08 Sep
The concept of “clean tech” is a response to the projected population growth on the planet, which is estimated to be 2.3 billion people by the 2050. The theory is that clean tech companies, which address environmental sustainability as part of their overall business strategy for profitability, will be the model that successful companies will have to use in order address the increasing demand for food, clothing, shelter and other scarce resources that will only increase as incomes rise across the globe. Where “green tech” evolved in the 1970s from government controls intended to mitigate the effects of manufacturing and agricultural pollutants on the environment, “clean tech” is built into the business model from the very beginning. Continue Reading »
04 Sep
The past ten years have proven challenging for the pharma industry, witnessing a large number of mergers and acquisitions within it. Recently, this tendency has been reinforced with what may be called super mergers and acquisitions. It is obvious that the financial reality, marked by an economic deceleration and credit compression, is behind this, but it is not the only important factor. Big pharma has been dealing for a long time with issues regarding patent expiry of blockbuster molecules, regulatory obstacles, generics competition, under utilization of resources, and declining product pipeline due to low R&D productivity, among others. All these factors, along with the current economic reality, have caused major lowering of stock market values, creating the perfect setting for super mergers and acquisitions. Continue Reading »
12 Aug
Scientists at Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham) have found that the Caspase-8 protein, long known to play a major role in promoting programmed cell death (apoptosis), helps relay signals that can cause cancer cells to proliferate, migrate and invade surrounding tissues. The study was published in the journal Cancer Research on June 15.
The team of scientists, led by Kristiina Vuori, M.D., Ph.D., professor and director of the Cancer Center at Burnham, showed that Caspase-8 caused neuroblastoma cancer cells to proliferate and migrate. For the first time, Caspase-8 was shown to play a key role in relaying the growth signals from epidermal growth factor (EGF) that cause cell division and invasion. The researchers also identified an RXDLL amino acid motif that controls the signaling from the EGF receptor through the protein kinase Src to the master cell proliferation regulator protein, MAPK. This same signaling pathway stimulates neuroblastoma cells to migrate and invade neighboring tissues–a critical process in cancer metastasis.
“Caspase-8 has a well defined role in promoting apoptosis, especially in response to activation of the so-called death receptors on the outside of cells,” said Darren Finlay, Ph.D., first author on the paper. “Although Caspase-8 is involved in apoptosis, it is rarely deleted or silenced in tumors, suggesting that it was giving cancer cells a leg up in some other way. Our studies suggest that Caspase-8 does so by activating the MAPK pathway through Src.”
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