CALGARY, Canada, December 13 /PRNewswire/ -- SemBioSys Genetics Inc. (TSX:SBS), a biotechnology company developing a portfolio of therapeutic proteins for metabolic and cardiovascular diseases, today announced that Oye Olukotun, MD, MPH, FACC, FAHA, has agreed to join the Board of Directors of the Company. Dr. Olukotun is the co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of VIA Pharmacueticals (NASDAQ: VIAP) a company focused on cardiovascular disease treatments. He will replace Dr. Douglass Given, who is retiring from the Board of SemBioSys after serving for seven years.

Long-lived, wild animals harbor genetic differences that influence how quickly they begin to show their age, according to the results of a long-term study reported in Current Biology. Evidence for the existence of such genetic variation for aging rates—a central tenet in the evolutionary theory that explains why animals would show physiological declines as they grow older—had largely been lacking in natural populations until now, the researchers said.

“We’ve found that individuals differ in their rates of aging, or senescence, and that these differences are (at least in part) caused by genetic effects so they will be inherited,” said Alastair Wilson of the University of Edinburgh.

LONDON, December 13 /PRNewswire/ --

- Germany is lagging in seasonal online retail shopping

comScore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released the second in a series of three studies of the online shopping activity of U.K., French and German consumers this Christmas season. This study tracked the number of visits to online retail sites each week since October 29, using data collected from the comScore World Metrix audience measurement service.

Online Retail Site Visits Increase in November

GUANGZHOU, China, December 13 /PRNewswire/ --

Covanta Holding Corporation (Covanta), the leading provider of energy- from-waste solutions, today announced that is has taken a 40 percent stake in a joint venture with Guangzhou Development Industry (Holdings) Co., Ltd. (GDIH) to develop energy-from-waste projects in the Guangdong Province of Southeast China.

GDIH is one of the largest power companies in China's Guangdong Province and has extensive experience in energy and electric power development, construction, operation and management.

HOUSTON, December 13 /PRNewswire/ --

Endeavour International Corporation (Amex: END) announced today that the company will host a conference call at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (16:00 Greenwich Mean Time) on Wednesday, December 19, 2007 to discuss the company's 2008 capital budget and guidance.

To participate and ask questions during the conference call, dial +1-888-204-4317 (U.S., toll-free) or +1-913-312-1457 (international), pass code: 4398087. To listen only to the live audio web cast via the Internet access Endeavour's internet home page at http://www.endeavourcorp.com.

DALLAS and LONDON, December 13 /PRNewswire/ --

U.S. Preventive Medicine(R), a company that is building the first network focused on prevention in the United States and internationally (http://www.USPreventiveMedicine.com), announced today it has signed a letter of intent with iHealth UK Ltd. to jointly develop three preventive medicine businesses in the United Kingdom. iHealth brings together leading clinicians, advanced modalities, electronic integration and a holistic perspective to support enhanced wellbeing through its health screening and assessment services.

Their day job is to keep trees upright but the forest's tiniest building blocks could soon be on their way into future products. Imagine a packaging material that also kills bacteria. Or a disposable duvet cover that keeps infection away when you are in a hospital bed.

Scientists in Trondheim believe that exciting new products can be created if we make use of some of nature's tiniest construction materials. They are called “fibrils” and you may never have heard of them, but there are millions of them in each piece of paper you hold.

A wonder of nature

Fibrils form continuously in all growing trees.

PARIS, December 13 /PRNewswire/ -- "We need to concentrate on the most cost-effective measures to reduce CO2 emissions in transport", stressed Jack Short, Secretary General of the International Transport Forum, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali on Thursday. Too often high cost and low impact measures are being chosen, he criticised. Because the challenge for the sector to reduce its CO2 emissions is immense, neither industrial nor developing countries can afford to get priorities wrong. "By achieving the required emission reductions at the lowest overall cost, it is possible to protect the climate with minimal damage to welfare and economic growth."

GENEVA, Switzerland, December 13 /PRNewswire/ --

- Merck Serono Will Fund a US$2 Million Initiative to Drive Treatments for Parkinson's Disease-Related Cognitive Dysfunction and Mood Disorders

Merck Serono, a division of Merck KGaA of Darmstadt, Germany, is supporting the US$2-million commitment of The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research (MJFF) for research toward therapies to alleviate Parkinson's disease (PD)-related cognitive dysfunction and mood disorders. The funding is to be awarded under a new initiative, Cognitive Deficits and Mood Disorders in Parkinson's Disease.

LEEDS, England, December 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Teva UK Limited has announced plans to expand and strengthen its supply chain warehouse and logistic centre, and at the same time relocate its UK head office to new premises.

The company is planning to move its head office to Glasshoughton in West Yorkshire, at the junction of the M62 and A1 trunk roads, by the end of next year. The move will put the company's main logistics centre, as well as over 150 head office staff, in a brand-new expanded site that has a capacity no less than five times bigger than the firm's existing site near Leeds.