Biotechnology News

PARIS (AFP) - France on Friday rejected a report by the European Union's food safety watchdog that said a controversial strain of genetically-modified corn was safe.

TOKYO (AFP) - A genetic mutation of swine flu that is resistant to the anti-viral Tamiflu has been discovered in Japan, the first such case in the country, the health ministry said.

WASHINGTON - With swine flu continuing to spread around the world, researchers say they have found the reason it is — so far — more a series of local blazes than a wide-raging wildfire. The new virus, H1N1, has a protein on its surface that is not very efficient at binding with receptors in people's respiratory tracts, researchers at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology report in Friday's edition of the journal Science.

WEDNESDAY, July 1 (HealthDay News) -- For the first time, researchers have identified a single "master" stem cell in humans that is capable of differentiating into all three major cell types that make up the human heart.

CHICAGO - An 84-year-old University of Chicago researcher has won a half-million-dollar genetics prize for her pioneering work in showing that cancer is a genetic disease.

July 1 (Bloomberg) -- Biogen Idec Inc., the world’s largest maker of drugs for multiple sclerosis, will pay as much as $510 million for rights to market Acorda Therapeutics Inc.’s experimental MS pill outside the U.S.

BOSTON (Reuters) - General Electric Co is teaming up with U.S. biotech company Geron Corp to use stem cells to develop products that could give drug developers an early warning of whether new medicines are toxic.

BRUSSELS (AFP) - A genetically modified strain of maize, banned in some EU countries, poses no risk to health or the environment, the European Food Safety Authority declared on Tuesday.

BOSTON (Reuters) - A 10th patient taking Biogen Idec Inc's Tysabri has developed a potentially deadly brain infection since the multiple sclerosis drug was reintroduced to the market in July 2006, sending the company's shares down nearly 7 percent.

What if the food we ate fought allergies instead of causing them? A new form of rice can, researchers announced this week. But is it safe?