Introduction I was accepted at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro Medical School when I was seventeen years old. At that time, I was absolutely sure I was going to be a surgeon. One year later, I received an offer for a fellowship to work in a research laboratory. This originally had not been part of my future professional plan, but I was desperately in need of a source of income, so I joined the research laboratory at the age of eighteen. During the medical school course in Rio de Janeiro, I lived the hormonal tempest typical of youth, and my certainties were shaken badly. I soon discovered that I did not have much of a future in either surgery or clinical practice, but my interest in science increased. I received my M.D. degree in 1961, when I was twenty-three years old, and it was time to decide what to do with my life. With a significant degree of uncertainty, I opted for research. Fortunately, I had excellent supervisors who smoothed out my rite of passage into science. As a medical student in Rio de Janeiro, I worked with Walter Oswaldo Cruz (Fig. 1) in his research laboratory, and shortly after receiving my M.D. degree, I went to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, where I had the good fortune to work with Herbert and Celia Tabor (Fig. 2) for eighteen months. When I returned to Rio de Janeiro, I was sure that my vocation was...

Interferons are important cytokines that mediate antiviral, antiproliferative, antitumor, and immunoregulatory activities. However, uncontrolled IFN signaling may lead to autoimmune diseases. Here we identified Smurf1 as a negative regulator for IFN-γ signaling by targeting STAT1 for ubiquitination and proteasomal degradation. Smurf1 interacted with STAT1 through the WW domains of Smurf1 and the PY motif in STAT1 and catalyzed K48-linked polyubiquitination of STAT1. Interestingly, the Smurf1-mediated ubiquitination and degradation did not require STAT1 tyrosine and serine phosphorylation. Subsequently, overexpression of Smurf1 attenuated IFN-γ-mediated STAT1 activation and antiviral immune responses, whereas knockdown of Smurf1 enhanced IFN-γ-mediated STAT1 activation, expression of STAT1 target genes, and antiviral immune responses. Furthermore, IFN-γ stimulation led to enhanced expression of Smurf1. Therefore, our results demonstrate that Smurf1 is a negative feedback regulator for IFN-γ signaling by targeting STAT1 for ubiquitination and proteasomal degradation.

Agilent Technologies Inc. and EQT, the Sweden-based private equity group, recently announced the execution of a definitive agreement for Agilent to acquire Dako, the Denmark-based cancer diagnostic company.

Contract Manufacturing Organizations (CMO) will reap the rewards as pharmaceutical production becomes increasingly globalized, according to a new report by business intelligence experts GBI Research.

Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE MKT: INO) announced today that its SynCon® avian influenza vaccine generated protective HAI titers against six different unmatched strains of H5N1 in a phase I clinical trial - a distinct clinical achievement on Inovio's path to develop universal influenza vaccines.

Generex Biotechnology Corporation (OTCBB: GNBT.OB) is pleased to announce today that new members have joined the Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) of its wholly-owned subsidiary, Antigen Express, Inc. for the company's AE37 breast cancer vaccine.

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When you are getting an injection, do you look at the needle or look away? Research suggests that looking away when receiving an injection reduces the strength of the expected pain. In the study, it was discovered that when participants viewed a video of a needle pricking a hand, they experienced a pain that was more intense than viewing a hand only or a hand that was being touched by a Q-tip. The intense pain sensation was also accompanied by increased activity of the participants' autonomic nervous system.

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Adaptive Biotechnologies Corporation, a leading provider of next-generation sequencing assays for the adaptive immune system, announced today results from the first head-to-head comparison of high throughput sequencing (HTS) using immunoSEQ™ and traditional flow cytometry.

At the 5th Asian Particle Technology Symposium (APT 2012) in Singapore (2-5 July 2012), Jarvis Jeejing, process systems applications specialist at Malvern Instruments, will give a presentation describing the use of Spatial Filter Velocimetry technology (SFV) for inline particle size measurement in granulation and fluidized bed processes.

A pill designed to zero in on abnormal genes that drive specific cancers has produced encouraging early results in children with an uncommon but aggressive type of lymphoma, as well as in children with a rare form of neuroblastoma.

Ceregene Inc., a biotechnology company developing treatments for neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease, will present new data demonstrating long-term, biologically-active expression of neurturin, a nervous system growth factor delivered to the degenerating dopamine nerves in patients with Parkinson's disease following treatment with CERE-120 (AAV2-neurturin).

Next Mother's Day, say it with an evolved model of logistical efficiency — a flower. A new discovery about how nature's icons of romance manage the distribution of sperm among female gametes with industrial precision helps explain why the delicate beauties have reproduced prolifically enough to dominate the earth.

This image shows the differences in chemical structure of the
5-methylcytosine (5mC) base (left) from the 5-hydroxymethylcytosine
(5hmC) base in DNA against a background of DNA sequencing imagery. Imagine reading an entire book, but then realizing that your glasses did not allow you to distinguish "g" from "q." What details did you miss?

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Be careful when you eat. A study published in the journal Cell Metabolism indicates that eating at random times throughout the day can lead to weight gain. The researchers believe this to be so because our organs, including those of the digestive system, have times when they work most efficiently and times when they rest. Our metabolic cycles are set to "turn on" when we eat and slow down when we are not eating. Eating at various times of the day can upset these metabolic cycles.

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More than 27 million adults currently suffer from osteoarthritis, which is the most common form of arthritis.

IntelligentMDx (IMDx) announced recently that it has obtained CE-marking for a new automated, high-throughput, qualitative in vitro diagnostic test designed for the rapid detection of Group B Streptococcus (GBS) for use in screening pregnant women and those in labor who may be infected with the pathogen.

Pfizer Inc announced recently that the Phase 3 INTORSECT (B1771003) study, evaluating TORISEL(temsirolimus) in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) whose disease had progressed on or after SUTENT(sunitinib malate) therapy, did not meet the primary endpoint of prolonging progression free survival (PFS) when compared to sorafenib.

Malvern Instruments light scattering specialists Dr Ana Morfesis and Dr Ulf Nobbmann, will present a poster on ‘Nanoparticle characterization by light scattering’ as part of the 86th ACS Colloid and Surface Science Symposium being held at the University of Baltimore in Maryland, USA, June 10-13, 2012.

Powder flowability expert Tim Freeman, Managing Director of Freeman Technology will present on the topic of advanced powder characterisation and its relevance in powder processing at Interphex Japan, 27 – 29 June 2012, Tokyo Big Sight, Tokyo.

GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK) recently announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire those shares it does not currently own in Cellzome, a leader in the development and advancement of proteomics technologies, for £61 million (US$99M) in cash. Cellzome, a privately owned company with laboratories in Cambridge, UK, and Heidelberg, Germany, will become part of GSK’s R&D organisation.

Common variants of the ApoE gene are strongly associated with the risk of developing late-onset Alzheimer's disease, but the gene's role in the disease has been unclear. Now, researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have found that in mice, having the most risky variant of ApoE damages the blood vessels that feed the brain.

Avalanche Biotechnologies, Inc., a leader in the area of long-term protein delivery for ocular diseases, and Lonza, a global leader in the field of biologics manufacturing, recently announced a manufacturing collaboration focused on process development and scale-up efforts for the manufacturing of adeno-associated viral (AAV) vectors for gene therapy.

Evotec AG is proud to announce the addition of Agilent Technologies' RapidFire Mass Spectrometry analysis capabilities to their High Throughput Screening facilities in Hamburg.

In the pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical, and medical device industries, regulatory compliance is a major responsibility and a common source of anxiety. However, there’s no need to stress over the possibility of an FDA inspection — if you take the appropriate steps to prepare. This was the guidance Rosario Quintero-Vives, regulatory and compliance specialist with RQV Consulting, offered to a packed room of INTERPHEX 2012 attendees, on the potential problem areas to address before the FDA comes to call. She went on to highlight seven actions you can take to help make the inevitable FDA inspection go more smoothly. By Lori Clapper, Editor

In collaboration with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Banner Alzheimer’s Institute (BAI), University of Antioquia in Colombia and Genentech, a member of the Roche Group (SIX: RO,ROG;OTCQX:RHHBY), announce the first-ever prevention trial in cognitively healthy individuals who are destined to develop Alzheimer’s disease because of their genetic history.

Imagine you spent the past 15 years of your life passionate about finding a cure for Alzheimer’s.You stayed up nights struggling to continue your research, yet you were running out of funding.Knowing your competitors were years behind your research, you finally found your angel investorwho provided the seed capital you needed — but with the time-sensitive precondition that youmust provide a return on investment within two years or they would pull your financing.By Jonathan Snyder

Human sperm cells attempting to fertilize an egg cell (ovum). Photo Credit: Renjith Krishnan FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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