Scientists in Detroit in the United States have come up with findings that could lead to new treatments for Parkinson’s disease. The team at Wayne State University have investigated the hallmark sign of Parkinson’s disease, the intraneuronal accumulation and progressive spreading of clumps in certain areas of the brain, known as Lewy bodies. The team led by Assia Shisheva, Ph.D., professor of physiology, has made advancements on a new molecular mechanism that may ‘melt’ the clumps.
New laboratory
Malvern Instruments has set up a new biopharmaceutical applications laboratory in the heart of San Diego’s biotechnology cluster. The laboratory has been developed in partnership with Sevion Therapeutics, a San Diego-based biopharmaceutical company that discovers, develops and acquires next-generation biologics. Sevion Therapeutics will host the laboratory for which Malvern will provide analytical instrumentation, training and continuing support.
Cancer advance
Researchers at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) in Arizona, in the United States, joined an international team of scientists to explore how a protein from malaria could help stop cancer. Collaborators at the University of Copenhagen found that the mosquito-borne parasite that causes malaria produces a protein that binds to a particular type of sugar molecule in the placenta. Researchers found the same type of molecule in many types of cancer. TGen scientists helped test the theory and concluded that the link was feasible.
