Bioscience

News that the health-care overhaul could add as many as 30 million U.S. residents to insurance rolls may raise concerns for some. But it's great news for medical-office developers and investors.

The metro Phoenix medical-office market is severely overbuilt, with a slightly higher vacancy rate than the overall office market.

Discussions about health-care reform have generated considerable buzz in the medical-office sector, and purchase and lease activity are on the rise.

Bioscience

Arizonans are at the forefront of a movement to change how the public is taught to respond to victims of sudden cardiac arrest.

Several medical experts are advocating mass training in hands-only CPR, an emerging and possibly more successful lifesaving technique pioneered by researchers at the University of Arizona.
 

Bioscience

Drinking even large amounts of coffee and sugar-sweetened, carbonated soft drinks is not associated with the risk of colon cancer, according to a large study published online May 7 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Some previous studies have suggested that coffee and tea may lower the risk of cancer, but others show that they could increase the risk. Tea, for instance contains anti-oxidants that in theory help prevent cancer but also has polyamines, which in theory promote cancer. Sugar-sweetened soft drinks are associated with weight gain, obesity, and other conditions that are potential risk factors for colon cancer.

Bioscience

Until a few months ago, the former Intel facility was a cavernous, empty building, emblematic of recent years' wrenching shifts in Chandler's manufacturing base. But as of April 30, a 40,000 square-foot section of the building represents something else: the city's aggressive pursuit of a dynamic segment of the bioscience industry. The Innovations Technology Incubator is open for business.

Bioscience

Warmer nighttime temperatures are bringing out one of Arizona’s most feared creatures: scorpions.

As the weather warms, and evening temperatures stay at 70 or higher, the scorpions get more active, said Craig Levy, program manager of the vector borne disease program at the Arizona Department of Health Services.

“Usually around May, and throughout the summer, you start to see more scorpion activity,” Levy said.

Bioscience

RayBiotech, Inc., the Protein Array Pioneer Company, has announced the winners of its Biomarker Discovery Pilot Grant program. In total, 18 award recipients were chosen for grants of up to $20,000 each, redeemable for RayBiotech products and services. "By offering these grants," states Dr. Ray (Ruopan) Huang, Founder and President of RayBiotech, "we intend to demonstrate that any researcher with a modest research budget can successfully discover and validate disease-related biomarkers using our antibody arrays."

Bioscience

A Commission of national health care experts convened by the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress (CSPC) has unveiled a roadmap and integrated approach that will put "health" back into our nation's health care system as well as address key opportunities following passage of health care reform legislation.

The Commission on U.S. Federal Leadership in Health and Medicine: Charting Future Directions is releasing its second report, A 21st Century Roadmap for Advancing America's Health: The Path from Peril to Progress, emphasizing a comprehensive spectrum of actions to build a 21st century system that will make America the healthiest nation in the world. Already, the CSPC Health Commission's proposals have helped shape new Federal initiatives and are reflected in recent health reform legislation.

Bioscience

Through its US-based subsidiary AMDL Diagnostics Inc., Radient Pharmaceuticals Corporation (RPC) announced today diagnostics development and commercialization firm Provista Life Sciences LLC (PLS) has independently validated Radient Pharmaceuticals' Onko-Sure in vitro diagnostic (IVD) cancer test as a potential screening tool for breast cancer detection.

Bioscience

Arizona’s bioscience industry continues to experience growth in jobs and firms despite the difficult economy, according to a recent study.

The state’s industry gained 4,900 jobs, which is 5.8 percent increase, in 2008, the latest year of available data. The number of firms in Arizona grew by 32 percent, from 2002 to 2008, to 841 companies.

The Arizona Department of Commerce is leading a delegation of 25 bioscience companies, university leaders, city officials and the Greater Phoenix Economic Council to the 2010 BIO International Convention in Chicago this week to bring home more of these high-wage jobs which pay an average of $55,749.

Bioscience

A new national survey on public attitudes toward medical applications and physical enhancements that rely on nanotechnology shows that support for the technology increases when the public is informed of the technology's risks as well as its benefits -- at least among those people who have heard of nanotechnology.

The survey, which was conducted by researchers at North Carolina State University and Arizona State University (ASU), also found that discussing risks decreased support among those people who had never previously heard of nanotechnology -- but not by much.