KALAMAZOO ? BioStar Ventures and the Michigan Accelerator Fund led a $5.3 million preferred stock investment in Ablative Solutions Inc., a Kalamazoo-based medical device company with a new technique for fighting high blood pressure. ASI says it is developing a ?significantly different? approach to renal denervation, a new therapy for high blood pressure and other
LANSING - A study comparing individual to group health insurance policies in Michigan and several other states found that the average individual policy did not meet basic coverage requirements the 2010 Affordable Care Act will mandate of policies sold through statewide exchanges. The study, conducted by the University of Chicago and the firm of Towers
GRAND RAPIDS - Researchers from South Korea, Sweden, and the United States - including Van Andel Research Institute - have collaborated on a project that could eventually lead to treatments for Huntington's disease, a neurodegenerative genetic disorder that affects muscle coordination and psychiatric problems. The project seeks to restore neuron function to parts of the
GRAND RAPIDS - A team of international scientists has made a significant breakthrough in understanding the cause of bile duct cancer, a deadly type of liver cancer. By identifying several new genes frequently mutated in bile duct cancers, researchers are paving the way for better understanding of how bile duct cancers develop. Their discovery is
GRAND RAPIDS - Phillip A. Sharp, Ph.D., winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of RNA splicing, will be honored May 23 at Van Andel Institute as the first recipient of the Han Mo Koo Memorial Award. The award is named after one of VAI?s founding scientists who succumbed
ANN ARBOR - Rubicon Genomics has launched the first product in its ThruPLEX family of sample preparation kits designed and optimized for next generation sequencing. ThruPLEX-FD kits leverage Rubicon?s patented DNA repair and ligation methods to deliver significantly faster and more sensitive sequencing of plasma, formalin-fixed, ChIP and other fragmented DNA with substantially increased throughput.
GRAND RAPIDS - Van Andel Research Institute and Dako, the Danish-based, worldwide supplier of cancer diagnostic tools, Wednesday announce an agreement to license, manufacture and distribute cancer diagnostics utilizing the MET4 Antibody. The MET4 Antibody, developed by George F. Vande Woude, Ph.D. and Brian Cao, M.D. of VARI and Beatrice Knudsen, M.D., Ph.D., formerly of
ANN ARBOR - Michael Stebbins, assistant director for biotechnology in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, provided members of MichBio a glimpse of a new bioeconomy program scheduled to be unveiled in Washington next week. Speaking at the trade group?s annual meeting, Stebbins reportedly said the administration is working to do whatever
GRAND RAPIDS ? Researchers in Sweden have discovered a new stem cell in the adult brain that can proliferate and form new brain cells. Van Andel Research Institute scientists hope to take advantage of the finding to develop methods to heal and repair disease and injury in the brain. Analyzing brain tissue from biopsies, the
ANN ARBOR ? A team from the University of Michigan, has helped deliver stem cells into the spines of patients with Lou Gehirg's disease, opening the door to a new treatment. In a paper published online ahead of print publication in the peer-reviewed journal Stem Cells, a team from the U-M, Emory University and study