Science and Enterprise

Month: November 2010

  • Alsace, Québec Consortia to Collaborate on Drug Discovery

    Alsace BioValley, in Illkirch-Graffenstaden, France, a health science cluster and Québec Consortium for Drug Discovery in Nuns’ Island, Québec, Canada, signed in Paris today an agreement for a bilateral partnership to benefit Alsatian and Québec research centers and industries in the health and life sciences. The agreement calls for co-financing of R&D collaborative projects in…

  • New Process Developed for Bio-Plastic Feedstocks

    Chemical engineers at University of Massachusetts in Amherst have developed a way to produce high-volume chemical feedstocks from biomass, such as waste wood, agricultural waste and non-food energy crops. This method, that the authors say is economically competitive to current processes using fossil fuels, can produce industrial materials such as benzene, toluene, xylenes, and olefins,…

  • Review Ordered of Research Protections for Human Subjects

    President Barack Obama yesterday (24 November) asked Amy Guttman, chair of the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, to review protections afforded human subjects taking part in federally-funded research. The review stems from disclosures of U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) studies on sexually transmitted diseases in Guatemala from 1946 to 1948 involving the…

  • Science Business Named to Top 50 Researcher Blogs

    We received a holiday goodie from Samantha Reno and Alba Collazo, when they named Science Business as one of their Top 50 Blogs by Scientific Researchers. Samantha and Alba published the top 50 list in their Clinical Research Blog earlier this month. It’s gratifying to get recognition, particularly from fellow bloggers, for our service that gives…

  • University Licenses Nanoparticle Drug Delivery Technology

    The University of British Columbia (UBC) and the Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD), both in Vancouver, Canada, said today that Covidien, a Dublin, Ireland provider of health care products, has licensed a drug-delivery platform technology invented by UBC researcher, Pieter Cullis. CDRD provided the development facilities and commercialization services that led to this…

  • U.S., Greece Collaborate on Invasive Weed Defense

    One U.S. export not appreciated overseas is the silverleaf nightshade, an invasive weed from the Americas that has spread to southern Europe, Africa, India, Australia, and elsewhere. The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Benaki Phytopathological Institute in Athens, Greece are working together to find a natural way to…

  • Testing Labs Score Well Finding Heavy Metals in Seafood

    The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) in Brussels, Belgium released results today of a study that benchmarks the abilities of laboratories around the world to measure heavy metals in fish and seafood. The labs, located mainly in Europe but also in the U.S. and Asia-Pacific countries, took part voluntarily in the study and generally…

  • Pfizer, Diagnostics Company to Collaborate on Sepsis Tests

    SIRS-Lab,a molecular diagnostics company in Jena, Germany and Pfizer Pharma GmbH in Berlin said today they plan to collaborate in the field of sepsis. The collaboration aims to develop molecular diagnostic tests for early and accurate targeting of anti-infection therapy. Sepsis is a life-threatening illness caused by the body’s response to a bacterial infection. The…

  • FDA Clears Protein Test for Heart Failure Prognosis

    BG Medicine Inc., a Waltham, Massacusetts developer of molecular diagnostics using biomarkers, says that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared the company’s galectin-3 test to help assess the prognosis of patients diagnosed with chronic heart failure. The company says this 510(k) clearance is the first time FDA has cleared a test to…

  • Institute Developing Autonomous Underwater Robots

    Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation (IOSB) in Ilmenau, Germany, with colleagues at other Fraunhofer facilities, are working on autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) that are smaller, more robust, and less expensive than underwater robots now in use. With current technology, underwater robots need to be directed by humans, which…