EU-funded scientists have developed a new, non-viral way of getting genes into a cell. The technique appears to avoid the side-effects, such as cancer, which can occur when viruses are used to smuggle genes into a cell. The scientists hope their discovery will 'simplify the way gene therapy is conducted, improve its overall safety and reduce the costs'.

goBalto, an online drug development partnering site for the pharmaceutical development and drug manufacturing industry, announced today its new platform and website, goBalto.com. goBalto transforms the way drug-development partners are matched. The web-based platform enables members to quickly and efficiently find partners, share knowledge, and discover opportunities.

In 2009, the number of physicians using smartphones surged to 64%, according to Taking the Pulse® v9.0, pharmaceutical and healthcare market research company Manhattan Research's newly released study focused on physician adoption, use, and impact of the Internet and other technologies. This group of "smart" physicians using mobile devices such as iPhones and BlackBerries increased by 20% between 2008 and 2009. In fact, the number of physicians using iPhones more than doubled in the past year alone.

Tobacco use triggers a number of common diseases in humans including heart disease and lung cancer. However, a group of scientists from Europe may be tobacco's saving grace. They successfully used genetically modified tobacco plants to generate medicines for a number of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. The study was part of the Pharma-Planta project, which was funded under the EU's Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) to the tune of EUR 12 million.

More than 60% of U.S. adults turn to the Internet as a decision support tool in healthcare and disease management, and certain condition groups are more likely to use online health resources than others, according to pharmaceutical and healthcare market research company Manhattan Research. Acne, restless leg syndrome, and cancer patients are among the top ten therapeutic categories adopting eHealth activities, which can range from reading a health-related blog to joining an online patient community.

Scientists in the UK have incorporated artificial intelligence (AI) and a sophisticated set of algorithms into a robot, named Adam, that can develop hypotheses and carry out a whole scientific experimentation cycle. The research, published in the journal Science, paves the way for dramatically increasing the rate of scientific progress.

CAST PHARMA, a premier European 3D pharmaceutical and biomedical animation production company, has announced the opening of the new office in Ballerup, Denmark. This new office will allow Cast Pharma to meet the growing demand in the Northern Europe pharmaceutical market and to improve services to existing clients.