Science and Enterprise

Category: Joint ventures/collaborations

  • Unilever Launches Open Innovation Initiative

    The consumer goods manufacturer Unilever unveiled today its open innovation program seeking ideas for new products and technologies from the public at large. The initiative is managed by the online intellectual property marketplace yet2.com. Unilever’s program is structured around a set of issues or problems for which it seeks collaborators to find solutions. The opening…

  • European Autism Research Consortium Launched

    An international coalition of pharmaceutical companies, universities, and advocacy organizations aims to discover new drugs to battle autism spectrum disorder, a collection of conditions affecting social interaction and communication. The project known as European Autism Interventions: A Multicentre Study for Developing New Medications (EU-AIMS) is considered the largest single grant for autism research in the…

  • Solar Developer, Lab Build Power Transport Technology

    New Energy Technologies Inc. in Columbia, Maryland and National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Colorado have collected and transported electricity with a conductive wiring system built for the company’s product that generates solar power through window glass. NREL is a division of the U.S. Department of Energy. The company’s main product is a type of…

  • Merck to Fund New Translational Research Institute

    The pharmaceutical company Merck in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey unveiled plans today to establish the California Institute for Biomedical Research (Calibr), an independent, not-for-profit organization to speed the translation of basic biomedical research into new medicines to treat disease. Merck is expected to provide up to $90 million financing for Calibr over seven years. Researchers…

  • Hydrogen Power Utility Vehicle Practical, Not Cost-Effective

    A pilot test in Switzerland of a street cleaning truck powered by a hydrogen fuel cell shows the vehicle saves energy and is environmentally friendly, but the high costs of the vehicle do not yet make it financially feasible. The test was carried out by the Swiss materials science and technology research institute Empa, with…

  • NIH, Eli Lilly to Partner on Drug Effects Profiles

    National Institutes of Health and Eli Lilly and Company will produce a public resource that catalogs the effects of thousands of approved and investigational medicines in a variety of testing systems. Biological profiles of these medicines and molecules are expected to help biomedical researchers better predict treatment outcomes and improve drug development. NIH’s new National…

  • Naval Lab, Universities Design Firefighting Robot

    The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., with researchers from Virginia Tech and University of Pennsylvania, are building a humanoid-type robot to fight shipboard fires on new combat vessels. The device is based on the Cognitive Humanoid Autonomous Robot with Learning Intelligence (CHARLI, pictured left) prototype developed at Virginia Tech. The Shipboard Autonomous Firefighting…

  • Biotech, Pharma Companies to Collaborate on New Vaccines

    Medicago Inc. in Quebec City, Canada and Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corp. in Osaka, Japan have agreed to develop and commercialize at least three new vaccines based on Medicago’s technology. The first part of the deal is expected to provide Medicago with up to $C33 million ($US 33 milion) in revenues. The partnership will give Mitsubishi…

  • Maryland Universities to Partner on Biotech, Tech Transfer

    University of Maryland campuses in Baltimore (UMB) and College Park (UMCP) have agreed on a plan to collaborate on new or combined biotechnology, public health, and commercialization programs, as well as encourage joint research, faculty appointments, and grant submissions. The state’s university board of regents today approved the partnership called University of Maryland: MPowering the…

  • University, Company Test Gene Transfer Cancer Treatment

    University of California in San Diego and biopharmaceutical company Tocagen Inc., also in San Diego, are testing a new type of brain cancer treatment that injects a viral vector directly into a tumor. Viral vectors use viruses to deliver genetic material into cells, and in this case, the vectors intend to target the cancerous cells…