Sunday, 24 August 2008

Madonna kicks off `Sticky and Sweet' tour in UK

CARDIFF, Wales �

Even at 50, the nance of pop just can't stop courting controversy.


As Madonna kicked turned her outside "Sticky and Sweet" tour Saturday night, she took a none-too subtle swipe at the presumptive Republican nominee for U.S. president.


Amid a four-act show at Cardiff's jammed Millennium Stadium, a video interlude carried images of destruction, globose warming, Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, Zimbabwe's authoritarian President Robert Mugabe - and U.S. Senator John McCain. Another episode, shown later, pictured slain Beatle John Lennon, followed by mood activist Al Gore, Mahatma Gandhi and finally McCain's Democratic rival Barack Obama.


The rest of the depict had the usual Madonna fixtures: sequins, fishnets, and bondage-style outfits drawn from the 3,500 items of vesture reportedly whipped together by 36 designers specifically for the circuit. Dancers sauntered across stage in top hats and tail coats, and Madonna tried her hand at break-dancing and pole-dancing.


Some 40,000 fans - many in pink cowboy hats and boas - were treated to a leaden metal version of "Borderline," while "La Isla Bonita" served as backdrop for a gypsy dancing routine. The show, billed as a musical gallimaufry of "gangsta pimp," Romanian folk, rave, and dance - was an homage to Madonna's continuous reinventions over the past iII decades.


She took a playful take on her varicolored career, teasing dancers polished as her previous incarnations - including the "Material Girl" and "Blonde Ambition" - before they sank into the stage to the tune of "She's Not Me." Madonna finished off the concert with her clunk "Give it 2 Me" from her new urban-inspired album, "Hard Candy."


If the world's top-selling female recording artist is still wriggly, shaking and shimmying with the best of them, her personal life has recently been unsettled. Earlier this summertime her brother Christopher Ciccone published a gossipy memoir, and she has faced speculation around her relationship with New York Yankee slugger Alex Rodriquez and rumors that her marriage to British filmmaker Guy Ritchie is on the rocks - which she hotly denies.


Madonna's tour was eagerly hoped-for in Britain, where the pop whiz has made her home, and fans weren't disappointed.


"We enjoyed it to the max," said Ruth Henson, 24, wHO works in human resources in London. "Madonna, considering she's instantly 50, is so fit. She did a really good job."


Following Cardiff's opening night concert, "Sticky and Sweet" moves across Europe, hitting London's Wembley Stadium on Sept. 11 and Paris on Sept. 20. From there, it goes to North America in October before swathe up Dec. 18 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.


It is Madonna's first tour since striking a deal with concert promoter Live Nation Inc. worth an estimated $120 1000000 over 10 years. The partnership gives Live Nation a stakes of future music and music-related business she generates, including touring, merchandising and albums. Madonna's last circuit was her 2006 "Confessions" - in which she staged a mock crucifixion only a few miles (kilometers) from the Vatican.










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Thursday, 14 August 2008

MedImmune Initiates First Phase 2 Trial In Lupus Patients With Its Antibody Targeting Interferon-alpha

�MedImmune proclaimed
that it has initiated enrollment in a Phase 2A trial with an
investigational human monoclonal antibody (MAb) targeting interferon-alpha
in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE or lupus). The study is
intentional to assess the safety and tolerability of the antibody, also known
as MEDI-545 in patients with moderately to severely active lupus, disdain
standard of care. Current treatment options for somewhat to hard
active lupus include potent immunosuppressive drugs that take in unfavourable
long-term adverse effects. Data from patients with lupus and animal models
of lupus suggest Type I interferons play a key role in lupus, especially
interferon-alpha. By blocking the personal effects of interferon-alpha, MEDI-545 whitethorn
provide a strategy for improving the signs and symptoms associated with
lupus.



"Lupus can buoy be a debilitating disease that amends organs, causes pain
and loss of function, and reduces the quality of life in patients suffering
from the disease, wHO are oftentimes young women," said Barbara White, vice
president, clinical development, rabble-rousing disease. "The Phase 1 trials
with this antibody have demonstrated that it can conquer activity of
interferon-alpha in patients with lupus and that its safety profile
supports further clinical growth in lupus."



The Phase 2A clinical trial is designed to evaluate the safety and
tolerability of multiple subcutaneous dose schedules of MEDI-545 or placebo
in adult patients with moderately to severely active lupus. The study will
also assess the effects of MEDI-545 on disease activity in lupus patients.
This randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-dose trial will
be conducted at about 20 sites throughout the United States.



MEDI-545 was generated by immunizing the Medarex transgenic
HuMab-Mouse(R) with natural human interferon-alpha.

About Lupus



Lupus is an autoimmune disease that can affect diverse parts of the
consistency, including the skin, joints, heart, lungs, blood, kidneys and mastermind.
Lupus affects approximately 322,000 to possibly over a jillion people in
the United States. Lupus may occur at any age in men or women, just the
disease predominantly affects women of childbearing years. The disease has
a higher relative incidence in African-Americans, Hispanics, Asian and American
Indians. Treatments for lupus include nonsteroid anti-inflammatory drugs,
corticosteroids, antimalarials, and immunosuppressants.

About MedImmune



MedImmune is altogether owned by AstraZeneca plc (LSE: AZN.L, NYSE: AZN)
and is the worldwide biologics business for the AstraZeneca Group. The
caller has roughly 3,000 employees planetary and is headquartered in
Gaithersburg, Maryland. MedImmune strives to offer better medicines to
patients, new medical options for physicians and rewarding careers to
employees. Dedicated to advancing science and medicine to avail people live
better lives, the company is focused on infection, oncology, respiratory
disease and inflammation,

Wednesday, 6 August 2008

TV On The Radio to play new London festival

TV On The Radio, Pete And The Pirates and Errors are plant to appear at the Concrete And Glass artistic production event in London.


Taking plaza at various venues and exhibitions about Shoreditch on October 2 and 3, the festival combines both music and art events.


Other acts on the bill include Euros Childs, Kid Harpoon and Let's Wrestle, with more acts to be announced in the coming weeks.


See Concreteandglass.co.uk/ for details.


To check out the availableness of Concrete And Glass tickets and get all the latest listings, go to NME.COM/GIGS now, or call 0871 230 1094.



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