Biotechnology Club

Terra Sigillata : Can academic drug discovery programs improve on pharma’s relative stagnation?
A paper in last month’s issue of Nature Reviews Drug Discovery reported that US drug approvals during 2007 were the lowest number since 1983. (17 new molecular entities and 2 biologicals; see this figure for 1996-2007 data.) The review cites increased regulatory action [...]

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A compound found in soybeans almost completely prevented the spread of human prostate cancer in mice, according to a study published in the March 15 issue of Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
Researchers say that the amount of the chemical, an antioxidant known as genistein, used in the experiments was [...]

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When I was doing my undergraduate and masters degrees at University of Natal (Durban), medicinal plants were definitely the hot thing to be researching. My honours project was looking at Warburgia salutaris, a tree whose bark is harvested for all sorts of medicinal purposes from stomach ulcers to malaria. We thought that it would be [...]

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Unfortunately I have kept nothing from my MSc – two years of chopping up plants, extracting them with solvents and endless gravity silica chromatography columns broken up with the occassional acetylation or excursion to photograph wax crystals on leaves or do GC-MS of oils.

The two plants indigenous to South Africa that I looked at were [...]

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IF anecdotes and ancient medicine are to be trusted, cannabis is a wonder drug. Yet results of clinical trials have been mixed and its use in modern medicine remains limited. Now it seems the reasons may be practical as much as political and cultural: there are fundamental problems with how our bodies respond to the [...]

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One of the main ingredients in beer appears to thwart prostate cancer, according to findings released today by researchers at a university in the US state of Oregon.
Guzzle on, Aussie - Cancer - Health In Focus - Health And Fitness - smh.com.au
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Researchers at Oregon State University first discovered the cancer-related properties of this flavonoid compound called xanthohumol about 10 years ago. A recent publication by an OSU researcher in the journal Phytochemistry outlines the range of findings made since then. And many other scientists in programs around the world are also beginning to look at the [...]

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The world’s leading expert on the opium poppy has joined forces with researchers working on another infamous drug-producing plant—cannabis—in hopes of finding new uses for the much-maligned sources of heroin and marijuana.Peter Facchini, professor of biological sciences and Canada Research Chair in Plant Biotechnology, has received a $650,000 strategic project grant from the Natural Sciences [...]

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Edestin the Main Protein of Hemp Seed - Nutritional and Medicinal Guide to Hemp Seed
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The news this week that herbal remedies can be ineffective or dangerous is boring: but come with me on a journey through time (time… time…) to the origins of medicine.
Bad Science » The trouble with herbals
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