RXi Pharmaceuticals Corporation, an RNA-targeted technologies company, today announced positive results from their second placebo-controlled Phase 1 study with RXI‑109, an sd-rxRNA compound that targets Connective Tissue Growth Factor (CTGF), and is being developed for the treatment of abnormal dermal scars such as hypertrophic scars and keloids in conjunction with scar revision surgery.

In this study, subjects received small skin incisions in their abdomen and were treated with 3 intradermal doses of RXI‑109 over a 2-week period. This dose escalating study consisted of 3 cohorts of 3 healthy volunteers each. Subjects received RXI‑109 on one side of the abdomen, and placebo on the other side.

Generex Biotechnology has announced the results of a Phase 3 clinical trial of Generex Oral-lyn, their buccal insulin spray product, in preparation for the approval for marketing and commercial distribution of the product in India, to be trademarked there as Oral Recosulin.

The International Diabetes Federation currently estimates there are over 50 million people with diabetes in India.

Researchers have created a virtual model of the brain based on the dynamics of brain cells and the many connections those cells make with their neighbors and with cells in other brain regions - and it daydreams like humans do.

The group hope the model will help them understand why certain portions of the brain work together when a person daydreams or is mentally idle. This, in turn, may one day help doctors better diagnose and treat brain injuries.

At some point it would be ideal for animal-to-human transplants of insulin-producing cells for people with type 1 diabetes, such as from pigs, but first there must be baby steps.

Or in this case, mouse steps.

Scientists have successfully transplanted islets, the cells that produce insulin, from a rat to a mouse. Using their new method of xenotransplantation, the islets survived without immunosuppressive drugs.

You have noticed the way water flows around boulders in a fast-moving river, creating areas of stillness and intense motion.

It's possible to control the forces of fluid flow at the smallest levels by placing tiny pillars in microfluidic channels. By altering the speed of the fluid, and stacking many pillars, with different widths, placements and orientations, in the fluid's path, they showed that it is possible to create an impressive array of controlled flows.

Why does this matter?

Far more people are willing to donate their eyes to research than actually are registered to donate, according to a paper in
Current Eye Research.

While demand for tissue remains high, the number of human eyes donated for research declined 28 percent between 1997 and 2004, said Andrew Williams, a third-year Michigan State University College of Human Medicine student.

Of roughly 200 patients with eye diseases surveyed in the study, 90 percent said they were willing to donate their eyes.