Category: Intellectual property
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Pfizer Develops Equine Vaccine from University Research
The Australian division of Pfizer Animal Health in Brisbane released today a new vaccine to prevent disease from the Hendra virus that can be fatal to horses and humans. Pfizer’s Equivac HeV is the product of research conducted at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) and licensed from the Henry M. Jackson Foundation…
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Cambridge Univ. Spin-Off Creates Drug Testing Stem Cells
A spin-off company from Cambridge University in the U.K. is commercializing a technology to convert adult stem cells into human liver cells suitable for drug testing. The technology, say its developers from Cambridge’s Anne McLaren Laboratory for Regenerative Medicine, can also test for a number of inherited liver diseases and has the potential to accelerate…
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Challenge Seeks Smartphone GPS Jamming Detector
A new challenge on InnoCentive asks for a method of detecting GPS signal jamming devices using smartphones. The competiton (free registration required) has an award of $20,000 and a deadline of 3 January 2013. InnoCentive in Waltham, Massachusetts conducts open-innovation, crowd-sourcing competitions for corporate and organization sponsors. Global Positioning System (GPS) signals can be drowned…
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USPTO Expands Pro Bono Patent Help to California, D.C.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is expanding pro bono legal assistance on patents in California and the District of Columbia. The America Invents Act, signed into law last year, calls for USPTO to establish regional pro bono legal help programs on patent issues. In California, USPTO will partner with the organization California Lawyers for…
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Arcadia Biosciences to Develop Heat Tolerant Wheat
Agricultural technology company Arcadia Biosciences in Davis, California will develop heat-tolerant varieties of wheat under a $3.8 million grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development. The deal also involves the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), which will share in the rights to the discoveries. Arcadia Biosciences says some 50 million acres of…
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Patent Awarded for RNA Process of Inhibiting Gene Expression
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office awarded a patent last week for the use of RNA interference to inhibit expression of a target gene in animal cells. Patent 8,283,329 was awarded on 9 October to eight inventors — including Andrew Fire and Craig Mello, winners of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine —…
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Key Molecular Factors Uncovered Behind Tick-Borne Bacteria
Medical researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, with colleagues from Yale University and University of California in Davis, identified pathways and processes used by bacteria responsible for some tick-transmitted diseases to infect humans and animals. The team led by VCU’s Jason Carlyon published its findings in the November issue of the journal Infection and…
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University Spin-Off Developing Super-Porous Nanomaterials
A spin-off company from Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland is commercializing research on highly porous nanoscale materials, using a simple, safe process for synthesizing these materials developed at the university. The research by Queens chemistry professor Stuart James on these materials, known as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), has led to the founding of the company…
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GlaxoSmithKline to Open its Clinical Trial Data
The global pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline based in London will make available detailed data from its clinical trials for testing new drugs. The company will also make available 200 compounds from its library with potential for inhibiting tuberculosis and double the funding for its Open Lab project in Spain. GlaxoSmithKline will create a system that makes…
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University Licenses Taste-Masking Technology to Pharma
New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark agreed to license its discoveries that can mask the taste of drug particles to Catalent Pharma Solutions, a drug manufacturer in Somerset, New Jersey. Catalent funded the research by NJIT engineering professor Rajesh Dave (pictured left) that led to the development of this technology. Dave’s research at NJIT…