April 24th Blogging Basics

Thursday, April 22, 2010

A True Hero (Almost) Gets His Memorial

At a time when kids consider gun-toting athletes and cracked-out celebrities heroes and role models, it’s refreshing to hear that a true hero, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., is finally getting the official memorial he deserves. Abraham Harrison’s client, the Washington D.C., Martin Luther King, Jr., National Memorial Foundation, is pushing for the last few million dollars needed to finish the project.
Over $106 million of the $120 million has been raised through corporate support as well as private donations from us ordinary folk. The Foundation has devised some creative and easy ways to add your contribution including an MLK Toolbar that donates $.05 for every search you perform using the toolbar.
To find out more about the history of the Memorial, its on-going construction and ways to donate here: http://mlkmemorialnews.org/

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Stem Cell Therapy to Cure Type 1 Diabetes in Adults

Diabetes exacts its toll on many Americans, young and old. For years, researchers have painstakingly dissected this complicated disease caused by the destruction of insulin producing islet cells of the pancreas. Despite progress in understanding the underlying disease mechanisms for diabetes, there is still a paucity of effective therapies. For years investigators have been making slow, but steady, progress on experimental strategies for pancreatic transplantation and islet cell replacement. Now, researchers have turned their attention to adult stem cells that appear to be precursors to islet cells and embryonic stem cells that produce insulin. From Curing Diabetes with Stem Cell Therapy Resources:

Stem cells, directed to differentiate into specific cell types, offer the possibility of a renewable source of replacement cells and tissues to treat diseases including Alzheimer’s diseases, spinal cord injury, stroke, burns, heart disease, diabetes, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis.

Professor Alan Trounson has highlighted research that has transformed human embryonic stem cells into insulin-producing cells to treat diabetes in mice. He says the technique could work equally with humans. "I do think we’ll get a cure to diabetes," he said.

Stem cells are the essential cellular building blocks that allow the body to regenerate new cells and repair tissue. Scientists are investigating the therapeutic potential of both embryonic and adult stem cells as a research tool to better understand-and develop treatments for-diseases that affect over 100 million Americans in their lifetime, including diabetes, cancer, heart disease, spinal cord injuries, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and other debilitating conditions.

Stem cell therapy aimed at restoring blood flow to damaged limbs in people with diabetes has shown promise, according to UK company ReNeuron. Diabetics using stem-cell therapy have been able to stop taking insulin injections for the first time, after their bodies started to produce the hormone naturally again.

A handful of people with type 1 diabetes have been able to survive without insulin shots for more than two-and-a-half years, on average, after having their own blood stem cells removed and reimplanted through intravenous injection, U.S. and Brazilian researchers reported Tuesday.

The study involved the use of a technique called "autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation" or AHST for short. This type of treatment has been used to treat other autoimmune diseases successfully. Previous trials have shown that moderate suppression of the immune system in newly diagnosed Type 1 diabetes patients can stop the further loss of beta cells and reduce the need for supplemental insulin.

Pancreatic islet cell transplantation and particularly stem cell-based therapies have a huge potential to restore glucose control in patients with diabetes, without risk of serious hypoglycemic adverse effects associated with insulin therapy, and safety issues of other anti-diabetes treatments.

In Australia, and many other countries around the world, stem cell therapy is only approved to treat blood disorders such as leukemia. Whilst research is moving rapidly and showing great promise, the use of any type of stem cell as a therapy for diseases like type 1 diabetes is still firmly classed as experimental. This doesn’t mean these therapies won’t work, just that scientists and clinicians have deemed there isn’t enough data available to demonstrate patient safety as well as a long term benefit.

Hopes have been raised of a new treatment to free thousands of diabetes sufferers from the burden of daily insulin injections. Scientists revealed findings of a study which shows that 15 young patients with type one diabetes overcame their dependence on insulin after being treated with their own stem cells.

Via Chris Abraham Blog

Monday, April 5, 2010

Thank You To All Of The Olympic Bloggers

Recently, we at Abraham Harrison helped the USOC (United States Olympic Committee) reach out to bloggers and others online in order to bring more attention to the Winter Olympic Games. Nearly 300 movers, shakers and influencers responded to our call to action with the placement of banners, tweets, and with blog posts. Thank you to all of the authors of the following posts:

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Register with Team USA for tomorrow’s Winter Games

Tomorrow marks the first day of the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Vancouver, BC. Years of training, hard work, discipline and relentless dedication have given the great athletes of Team USA the right edge to grab that gold. To make sure you keep track of who is skiing the fastest and skating the hardest, register with TeamUSA.org where fans get chance to take part in all of the action. GO USA!

Receive exclusive updates during the Winter Games
Get the inside scoop, event by event
Hear directly from our Olympic athletes as they chase their dream
Be able to download photo and video highlights, right to your desktop

There is more than one way to get involved with this year’s Olympics. Show your support by making a donation or becoming a member the Sixth Ring. Check out TeamUSAnews.org and get ready to rally behind the great USA!

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Register at TeamUSA.org for exclusive Winter Games info

Start rockin’ your red white and blue because this Friday marks the beginning of the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Vancouver, BC. The city will welcome all of the worthy competitors and their diehard fans who are lucky enough to see these world-class athletes live. For those of us who cannot make it to Vancouver and witness the excitement first-hand, TeamUSA.org is giving fans a chance to take part in all the action.
Register at TeamUSA.org and you will:

Receive exclusive updates during the Winter Games
Get the inside scoop, event by event
Hear directly from our Olympic athletes as they chase their dream
Be able to download photo and video highlights, right to your desktop

Team USA has been training hard. We must recognize their admirable accomplishments and cheer our hearts out to help the great USA take home some sweet gold. Register now to be ready for Olympic fever!

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Emergent BioSolutions Enhances Manufacturing Infrastructure with Strategic Acquisition in Baltimore

Emergent acquires manufacturing facility from MdBio and land from City of Baltimore for $8.2 million

ROCKVILLE, MD, November 13, 2009 – Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE:EBS) announced today that it has completed the acquisition of a 55,000 square foot manufacturing facility from MdBio Foundation and the land on which the facility stands from the City of Baltimore for a total purchase price of $8.2 million. The facility, located within the City of Baltimore, Maryland, previously operated as a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) licensed facility used by an experienced contract manufacturing organization (CMO) to produce a number of FDA approved products.

“Emergent is excited about this new facility in Baltimore because it houses several suites capable of manufacturing multiple products at the same time,” said Fuad El-Hibri, chairman and chief executive officer of Emergent BioSolutions. “Accordingly, this facility will provide the flexibility to conduct large-scale manufacturing of rPA while also producing other products in our pipeline.”

Emergent worked closely with the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development (DBED), MdBio, the City of Baltimore, Baltimore Development Corporation, and other related governmental agencies to complete this transaction.

“Maryland is continuing to strengthen its biotechnology prowess by helping to grow industry leaders like Emergent BioSolutions,” said Governor Martin O’Malley. “The transaction between MdBio and Emergent will maximize the value of the BioProcessing Center by maintaining a bio-manufacturing infrastructure for Maryland’s bioscience community, enabling additional investment to be made in the Center and ensuring that those high paying, highly skilled jobs are created and remain in Maryland.”

Emergent BioSolutions employs over 600 employees across the globe, with over 150 employees located in its corporate headquarters in Rockville and one of its product development sites in Gaithersburg.

“This acquisition reflects our commitment to both continually creating jobs and investing additional capital in the State of Maryland,” said Daniel J. Abdun-Nabi, president and chief operating officer of Emergent BioSolutions. “We extend our sincere appreciation to the state and local governments for their ongoing support of our efforts to develop our local manufacturing capabilities and look forward to growing Emergent’s presence in the state.”

Mayor Sheila Dixon, commenting on the announcement, said, “The City of Baltimore is excited about welcoming Emergent BioSolutions to the Baltimore biotech community. With great research institutions such as Johns Hopkins and the University of Maryland as potential partners in the area, we know that Emergent will be a wonderful contributor in the future.”

“Emergent’s decision to expand in Maryland underscores not only our rich research and development environment, but also our mission to support the complete product development life cycle that includes bio manufacturing,” said Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development Secretary Christian S. Johansson. “The Department was pleased to work with MdBio Foundation and the Baltimore Development Corp. to bring this project to fruition.”

About Emergent BioSolutions Inc.
Emergent BioSolutions Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development, manufacture and commercialization of vaccines and therapeutics that assist the body’s immune system to prevent or treat disease. Emergent’s marketed product, BioThrax (Anthrax Vaccine Adsorbed), is the only vaccine licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the prevention of anthrax. Emergent’s development pipeline includes programs focused on anthrax, botulism, tuberculosis, typhoid, hepatitis B and chlamydia. Additional information may be found at www.emergentbiosolutions.com and www.biothrax.com.

About MdBio Foundation, Inc.
The MdBio Foundation, Inc. is a charitable and educational organization whose mission is to provide and support the State of Maryland’s bioscience community through bioscience awareness, education and workforce development programs including scholarships, post-doctoral conference and career expos, BioGENEius science competition and summer science camps. Since 2003, MdBio has operated the MdBioLab, an educational and well-known mobile bioscience laboratory that visits high schools throughout Maryland to educate youth on biosciences. Over the past six years, MdBioLab has held more than 2,800 classes with 55,000 students and 1,500 teachers. MdBio Foundation became an affiliate of the Tech Council of Maryland in 2006.

Safe Harbor Statement
This press release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any statements, other than statements of historical fact, including statements regarding our strategy, future operations, future financial position, future revenues, projected costs, prospects, plans and objectives of management, including any potential future securities offering, our expected revenue growth and net earnings for 2009, and any other statements containing the words “believes”, “expects”, “anticipates”, “plans”, “estimates” and similar expressions, are forward-looking statements. There are a number of important factors that could cause the company’s actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements, including our ability to obtain FDA approval to manufacture products or product candidates in the newly acquired facility; appropriations for BioThrax^® procurement; our ability to obtain new BioThrax^® sales contracts; our plans to pursue label expansions and improvements for BioThrax^®; our plans to expand our manufacturing facilities and capabilities; the rate and degree of market acceptance and clinical utility of our products; the success of our ongoing and planned development programs, preclinical studies and clinical trials; our ability to identify and acquire or in license products and product candidates that satisfy our selection criteria; the potential benefits of our existing collaboration agreements and our ability to enter into selective additional collaboration arrangements; the timing of and our ability to obtain and maintain regulatory approvals for our other product candidates; our commercialization, marketing and manufacturing capabilities and strategy; our estimates regarding expenses, future revenue, capital requirements and needs for additional financing; and other factors identified in the company’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended September 30, 2009 and subsequent reports filed with the SEC. The company disclaims any intention or obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of developments occurring after the date of this press release.

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Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Win a Free Roku Player from Motionbox

The rumors are true.... Motionbox is soon to be a featured Channel on the Roku digital video player. You'll be able to hook the player up to your television and enjoy instant access to all the videos you’ve uploaded to Motionbox. All you need is a TV, a high-speed Internet connection (wired or wireless), and a finger to click the remote!

As a special sneak preview, we're giving away a few brand new Roku players to people who become Motionbox members this month.

All you have to do is sign up for a FREE Motionbox account before November 30, 2009 then email offers@motionbox.com with subject line "Roku Giveaway" and we'll enter your name for a chance to win a Roku HD Player.

Learn more about Roku:
Read a recent article about Roku.
Check out the Roku website.