the corpse ingestion might provide insight into how the amebae cause colitis in children.

The direct effect predators have on their prey is to kill them. The evolutionary changes that can result from this direct effect include prey that are younger at maturity and that produce more offspring.

But killing prey also has indirect effects – rarely characterized or measured – such as a decline in the number of surviving prey, resulting, in turn, in more food available to survivors.

In a new study characterizing the complex ecological interactions that shape how organisms evolve, UC Riverside biologists Matthew Walsh and David Reznick present a novel way of quantifying these indirect effects by showing that prey adapt to food availability as well as the presence of predators.

The preservation of coastal ecosystem services such as clean water, storm buffers or fisheries protection does not have to be an all-or-nothing approach, a new study indicates, and a better understanding of how ecosystems actually respond to protection efforts in a “nonlinear” fashion could help lead the way out of environmental-versus-economic gridlock.

There may be much better ways to provide the majority of environmental protection needed while still maintaining natural resource-based jobs and sustainable communities, scientists from 13 universities and research institutes will suggest Friday in a new article in the journal Science.

“The very concept of ecosystem-based management implies that humans are part of the equation, and their needs also have to be considered,” said Lori C

University of California, Irvine researchers have identified a gene that is specifically responsible for generating the cerebral cortex, a finding that could lead to stem cell therapies to treat brain injuries and diseases such as stroke and Alzheimer’s.

Dr. Edwin Monuki, doctoral student Karla Hirokawa and their colleagues in the departments of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine and Developmental & Cell Biology found that a gene called Lhx2 serves as the long-sought cortical “creator” gene that instructs stem cells in the developing brain to form the cerebral cortex. This portion of the brain is responsible for higher sensory and cognitive functions, such as language, decision-making and vision. Without this gene, cortical cells will not form.