BODI

Antibodies from plants protect against anthrax

Scientists have produced, in tobacco plants, human antibodies that could be used to treat anthrax exposure. They report their findings today at the 2005 American Society for Microbiology Biodefense Research Meeting. "The nature of bioterrorism is such that an aggressor is likely to strike at a time and place calculated to induce maximum terror through mass casualties. The unpredictable nat...

First production of human monoclonal antibodies in chicken eggs published in Nature Biotechnology

Chicken-produced antibodies demonstrate enhanced cell killing compared to conventionally produced anti-cancer antibodies Origen Therapeutics today announced the first published scientific report of fully functional, human sequence monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) produced in chickens. The antibodies were expressed solely in the chicken oviduct and deposited into egg white in concentrations of...

Report calls for improved monoclonal antibodies against solid tumors

A new report by leading experts in monoclonal antibody research for oncology offers a conceptual framework for future research in the design of antibody therapies against solid tumors. Writing in the January 15, 2007 issue of CANCER ( ), a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer So...

Human trial proves ricin vaccine safe, induces neutralizing antibodies; further tests planned

Scientists have completed the first human clinical trial of a recombinant vaccine for the deadly toxin ricin ?a potential bioterror threat ?and the results indicate the vaccine is safe and effective in eliciting ricin-neutralizing antibodies, the UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers report. The nearly year-long pilot study involved three groups of five volunteers each. Individuals in...

Horse antibodies against the bird flu virus H5N1 are effective as treatment in mice

Antibodies against the bird flu virus H5N1, derived from horses, prevent mice infected with H5N1 from dying from the virus. ) reveals that a dose of 100 µg of horse anti-serum effectively protects infected mice. These results suggest that an...

Mice studies illustrate potential of chimp/human antibodies to protect against smallpox

Results from a new study indicate that hybrid laboratory antibodies derived from chimpanzees and humans may provide a potentially safe and effective way to treat the serious complications that can occur following smallpox vaccination--and possibly may even protect against the deadly disease itself. The study, led by researchers with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID...

GlycoFi announces the first production of antibodies with human glycosylation in yeast

Researchers at GlycoFi and Dartmouth College have reported the first production of monoclonal antibodies with human sugar structures in yeast. This research, published online January 22 and in the February issue of the journal Nature Biotechnology, demonstrates that antibodies with human sugar structures (glycosylation) can be produced in glyco-engineered yeast cell lines, and that by con...

Data published in PNAS show antibodies can be made 10 times more toxic to cancer cells

Engineering the "Fc" region of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) increases their toxicity to cancer cells, potentially improving the utility of targeted cancer therapies, according to research conducted at Xencor, which will be published in the March 14 print issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Monoclonal antibodies have important advantages over chemotherapy a...

Liposuctioned fat stem cells to repair bodies

Expanding waistlines, unsightly bulges: people will gladly remove excess body fat to improve their looks. But unwanted fat also contains stem cells with the potential to repair defects and heal injuries in the body. A team led by Philippe Collas at the University of Oslo in Norway has identified certain chemical marks that allow him to predict which, among the hundreds of millions of stem cells i...

Cancer that colonizes our bodies

To Robert C. von Borstel, cancer is a metaphorical example of the perfect invasion by a founder species. Like the first pregnant finch that landed on a deserted island in the Galapagos Archipelago, the first cancer cell in the human body has to undergo many mutations through many generations to establish itself as an invader of different organs in the body. But once it is there, like any newly st...

Cheaper, better disease treatments expected from faster approach to developing antibodies

A method of mass-producing disease-fighting antibodies entirely within bacteria has been developed by a research group at The University of Texas at Austin. The group led by Dr. George Georgiou developed the new antibody-production approach to improve upon processes used previously to identify new drugs. Drug companies have used those more time- and labor-intensive processes to develop a...

Cambodian vulture nests offer hope for species

Working in the remote forests of Cambodia, conservationists from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) have just discovered Southeast Asia's only known breeding colony of slender-billed vultures, one of the world's most threatened bird species. Found in heavily forested country just east of the Mekong River in Cambodia's Stung Treng Province, the colony also represents one of the only...

Researchers from the University of Navarra analyze new kinds of cancer-fighting antibodies

Two researchers from the University Hospital and the Center for Applied Medical Research (CIMA) from the University of Navarra have published an article in , one of the leading scientific journals in the area of cancer studies. The article, written by Ignacio Melero and Sandra Hervas-Stubbs, together with other scientists from the United States and Great Britain, addre...

Rare soft-shell turtle, nesting ground found in Cambodia

One of the world’s largest and least studied freshwater turtles has been found in Cambodia’s Mekong River, raising hopes that the threatened species can be saved from extinction. Scientists from Conservation International (CI), World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the Cambodian Fisheries Administration, and the Cambodian Turtle Conservation Team captured and released an 11-kilogram (24.2-pound) fem...

New research shows sharks use their noses and bodies to locate smells

Sharks are known to have a keen sense of smell, which in many species is critical for finding food. However, according to new research from Boston University marine biologists, sharks can not use just their noses to locate prey; they also need their skin – specifically a location called the lateral line. The lateral line is an organ used by all fish to detect, with exquisite sensitivity, movem...

Avian influenza survivors' antibodies effective at neutralising H5N1 strain

Adults who have recovered from the potentially deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza may hold the key to future treatments for the virus, according to an international team of researchers. In a study published today in the open access journal PLoS Medicine, the researchers have shown how specific antibodies taken from avian flu survivors in Vietnam can be reproduced in the laboratory and prove...