Currently, leading healthcare company Roche already owns 55.9% of all of Genetech's outstanding shares. Now Roche has offered a bid of US$43.7 billion to the rest of Genentech that it doesn't own.

Genentech is a leading biotechnology company specializing in oncology drug. The combined powers as reported aims to 'foster innovation' for the healthcare industry.

According to Franz Humer, Chairman of the Board of Roche:

"Our long and successful participation in Genentech has provided great benefits to both of our companies and shareholders. It has resulted in one of the biggest success stories in the healthcare industry. Roche's significant investment in Genentech over many years has helped it to focus on innovation and long-term projects, leading to some of the most important breakthroughs in the treatment of cancer and other life-threatening diseases.

The transaction will create a unique opportunity to evolve Roche's hub-and-spoke model into a structure that allows us to strengthen the focus on innovation and accelerate the search for new solutions for unmet medical needs. Combining the strengths of Roche and Genentech will create significant value and result in benefits for patients, employees and shareholders."

Of course, behind the scenes, this is also a financial business move.

Read the full report from Roche press release.

Scientists have successfully genetically engineered Salmonella enterica to deliver an antigen that protects against pneumonia. The method apparently effectively delivers the antigen in the body, does not infect the body with salmonella and does not leave any vaccine cells in the environment.

"If we tried to use live Streptococcus pneumoniae causing pneumonia for a vaccine, we would obviously kill the patient. The benefit of a live vaccine that uses a weakened form of salmonella, is that the salmonella can be taken up through the intestinal lining and stimulate an immune response by using just a portion of the bacteria causing pneumonia that itself is not deadly."

In experiments, the genetically modified Salmonella enterica bacterium colonizes the lymph tissues of the host and manufactures a protein from the S. pneumoniae bacterium, which then triggers a strong antibody response. Unlike most vaccines that are entirely manufactured by a vaccine company, the attenuated recombinant salmonella vaccine after entry into the immunized individual serves as its own factory to produce (manufacture) the protective antigens (proteins) from the S. pneumoniae pathogen. This ability to cause manufacture in the immunized individual dramatically decreases the cost of such vaccines to make them affordable for use in the developing world, Curtiss said.

The research is published in the online version (July 7) of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Researchers have shown that hyaluronic acid, a common fluid naturally produced in the human body, can be used as a natural moisturizing agent in contact lenses to prevent eye dryness and increase wearer comfort. The substance can be entrapped in existing contact lens material without affecting optical properties.

It was also found that using hyaluronic acid considerably reduces the build up of proteins which can cloudy contact lens material, the cause of up to 30 per cent of all after-care visits by contact lens wearers to optometrists.

While manufacturers have not yet produced contact lenses with hyaluronic acid, the researchers remain hopeful.

"We've shown that the process works," said Heather Sheardown, professor of chemical engineering at McMaster and a member of the McMaster School of Biomedical Engineering, who was involved in the research. "We're optimistic that a manufacturer will see the benefits of using this naturally based technology to provide contact lens wearers with greater comfort and convenience."

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The DOE's Joint Genome Institute is supporting the genomic sequencing of duckweed (Spirodela polyrhiza) as one of its priority projects for 2009 directed toward new biomass and bioenergy programs. The project will be led by researchers from the Rutgers University, with collaborators from the Waksman Institute, and scientists at Brookhaven National Laboratory, the Institut für Integrative Biologie (Switzerland), the University of Jena (Germany), Kyoto University (Japan) and Oregon State University.

Why is duckweed so important to warrant a genomic sequencing?

According to the researchers, duckweed plants can extract nitrogen and phosphate pollutants from agricultural and municipal wastewater. They can reduce algae growth, coliform bacterial counts and mosquito larvae on ponds, while concentrating heavy metals, capturing or degrading toxic chemicals, and encourage the growth of other aquatic animals such as frogs and fowl. These plants produce biomass faster than any other flowering plant, serve as high-protein feed for domestic animals and show clear potential as an alternative for biofuel production.

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© Manjith Kainickara


Korean research has come up with the potential of tomato as carrier of an edible vaccine against Alzheimer's disease.

Kim and colleagues' aim was to develop a plant-derived vaccine against Alzheimer's disease, since beta-amyloid is toxic to animal cells. Tomatoes are an attractive candidate as a vaccine carrier because they can be eaten without heat treatment, which reduces the risk of destroying the immune stimulation potential of the foreign protein. The researchers inserted the beta-amyloid gene into the tomato genome and measured the immune responses to the tomato-derived toxic protein in a group of 15-month-old mice.

They immunized the mice orally with the transgenic tomato plants once a week for three weeks, and also gave the mice a booster seven weeks after the first tomato feed. Blood analyses showed a strong immune response after the booster, with the production of antibodies to the human foreign protein.

Still on initial stages, but interestingly promising line of research. We definitely would like to know how this one goes.

Scientists have isolated compound from marine animals which interfere with a protein termed NF-kB and may thus have potentials for treating cancer, as well as a number of other diseases including inflammatory bowel disease, arthritis and asthma.

"We have tested a large number of marine species to see which can prevent NF-kB from working," explains Professor Jaspars. "A few animals, including sponges, soft corals and sea lilies, were examined further, and from these we have been able to isolate and characterise the compounds responsible. We have shown that one of these molecules is able to allow normal cell death (which NK-kB switches off in some cancerous cells) to start up again, a property which we will be going onto study in much more detail."

In addition, they have also isolated molecules from a species of sponge that may aid in drug delivery.

"It is an unfortunate reality that currently, many new excellent drugs are discovered that cannot be delivered effectively to the places where they are required," Professor Jaspars reveals. "However, we have isolated one compound from a Mediterranean sponge that may help to end this trend. This molecule can reversibly create pores in cell membranes, a property for we envisage vast possibilities in the transportation of medicinal drugs. As we can now make this compound in the lab in large quantities, we are now able to investigate possible applications of the molecule, including drug delivery into tumours, gene delivery for cystic fibrosis and delivery of drugs into the eye."

The findings were presented during the Society for Experimental Biology's Annual Meeting in Marseille, France.

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