Science and Enterprise

Month: September 2010

  • NSF Funding Innovation Research, Collaboration, Training

    National Science Foundation (NSF) has begun a new funding program, Accelerating Innovation Research, with two related activities to help accelerate the translation of new knowledge from research into products with market value. The activities aim to spur translation of fundamental research, to encourage collaboration between academia and industry, and to train students who understand innovation…

  • Energy Department to Fund Nanolubricant Plant

    The U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) has awarded NanoMech Inc. of Springdale, Arkansas a grant for $1 million to develop and test a pilot-scale production facility for manufacturing of NanoGlide, the company’s lubricant additives engineered at nano scale. The DoE grant is a Phase 2 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award that follows an earlier…

  • Small Business Grant Awarded for Oral Hygiene Drug

    PolyMedix Inc., a biotechnology company in Radnor, Pennsylvania received a $986,000  Phase 2 small business grant from National Institutes of Health (NIH). The grant supports development of  antimicrobial compounds for the treatment of oral candidiasis, a yeast infection affecting the lining of the mouth or tongue, through 31 August 2012. Under the first portion of…

  • Trial Shows Genital Herpes Vaccine Ineffective for Women

    The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, reports that an experimental vaccine to prevent genital herpes disease in women, proved ineffective when tested in a recently concluded clinical trial. GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Biologicals, based in Belgium, developed the vaccine it calls Simplirix. GSK announced today…

  • NIST Develops Standard Cigarette for Fire Safety Testing

    Makers of home furnishings need to test their products for fire resistance, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, Maryland has come up with a tool to help: a cigarette. A responsibility of NIST, an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, is development of standard reference materials (SRMs) for industrial…

  • Sanofi-aventis, Covance to Partner on Drug Development

    Covance Inc., a drug development services company in Princeton, New Jersey, announced today an agreement with French pharmaceutical company Sanofi-aventis to provide drug development services to Sanofi-aventis over the next 10 years, with payments ranging from $1.2 billion to $2.2 billion. As part of the agreement, Sanofi-aventis will sell its Porcheville, France and Alnwick, United…

  • Grant Awarded for Natural Invasive Mussel Control

    National Science Foundation awarded Marrone Bio Innovations Inc. of Davis, California $600,000 in grants for naturally-based biotechnologies to control invasive mussels. The funding includes a $500,000 Small Business Technology Transfer Program grant for the project Commercialization of an Innovative Green Technology for Controlling Zebra Mussels and a $100,000 Technology Enhancement for Commercial Partnerships grant. Marrone…

  • Biotech Company, Universities Produce Artificial Spider Silk

    A joint R&D project by University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, University of Wyoming in Laramie, and Kraig Biocraft Laboratories Inc. in Lansing, Michigan has succeeded in producing transgenic (genetically engineered) silkworms capable of spinning artificial spider silks. Natural spider silks have a number of unusual physical properties, including higher tensile strength and…

  • Process Validated for Purifying Protein-Based Drugs

    Scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, are using nuclear magnetic resonance to understand and improve the process of purifying drugs that use proteins, which are notoriously difficult to separate from other potentially deadly impurities. A team led by Steven Cramer, professor of polymer engineering at Rensselaer studied the process of multimodal chromatography…

  • Study: Wisconsin Benefits from Bioscience Industry

    A study by Bioforward, an association of biotechnology companies in Wisconsin, shows a growing bioscience industry with high-paying jobs over the past few years, in contrast to other industries in the state. The analysis covers the period of 2004 through 2009. The bioscience industry, as defined by Bioforward, includes employers in four industry sub-sectors: agricultural…