Vical Provides Updates on CMV Vaccine Programs
Vical Incorporated VICL -1.06% recently announced the online publication of a new article in The Lancet Infectious Diseases detailing results from the company's completed Phase 2 proof-of-concept trial of its TransVax(TM) therapeutic vaccine, which is designed to control cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection or reactivation in transplant recipients.

GREATEST PERSON: Waukee Man Gives Back After Transplant
In 2006, Ted Cochran received a kidney transplant. Five years later, he's taking his second chance at life and repaying it through his non-profit My Angel Foundation, which educates others about organ donation.

Disease Maintains Immune Gene Variation
In a study of sticklebacks, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Plön, together with colleagues from the Helmholtz Centre for Marine Research in Kiel, have now shown that reoccurring infectious diseases determine which individuals produce a particularly large number of offspring in a population, and which immune genes increase in frequency in the next host generation.

US Proposes Regulating Face, Hand Transplants
The government wants to start regulating face and hand transplants just as it does now with kidneys, hearts and other organs, with waiting lists, a nationwide system to match and distribute body parts and donor testing to prevent deadly infections. Dr. Bohdan Pomahac, AST member, is quoted in the article.

Campaign Urges Hospitals to Promote Organ Donation
Eight organizations, including the AST, have joined the Workplace Partnership for Life Campaign, a Health Resources and Services Administration federal program that encourages hospitals and health systems nationwide to promote organ donation.