clinical trials news from FierceBioResearcher

So far this year a more vigilant FDA has barred seven physicians from conducting medical research work. The actions equal the number of actions taken by the agency over the past three years. The FDA Read more...

Stem Cell Research Researchers at Geron and Advanced Cell Technology are jockeying to begin the first human clinical trials of embryonic stem cell therapies. Geron plans to file for regulatory Read more...

A scientific team at Taiwan's Vaccine Research and Development Centre spent 13 months and $1.2 million to develop a new, cell-based vaccine to target avian flu. One of the scientists said this was the first time that researchers used dog kidney cells in vaccine work. Baxter Vaccines, for example, has used green monkey kidney cells in its cell-based vaccine work. The researchers in Taiwan are building a pilot vaccine plant that will be ready by the end of the year and human clinical trials …

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Scientists in the U.K. have used stem cells harvested from bone marrow to create heart valve tissue. And they're pushing their work into animal studies this year in the hope that human clinical trials on valve transplants can begin in three years. The researchers grew the three-centimeter wide valves by exposing stem cells to chemicals, which spurred their differentiation into heart valve cells. The tissue was grown on a …

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Researchers at San Diego-based Novocell have been able to turn embryonic stem cells into pancreatic cells capable of producing insulin. Their work points the way to repairing the destruction of cells that create insulin, a condition that causes type 1 diabetes. Observers of the work say they were particularly struck by the efficiency of the conversion of embryonic stem cells into pancreatic cells. Novocell Chief Scientific Officer Emmanuel Baetge told The New York Times …

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