Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) has been chased from the headlines by other viruses, but with a fatality rate of around 30 percent and the potential ability to spread from person to person, it remains a threat to global heath in the eyes of the World Health Organization. Now, researchers from the Navy Medical Research Center have reported using transchromosomal cows to generate polyclonal antibodies that could rapidly reduce the viral load in the lungs of MERS-CoV-infected mice.

Scientists from Harvard University have engineered stomach cells to have functional similarities to pancreatic beta cells, including the ability to produce insulin and prevent hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) when they were transplanted into mice.

Asterias Biotherapeutics Inc., of Fremont, Calif., and Biotime Inc., of Alameda, Calif., along with Biotime's wholly owned subsidiary ES Cell International Pte Ltd., have entered into a share transfer agreement through which Biotime will re-acquire from Asterias shares of capital stock of Biotime subsidiaries Cell Cure Neurosciences Ltd. and Orthocyte Corp.

Researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center have developed a method for identifying cell lines that could be used as a chemical screen to simultaneously predict multiple pathway-level effects of drugs.

Researchers from Harvard Medical School and the Brazilian Universidade de Sao Paulo have discovered a gene variant that could counteract the effects of mutant dystrophin.

Cancer metastases do not spread randomly. Certain tumor types preferentially settle in certain organs, a phenomenon that has been explained by postulating specific interactions between metastatic seeds and the soil of the organ where those seeds settle.

Otsuka Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd., of Tokyo, and H. Lundbeck, A/S, of Valby, Denmark, said the FDA expanded the label of Abilify Maintena (aripiprazole) for extended-release injectable suspension to include a new injection site, the deltoid muscle of the arm. Healthcare providers will now have the option for either a gluteal or deltoid injection site for administering Abilify Maintena to patients with schizophrenia.

The CONVERGE consortium has identified the first genetic risk loci for depression. Genetic risk factors for major depressive disorder have been surprisingly hard to pin down, with several major genomewide association studies coming up empty.