Big pharma is once again fighting with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) over controversial changes to patent regulations that the USPTO tried to institute last year. The new rules would limit the number of times a patent could be reevaluated to two, and limited the number of claims that could be filed on a patent to 25. University tech transfer offices and biotech companies have argued that those changes will make it difficult and expensive to defend patents in the life sciences -- n

Manhattan, Kansas has been chosen as the site for the much-contested $450 million government biolab, which will house research on some of the most highly infectious human and animal pathogens, according to a draft document from the Department of Homeland Security leaked to the press. (Click linkurl:here;http://www2.ljworld.com/documents/2008/dec/03/nbaf-preferred-alternative-selection-memorandum/ for the document, posted by the Lawrence Journal World and News.) The decision on the prospectiv

Credit: Wenche Eikrem and Jahn Throndsen / University of Oslo" /> Credit: Wenche Eikrem and Jahn Throndsen / University of Oslo The paper: E. Derelle et. al., "Genome analysis of the smallest free-living eukaryote Ostreococcus tauri unveils many unique features," Proc Natl Acad Sci, 103:11647-52, 2006. (Cited in 74 papers) The study: French, Belgian, and US scientists

A synthetic vaccine for Helicobacter pylori designed by a team of undergraduate linkurl:students from Slovenia;http://2008.igem.org/Team:Slovenia took the grand prize this weekend at iGEM, the student synthetic biology competition organized by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "We wanted to make something with medical potential in the very near future," the team said in a presentation of their work yesterday (November 9). iGEM, the International Genetically Modified Ma

Two compounds ubiquitously present in disposable linkurl:lab plastics;http://www.the-scientist.com/2008/11/1/23/1/ -- from test tubes and pipette tips to 96-well plates-- may be wreaking havoc on biomedical experiments, a study in Science reports this week. The study provides "clear evidence of these compounds leaching out of plastics," said linkurl:Andrew Holt,;http://www.pmcol.ualberta.ca/personnel/faculty/AHolt.htm a pharmacologist at the University of Alberta, Canada and main author. The c

High-security labs that deal with the deadliest pathogens - biosafety level (BSL) 4 facilities - are boosting their security in light of recent mishaps, but experts say those changes, while welcome, aren't nearly enough. What's more, safety experts disagree on the best solutions for making labs more secure. BSL4 labs are "an almost infinitesimally small" part of the problem of potential safety and security mishaps, linkurl:Richard Ebright,;http://rutchem.rutgers.edu/content_dynamic/faculty/ri

A linkurl:pathogen lab;http://www.vet.uga.edu/ahrc/index.php at the University of Georgia which aims to work with viruses such as SARS and avian influenza has been temporarily closed after two flooding incidents this fall. The first flood occurred on September 24 during the first of a series of studies on a cattle virus called vesicular stomatitis, according to the linkurl:Atlanta Journal Constitution.;http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories//2008/11/02/lab_1102_2DOT.html?cxntlid=homepa

Dwek Campus Center with the Koffler Accelerator in the background Credit: Courtesy of the Weizmann Institute of Science" />Dwek Campus Center with the Koffler Accelerator in the background Credit: Courtesy of the Weizmann Institute of Science This year, two Israeli institutions, the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot and Hebrew University in Jerusalem, placed first and second, respectively, among international institutions. What makes these two institutio

Credit: © Eric Shambroom Photography" /> Credit: © Eric Shambroom Photography As a child, Doris Tsao spent long hours musing on the mechanics and philosophy of vision with her father, who owns a company that designs artificial vision systems. "He made vision seem like the greatest scientific problem," she says. By the time Tsao was 11 or 12, she'd been hit by "the realization that your sense of vision is created by your brain" - and

A high-security pathogen lab in Galveston, Texas, survived the hurricane that hit the region last month, but is now the focus of safety concerns plaguing biosafety research of late. Galveston is an island often hit by hurricanes. Ike, which hit in September, caused more than $700 million in damage to the University of Texas facilities there, about $18 million of that to research labs, Nature linkurl:reported.;http://www.nature.com/news/2008/081022/full/4551012a.html But the pathogen lab escaped

David Vitrant, a PhD student in genetics at the University of Pittsburgh, thinks he's got a creative idea for alternative schemes to fund research: simply ask the public for money. He recently launched non-profit, called linkurl:FundScience,;http://fundscience.org/index.html that aims to connect researchers with potential donors. To explain why he started FundScience, Vitrant cited a number well-known to NIH-funded scientists: 42, the average age at which researchers these days receive their f

Two of the five US labs that conduct research on the world's most dangerous pathogens suffer from serious security shortfalls, according to a linkurl:report;http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d081092.pdf released by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) today (October 16). What's more, the labs were given the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) stamp of approval despite these shortcomings, the report states. The two labs were not named in the report, but the linkurl:Associated