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.

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.

Georg-August-University Göttingen (UMG) and MRC Technology (MRCT), of London, signed an exclusive license to develop a therapy for neurodegenerative diseases based on antibody-targeting amyloid beta peptides.

Researchers from McGill University have shown that the immune system contribution to chronic pain differs in male and female mice. A large body of research suggests the hypersensitivity to normal stimuli, part of chronic pain, is due in part to immune cell signaling. Specifically, such signaling is from microglia to neurons.

HONG KONG & NEW DELHI – Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) is in the spotlight across Asia, as researchers search for drugs to fight a virus many fear could be as devastating as SARS was in 2003.

Kineta Inc., of Seattle, presented preclinical in vitro and animal data at the Novel Antiviral Therapies for Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses: Bench to Beside Conference in Austin, Texas, from a class of molecules discovered by Kineta and broadly inhibit influenza A and B, respiratory syncytial virus and coronavirus, which include Middle East respiratory syndrome.

To say that 2014 was a good year for the biopharma industry would be a radical understatement. The flourishing capital markets, the record-breaking number of companies successfully going public via initial public offerings and the validation of scientific breakthroughs that only a few years ago had been mere theories all made for a banner year for the sector.

Genentech Inc., of South San Francisco, a member of the Roche Group, said the FDA accepted its supplemental biologics license application (sBLA) and granted priority review for Avastin (bevacizumab) plus chemotherapy for the treatment of women with recurrent platinum-resistant ovarian cancer.