Gene Pioneer Venter Takes Another Step Toward Synthetic Life
Venter and his colleagues outwitted the bacterial immune system that had stymied their previous efforts and produced a new form of bacteria “that had not previously existed,” the team reported in the journal Science. They used an ordinary yeast cell as a holding tank to alter the bacterias genetics.
The technology may help scientists radically modify the DNA of other existing organisms to create environmentally friendly biofuels or remove carbon from the atmosphere. Exxon Mobil Corp., the biggest U.S. oil company, said July 14 it would invest [...]
Hospitals Hit By Bond Yields Giving Investors Instant Profits
“Investors rush to buy the cheap securities, and many flip them the next day for a quick profit,” said Chicago-based Ziegler, which specializes in tax-exempt issues sold by hospitals and nursing homes, in a letter to clients July 27.
Prices of 28 health-care issues sold in the first half of the year rose enough immediately after underwriters set prices that yields fell on average 0.11 percentage point, the Ziegler letter said. The extra interest would cost a borrower $110,000 of interest annually per $100 million of bonds. [...]
Jobs Travel to Liver Transplant Mecca Shows Organ System Flaws
Memphis, where Jobs got the transplant, is one of several U.S. meccas for liver patients who can afford to travel, doctors said. Flight records show Jobss personal jet flew at least six times this year from California, with one of the longest transplant lists in the U.S., to Memphis, where the wait is shorter.
Jobs, 54, got his transplant in part because regions can keep donated organs on a local list — even when there may be sicker patients not far away. His experience spotlights organ allocation [...]
Jobss Tumor Is Rare Reason For Liver Transplant, Doctors Say
Jobs, 54, had a transplant about two months ago, a person familiar with the matter said. Jobs said in 2004 that doctors removed a neuroendocrine islet cell tumor from his pancreas. Liver replacement may stop the cancer from spreading in some cases, said Abhinav Humar, clinical director of the Division of Transplantation at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
The top 10 U.S. transplant centers have probably performed fewer than 100 of the procedures to treat the spread of neuroendocrine tumors overall, Humar said June 20 in [...]
Harvard Scientists Discovery Opens Door to Synthetic Life
Researchers led by George Church, whose findings helped spur the U.S. human genome project in the 1980s, have copied the part of a living cell that makes proteins, the building blocks of life. The finding overcomes a major roadblock in making synthetic self-replicating organisms, Church said today in a lecture at Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The technology can be used to program cells to make virtually any protein, even some that dont exist in nature, the scientists said. That may allow production of helpful new drugs, chemicals [...]
Goldman Leads In M&a as Inbev Bargain Fails to Add Fizz to
Chief executive officers of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co. and Sanofi-Aventis SA have all said that they are actively looking for acquisitions. The Pfizer- Wyeth merger, when completed by year-end, will generate an estimated $207 million in fees for the advisers, which included Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
It was a propitious start to the year for the two firms, which finished No. 1 and No. 2 in the ranking of fees earned by M&A advisers in 2008. [...]
Stem Cell Replacement Windpipe Successfully Made And Implanted
The results were published online Wednesday in the medical journal, The Lancet.
The transplant was given to Claudia Castillo, a 30-year-old Colombian mother of two living in Barcelona, suffered from tuberculosis for years. After a severe collapse of her left lung in March, Castillo needed regular hospital visits to clear her airways and was unable to take care of her children.
Doctors initially thought the only solution was to remove the entire left lung. But Dr. Paolo Macchiarini, head of thoracic surgery at Barcelonas Hospital Clinic, proposed a windpipe transplant instead.
Once doctors had a donor windpipe, scientists at Italys University of Padua [...]
Organ Donation Trial, A Doctor Accused
A doctor accused of organ donation malpractice is the focus of this trial. The circumstances surrounding that death will be center stage in opening statements scheduled to begin Monday in the trial of Dr. Hootan Roozrokh, a San Francisco transplant surgeon who is accused of hastening Navarros death so his organs could be harvested.
“He was my world,” Rosa Navarro told The Associated Press on Thursday. “Its been very, very hard for me. He didnt die with respect and integrity.”
Roozrokh, 34, faces one count of felony dependent adult abuse. Two other felony counts were dismissed by San Luis Obispo County Superior [...]