Category: Finance
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Grant to Develop Virtual Reality Job Service for Disabled
The University of Hawaii in Manoa was awarded a $425,000 grant by the Kessler Foundation to develop a virtual reality (VR) employment orientation and support center using Second Life as a platform for people with disabilities and employers. The university’s College of Education Center on Disability Studies (CDS) will receive a Kessler Signature Employment Grant…
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Novo Nordisk to Add New Diabetes R&D Center in Seattle
The Danish drug maker Novo Nordisk says it will add a new research facility to study type 1 diabetes in Seattle, Washington. The lab is expected to open this summer and employ 20 researchers on the site of its current inflammation research center. Novo Nordisk says the new lab will conduct translational studies that combine…
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U.S. VC Investments Up for 2011, Flat for Science Companies
Venture capital (VC) investors in the U.S. increased in 2011 compared to 2010, both in terms of numbers of deals and amount of money invested. However, the fourth quarter of the year was an unusually slow period, according to Dow Jones VentureSource that compiled the data, and consumer Web companies appeared to benefit from the…
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NIH Funds Study of Chemical Effects on Adult Stem Cells
Bioengineers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York and University of California at Berkeley, have been awarded a grant from National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study how chemicals in drugs and the environment affect human stem cells. The four-year grant of more than $2 million will fund teams led by Rensselaer’s chemical and…
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Biofuels Developer Secures $17M Investment Round
SG Biofuels Inc., a bioenergy crop company in San Diego, has completed a $17 million financing round to expand its R&D and commercialization programs. The series B funding — the second round of financing after start-up — was lead by life sciences venture capital company Thomas, McNerney & Partners, with participation from Finistere Ventures and…
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Sanofi, VCs Back Start-Up Deriving Natural Product Drugs
The French drug maker Sanofi, with American venture capital (VC) companies Third Rock Ventures and Greylock Partners, are investing up to $125 million in Warp Drive Bio a new biotechnology company in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Warp Drive Bio, being incubated at Third Rock Ventures, specializes in using genomics to derive drug candidates from natural sources, such…
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$600M Venture Fund Targets Technology, Health Care Sectors
Canaan Partners, a venture capital company in Menlo Park, California says it has closed contributions to a new fund to finance start-ups in the technology and health care fields. The company says the $600 million fund, the ninth such fund in its series, will support new technology and health care entrepreneurs. Canaan Partners says two-thirds…
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Foundation to Fund Drug Maker Diabetic Eye Disease Research
KalVista Pharmaceuticals in Southampton, U.K. and JDRF in New York have formed a partnership to develop a drug candidate with potential to slow the advance of diabetic macular edema (DME). The collaboration aims to move KalVista’s plasma kallikrein inhibitor into human proof-of-concept clinical trials and generate clinical data to highlight its potential as a new…
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Diagnostics Company Out-Licenses Cancer Testing Technology
Health Discovery Corporation in Savannah, Georgia says it has licensed its diagnostics technology to NeoGenomics Inc. in Fort Myers, Florida to develop lab tests for blood and solid tumor cancers. The license excludes tests for breast and retina cancers, for which other companies have already acquired Health Discovery’s technology. NeoGenomics will pay Health Discovery Corporation…
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Analytics Company, Johns Hopkins to Study Asthma Genomes
Knome Inc., a genomics analysis company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, says it received a contract from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore to provide its software and services for a study of genetic variants that contribute to asthma in African American and African Caribbean populations. Financial terms of the contract were not disclosed. The…