Biotech

Shuvo Roy, Ph.D., a researcher at the Cleveland Clinic, has been awarded a $3.2 million, three-year grant today by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering which will be used to develop a bio-artificial kidney that can be used instead of dialysis.

Dr. Roy and his team of researchers are currently using MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) technology to create an implantable, self-regulating bio-artificial kidney which will be able to filter toxins and absorb necessary salts and water like human kidneys.

Included on the team that is developing this bio-artificial kidney are physicians and engineers from the Lerner Research Insitute's Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Cleveland Clinic's Department of Nephrology.

Martin Schreiber, M.D., Chairman of the Cleveland Clinic's Department of Nephrology and Hypertension, said that the grant willhelp to further one of the Cleveland Clinics key missions:

"This award fulfills the first step in developing innovative technology platforms which offer new hope for extending survival in patients with kidney failure,” he said. “Innovation is one of the hallmarks of the Cleveland Clinic and this project continues that tradition.”

Lung cancer takes the lives of more Americans each year than any other cancer, and while we know that smokers and ex-smokers are at the greatest risk of developing lung cancer, it's not often detected in early, more curable stages. But now it looks like there is some good news coming out of Gaithsburg, Maryland where researchers at Panacea Pharmaceuticals claim that they have found that 99 percent of patients with all stages of lung cancer have detectable levels of a particular protein in their blood that is not present in healthy individuals.

Such a discovery could revolutionize the detection and early treatment of lung cancer, and as more cases are caught early on, the more likely patients are to survive. Panacea reported these encouraging preliminary results this week at an American Association for Cancer Research conference.

Panacea is working toward federal approval that would allow them to market the blood test for high-risk patients.

David Carbone, director of Vanderbilt University's Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center's research program in lung cancer, says:

"Lung cancer is the only major cancer with no approved screening procedure."