Collaborative trial for validation of a real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction assay for detection of central nervous system tissues as bovine spongiform encephalopathy risk material: Part 1.
A collaborative trial was conducted to evaluate a real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay for detection of central nervous system (CNS) tissues in meat products (e.g., sausages). The method is based on the detection of ruminant glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) mRNA by applying real-time RT-PCR. The assay...

PALL PRION PROTECTS BLOOD SUPPLY FROM VARIANT CJD.
At the request of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSEs) Advisory Committee, Pall Corporation (NYSE: PLL) has presented the latest research results on its prion technology to remove TSE infectivity from blood. The Pall Leukotrap(R) Affinity Prion Reduction Filter system is the only Council of...

FDA proposes safeguards against BSE by barring some cattle products from drugs, biologics, devices.
FDA proposes to limit the materials used in some medical products in order to keep them free of the agent thought to cause bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also called "mad cow disease." This is the latest in a series of BSE safeguards that would bar material that...

Mad cow disease, human illness tied.
Two groups of researchers have tightened the link between mad cow disease and a devastating brain disorder that has stricken 21 people in the United Kingdom in the past 3 years. Those people apparently ate infected beef. The human illness, a variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), causes...

Case closed.
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease comes in two forms, one old and one new, both terrible and both rare. In both forms the victim suffers microscopic spongy holes in the brain; in both forms the holes are thought to be caused by prisons, proteins that sit on the surface of brain cells...

Another round in the prion debate.
Virus or protein? The answer to that simple query torments researchers looking for the infectious agent that causes illnesses such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in the human brain and similar disorders in sheep, cows, and other animals. At first, researchers assumed that these neurodegenerative afflictions resulted from viruses--microscopic bundles of...

Mad cows and sick monkeys.
The emergence of 10 unusual cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in the United Kingdom in April alarmed Europe and electrified the world's scientific community. It appeared that all 10 patients had contracted what scientists believe is a newly recognized human variant of "mad cow" disease (SN: 4/13/96, p. 228). ...

Disease Sciences Adds Advisor From the Center for Disease Control's National Prion Disease Surviellance Center.
BOCA RATON, Fla., July 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Disease Sciences, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: DISE) (formerly OTC Bulletin Board: UBUY) today announced that the head of the Centers for Disease Control sponsored prion research analyses team is joining Disease Sciences, Inc.'s scientific advisory board in its quest to...

NIH Scientist to Join Disease Sciences Scientific Advisory Committee.
BOCA RATON, Fla., Aug. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Disease Sciences, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: DISE) today announced the appointment of Dr. Paul W. Brown, a senior research scientist at the National Institutes of Health, to its advisory panel of scientific experts who will help the biopharmaceutical company develop...

Disease Sciences Names Distinguished Former Abbott Laboratories Scientist and Current Industry Executive to Its Scientific Advisory Committee.
BOCA RATON, Fla., July 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Disease Sciences, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: DISE) announced today that is has appointed Dr. Hossein A. Ghanbari, a former Abbott Laboratories' (NYSE: ABT) scientist and current pharmaceutical industry executive, to its Scientific Advisory Committee that will help develop a test...