Science and Enterprise

Month: December 2010

  • Happy New Year … Again

    Back in September, we wished our visitors L’Shana Tovah for the 5771 Jewish new year observance. To keep the tradition going, please accept our best wishes for 2011. We will resume posting items on Monday, 3 January 2011. *     *     *

  • Univ. Faculty Develop, Patent Radiation Detection Device

    Physics and engineering faculty members at Oregon State University (OSU) in Corvallis have invented a new radiation detection and measurement device that they say can help clean up sites with radioactive contamination, making the process faster, more accurate and less expensive. The university says a patent has been granted for the device and has begun…

  • Biotech Lands $5 Million Investment Deal

    Compugen Ltd., a biotechnology company in Tel Aviv, Israel, said today that it will receive $5 million in R&D funding from Baize Investments Ltd., a private Israeli corporation that invests in medical technologies. Compugen is a drug and diagnostic discovery company that bases its work on automated (in silico) analyses and models, including computational biologic…

  • Team-Based Medical Care Shows Better Patient Outcomes

    Researchers at the University of Washington and Group Health Research Institute, both in Seattle, tested a primary care intervention where nurses worked with patients and health teams to manage care for depression and physical disease together, using evidence-based guidelines. The results from this randomized controlled trial showed for patients less depression; better control of blood…

  • Intel Releases Smaller Solid State Storage Drive

    Intel Corporation in Santa Clara, California announced today a new version of its solid state drive (SSD), the 310 series. Intel says the 310 series (pictured left) has performance comparable to its previous SSDs, but at one-eighth the size, measuring 51 x 30 x 5 mm, and weighing 10 grams. A solid-state drive uses no…

  • Profs Develop Dyes to Help Solar, Hydrogen Fuel Processes

    Chemistry professors in Buffalo and Rochester, New York have synthesized new photo-sensitizing dyes that increase the efficiency of producing solar electricity and hydrogen fuel, for which light is a key ingredient. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has cleared the way for a patent on this technology. The research team, led by University at…

  • Collaboration to Research Obesity Biomarkers, Drug Targets

    Florida Hospital in Orlando, Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute also in Orlando, and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company in Osaka, Japan, will collaborate on developing new therapies for obesity, a growing worldwide health problem. The partnership aims to to identify and validate new obesity-related biomarkers and molecular targets. The project is the first corporate-sponsored research undertaken by the…

  • Engineers Develop Biomarker Breathalyzer Diagnostics

    Researchers at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana are developing breath-analysis technology to diagnose patients in real time by detecting chemical compounds called biomarkers in a person’s respiration. Carlos Martinez, an assistant professor of materials engineering leads the project for Purdue, and is working with colleagues at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a…

  • FDA Approval Sought for Heart Failure Device

    HeartWare International Inc., in Sydney, Australia says today it submitted a Pre-Market Approval application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its HeartWare Ventricular Assist System. The system acts as a bridge to heart transplantation for patients with end-stage heart failure. Premarket approval by FDA is the required process of scientific review to…

  • Math Model Developed for Non-Economic Power Costs

    A doctoral student in Spain developed a mathematical model for calculating electrical power generation costs, including environmental and societal variables usually difficult to measure. Macarena Larrea at the University of the Basque Country in Usurbil, Spain devised the Electra II mathematical model, as she calls it, in her dissertation for a doctoral degree in engineering.…