[NYTimes]- For years scientists have dreamed of developing a genuine memory booster, a drug that could tune the brain’s biological search engine so that it’s better at retrieving not only recently learned facts, like last night’s dinner menu, but details that seem all but lost in the fog of time, like childhood classmates’ names and [...]

[Forbes]-Right now drugs for rare disorders are the sweet spot of the biotechnology industry. Treatments for illnesses that affect only hundreds of patients can cost $200,000 or more and have built Genzyme into one of biotech’s biggest companies and Alexion and Biomarin into two of its hottest names for investors. Shire has moved into the [...]

[Washington Post]  Federal law protects pharmaceutical companies from lawsuits by parents who claim that vaccines harmed their children, the Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.
The court ruled 6 to 2 that going before a special tribunal set up by Congress is the only way parents can be compensated for the negative side effects that in rare instances [...]

[NYTimes] The two mothers-to-be felt the same urgency. Told that their babies had potentially crippling spina bifida, both women hoped to receive an ambitious surgery that closes the hole in the spine while babies are in the womb.
Their only access was through a clinical trial testing whether risky prenatal surgery was better than standard surgery [...]

[Tampabay] Wake up and good morning. What you see above is a microfluidic device used to create human mimetic tissue models for testing potential malaria drugs. That’s a too technical way of saying this device will help researchers mimic the human liver outside the body to make it easier to find a drug that fights [...]

[Yahoo News] PARIS (AFP) – Doctors in France on Monday announced the country’s first birth of a “savior sibling,” selected at the embryonic stage to be a close genetic match to save a brother or sister suffering from a fatal inherited disorder.
The baby was born at the Antoine Beclere Hospital in Clamart, in [...]

[FDA]Today the U.S. Food and Drug Administration proposed the Innovation Pathway, a priority review program for new, breakthrough medical devices and announced the first submission: a brain-controlled, upper-extremity prosthetic that will serve as a pilot for the program. The FDA also announced plans to seek further public comment before the Pathway can be used more [...]

 [sciencedaily]  In a groundbreaking achievement that could help scientists “build” new biological systems, Princeton University scientists have constructed for the first time artificial proteins that enable the growth of living cells.
The team of researchers created genetic sequences never before seen in nature, and the scientists showed that they can produce substances that sustain life in cells [...]

[PharmTechTalk] The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues released a report last week that supported continuing research in the emerging field of synthetic biology with some additional federal oversight. President Obama had asked the Commission in May 2010 to study the implications of synthetic biology following the announcement by the J. Craig Venter [...]

[nytimes] The president’s bioethics commission says there is no need to temporarily halt research or to impose new regulations on the controversial new field known as synthetic biology.
In a report being issued Thursday, the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues says that at present the technology — which involves creating novel organisms through [...]