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Better Ways to Get the Right Dose

Nov 20, 2007

Keith Robison at Omics! Omics! points out a paper in PNAS in which Regeneron shows that a compound it developed called VEGF-Trap can be used to measure the amount of circulating VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor) in blood. VEGF is a signaling molecule that stimulates angiogenesis, and is therefore used to determine dosage for drugs used to treat cancer. By measuring the amount of free and VEGF-complexed VEGF-Trap, they found that they can measure levels of VEGF and identify a dose which ensures that the most trapping occurs.

Breaking News
The Scan

Alzheimer's Risk Gene Among Women

CNN reports that researchers have found that variants in MGMT contribute to Alzheimer's disease risk among women but not men.

Still Hanging Around

The Guardian writes that persistent pockets of SARS-CoV-2 in the body could contribute to long COVID.

Through a Little Spit

Enteric viruses like norovirus may also be transmitted through saliva, not just the fecal-oral route, according to New Scientist.

Nature Papers Present Method to Detect Full Transcriptome, Viruses Infecting Asgard Archaea, More

In Nature this week: VASA-seq approach to detect full transcriptome, analysis of viruses infecting Asgard archaea, and more.