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India: CIFT signs MOU with Uniloids Biosciences for chitin and chitosan processing technology
Posted On: July 22, 2011The Central Institute of Fisheries Technology (CIFT) in India has signed an MoU with the Hyderabad based Uniloids Biosciences. The MoU will provide Uniloids Biosciences access to technology developed at CIFT, to convert process waste to Chitin and Chitosan,considerably versatile and promising biomaterials with wide use in various industries such as pharma, food processing and cosmetics.
Also, Uniloids Biosciences will receive support from Zonal Technology Management Business Planning and Development Unit, an agribusiness unit and the Fish Processing Division and Quality Assurance and Management Division for commercializing the technology.
Cancer vaccine firm Immunophotonics hopes for clinical trials involving chitin-derived Protectin drug
Posted On: July 12, 2011A Missouri biotech company developing a laser-guided cancer vaccine therapy is raising money to get into clinical trials by the end of the year. Immunophotonics has so far focused its laser-assisted immunotherapy, called inCVAX, primarily on breast cancer treatment. The two-step device and drug process attacks late-stage metastatic cancer. It first injects a tumor with laser fibers and heats it to break it down into its component parts. Then the chitin-derived drug, Protectin, is injected to activate the immune system to recognize and purge the cancerous areas.
The company wants to raise about $1 million, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Immunophotonics co-founder and CEO Tomas Hode said that the drug has shown long-term immunity against cancer in tests on animals. The drug could also cost less than other vaccines under development, Hode said.
“It’s a personal vaccine where we use the patient’s own tumor cells,” he said. “We don’t need to do any extraction; everything happens inside the body.”
Off-shore facilities in Peru and the Bahamas are already testing inCVAX primarily for breast cancer treatment and melanoma treatment — both of which typically have easily accessible tumors. Hode said the results have been promising. Protectin, which is derived from a type of glucose called chitin derived from crustacean shells, appears to be nontoxic and without major side effects to patients so far.
Chitosan Product Provides a New and Effective Way of Clotting Arterial Bleeds
Posted On: June 2, 2011Celox, a flaked form of the clotting agent chitosan, is revolutionizing how military and medical personnel deal with bleeds, from the smallest scrapes to full-blown arterial fire hoses. Celox is easy to use — you just pour it on an open wound and apply pressure — and both safer and faster-acting than similar products. The best bit, though, is that the active ingredient, chitosan, is extracted from the shells of crabs and shrimp.
Chitosan is a polysaccharide — a complex carbohydrate, like starch — that is extracted from chitin, the structural component of shrimp and crab exoskeletons. Chitosan is water soluble, bioadhesive, biodegradable, and biocompatible. In its base state, chitosan is an excellent clotting (hemostatic) agent, but the form used in Celox has been “reacted” to create an enhanced and purified product. Celox, in short, is ideal for augmenting the human body’s innate ability to clot wounds.
The real magic of Celox is that it doesn’t actually form blood clots, which would be dangerous; rather, the act mixing blood into Celox activates it, turning it into an artificial, gel-like clot. This kind of clot is incredibly effective at staunching blood flow, with 100% of swine test subjects surviving a cut femoral artery. If all that wasn’t awesome enough, Celox is incredibly fast-acting — it can clot blood in 30 seconds, where normal blood takes 800 seconds — and it even works with blood that has been thinned by warfarin or harparin, or in hypothermic conditions.
Chitosan being tested to improve healing for oral mucositis
Posted On: April 6, 2011Using a substance found in the shells of shrimp and crabs, former military physician William Wiesmann developed a bandage that stopped soldiers from bleeding to death on the battlefield.
Now the CEO of Claremont- based biotechnology company Synedgen, Wiesmann hopes to take the blood-clotting and bacteria-killing properties of the substance to treat the painful mouth sores that plague many cancer patients.
Synedgen received last month a $2 million award from the National Institutes of Health to produce a treatment that prevents infection and improves healing for oral mucositis, a common debilitating side effect from chemotherapy.
Maine: Lobster shell byproduct going into biodegradable golf balls
Posted On: April 1, 2011Researchers at the University of Maine along with the Lobster Institute are turning lobster shells into biodegradable golf balls to be used on cruise ships.
These are not the first biodegradable golf balls on the market, but they are the first to be developed with crushed lobster shells containing a biodegradable binder and coating. Prior to this invention, lobster shells had no value and would be discarded, according to the researchers.
Seafood Byproduct Co-op opens in Alabama
Posted On: March 31, 2011Cutting the ribbon to the new Gulf Coast Agricultural and Seafood Co-Op center means cutting ties with an old habit. A habit that is costly and can be harmful to the environment. It has to do with a seafood by-product called hulls.
Each year, 5,800 tons of shrimp and crab waste are left over after processing. Seafood experts say it costs around $70,000 a month to have the waste hauled off to a landfill.
This is where the center will come into play. Local processors can bring the waste to the center for a less expensive cost. Officials say their goal is remove the cost all together and turn the waste into a profit. Although the end product has not been determined yet, hulls can be used in the manufacturing of chitin.
Proposed full-scale chitin/chitosan production facility in Newfoundland, Canada has vaulted significant hurdle
Posted On: March 25, 2011A proposal to construct a full-scale chitin/chitosan production facility adjacent to its sprawling crab and shrimp processing plant in Bay de Verde has vaulted a significant hurdle. But the same proposal that was so vociferously opposed in Old Perlican – just 12 kilometres away – several years ago also has its share of critics in Bay de Verde.
The seven-member Bay de Verde municipal council voted 4-3 to grant approval-in-principle to the project at a March 3 council meeting, with Mayor Gerard Murphy casting the deciding vote in favour of the application.
Also supporting the application were deputy mayor Gordon Coish and councillors Gerard Broderick and Carrie Potter.
Mayor Murphy chaired the meeting, and said there were questions about air emissions, the discharge of effluent into the marine ecosystem, and the transport and use of chemicals such as hydrochloric acid and potassium hydroxide, two important chemicals in the chitin production process.
There were also concerns expressed about some ongoing issues, including odour problems and the ongoing dumping of shell waste at a local site.
Murphy was initially apprehensive about the project, but after receiving more information, has warmed up to the idea.
“I greet this application with cautious optimism,” he said. “If the company is willing to come in and make a multi-million-dollar investment into a technology that is new in the province … that investment, given the volatility of the fishing industry, can only lead to an extended longevity of the facility in the community.”
“That was one of the biggest considerations that I had to think about,” he added.
But the roughly $5 million project is still far from receiving the green light, with environmental approvals still to come, and some community leaders still not convinced the project is in the best interest of the town.
US launch of chitosan-soaked Tencel C fiber at upcoming Los Angeles Textile Show & Texworld USA
Posted On: March 16, 2011Textile World: Lenzing of Austria recently launched Tencel C, comprising Tencel fiber soaked with chitosan, made of chitin extracted from crab shells. Lenzing reports it adds skin-soothing cosmetic benefits to Tencel, and in a scientific wear study, stockings made with Tencel C were shown to protect the skin, allow it to retain more moisture, improve skin elasticity and stimulate skin cell regeneration. Lenzing is promoting the fiber for use in apparel worn next to the skin and in home furnishings such as bed sheets. There also are potential wound-healing applications.
“Our research team worked on Tencel C for almost ten years,” said Alexandra Steger, project manager marketing apparel, Textile Fibers, Lenzing AG. “We have attached the chitosan so that it can’t wash off or be stripped off. The fiber is spun, and the chitosan solution penetrates into its porous structure. The fiber is then finished. Cellulose and chitosan are very similar, so we can combine the botanic and oceanic stories,” she said, pointing out cellulose’s botanic source and chitosan’s oceanic source. “The molecules differ only at one point where chitosan has an amino group.
Lenzing will launch Tencel C in the United States at the upcoming Los Angeles International Textile Show and Texworld USA.
Antimicrobial packaging from shellfish waste under development
Posted On: February 27, 2011FIS.com: Researchers at the Gaiker-IK4 Basque technological Center and other research institutes in Mexico and Portugal are working on the development of a food container with antimicrobial and antioxidant properties made from shellfish waste.
Scientists aim for this new packaging – made with elements taken from the exoskeleton of shrimp – to prolong the life of food, preserving their original properties. This international project is led by scientists at the Technological Institute of Sonora, Mexico.
Also involved is the Research Centre for Food and Development and the company Bioderpac, both of which are from Mexico, in addition to the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain, and the Dr. Ricardo Jorge National Health Institute, Portugal.
The innovative packaging is a material containing molecules of chitosan and astaxanthin, which have antimicrobial and antioxidant capacity, respectively.
These agents are obtained from the head and the exoskeleton of shrimp, by extraction and purification after lactic fermentation. Later, these compounds are incorporated into plastic matrices to prepare polyethylene and polyamide active packaging.
Medtronic Buys Chitin Gel Technology For Sinus Treatment
Posted On: February 27, 2011Medical device maker Medtronic Inc. said Friday it purchased a chitin gel technology that could be used to control bleeding and speed up healing in surgical procedures that treat sinus conditions.
Medtronic said the gel is a polymer produced from the chitin of shellfish and squid. Chitin is found in the exoskeletons of insects and some crustaceans. In humans, it is used to aid the healing of wounds and as a biodegradable surgical thread. The technology was developed by Robinson Squidgel Ltd., the University of Adelaide in Australia, and the University of Otago in New Zealand.
Medtronic, which is the world’s largest medical device company, did not disclose terms of the deal.
The company believes the gel technology could be used in functional endoscopic sinus surgery, a type of procedure used to treat conditions including recurring acute or chronic infective sinus inflammation. Fiber optic scopes are used to diagnose and assist in the procedure, and computer models help identify diseased areas in the patient’s sinuses. Medtronic said that around 525,000 procedures are performed in the U.S. each year, and the most common side effects are bleeding and adhesions, or scars that form at the surgical site.
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