Yet another promising drug for relapsed or refractory patients:
MorphoSys AG and Xencor, Inc. today announced completion of the phase 1/2a clinical trial evaluating MOR208 (formerly XmAb®5574) in patients with relapsed or refractory CLL/SLL. The final study results including the extended treatment arm showed an overall response rate of 29.6% - up from the previously reported 14.8%.
marketwatch.com/story/morph...
Neil
I've been asked for more information on the photo.
The smaller bird is a Magpie Lark and is neither a magpie, nor a lark and is commonly called a Murray Magpie here.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magpi...
The larger bird is an Australian Pied Cormorant, commonly called a shag.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austr...
There were initially two murray magpies sitting near the shag, but I was too slow to photograph all three birds (I'd only bought the camera a couple of hours prior to taking this photo). Shortly after I took the photo, the magpie gave the shag a hard time, dive bombing the larger bird.
Until I took this photo, I had no idea these shags were such attractive birds. You normally see them drying their feathers on a tree stump in the water after diving for fish, so they are usually rather bedraggled and I've found it hard to get close to them. I took this photo about 7m from the birds and they were feeling reasonably safe in a gum tree hanging over a creek.
We have two 'magpie' varieties locally, neither related to the English magpie. Both varieties enjoying swooping on me at this time of the year (spring - nesting season). There is some controversy over which one appears on our state flag:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pipin...
Interestingly, I took this photograph not 100 metres from Captain Charles Sturt's historical home. Perhaps it was a distant relative to the bird he observed per his quote in the above reference. Both 'magpie' species enjoy fossicking in the garden for grubs.
Neil
Interesting to read more about the birds. I too had been wondering what they were, and was thinking it was a brilliant photo of the big bird at the front. And you'd only had the camera a few hours!!!!
It is a great shot, had not heard of them.
However my friend in Melbourne tells me that the murray magpies( is this because of the murray river) attack cyclists there so they stick tie ups on their helmets to discourage them. Ours just attack small birds.
Fossicking, new word for me but describes their actions perfectly.
Thanks for the article with more hopeful news, but as usual will read it again to make more sense of it.
Bub
Found this comment elsewhere about smaller bird's naming: " 'Murray magpie' comes from the association with our biggest waterway in the continent, and reflects their natural habitat in open areas near wetlands and rivers in the bush."
The afore mentioned Capt. Charles Sturt, named the river the Murray to honour Sir George Murray, Secretary of State for the Colonies in the British Government in 1830. He lead an exploration party that determined that several major rivers that rose on the western side of the Great Dividing Range (the range stretching down the eastern coast of Australia), drained into the Murray, which then flowed some 2,500km before draining into the Southern Ocean about 100km from where I live.
Neil
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