Science and Enterprise

Month: December 2010

  • Another Use for Bounce Dryer Sheets: Repelling Gnats

    For some time, many gardeners have carried around Bounce fabric softening dryer sheets to ward off insects. Entomology professor Raymond Cloyd and colleagues at Kansas State University in Manhattan and University of Illinois in Urbana, decided to test this claim about the Procter and Gamble product and discovered there’s something to it. Cloyd’s team conducted…

  • Health Care Systems to Share Practices on Quality, Costs

    Six health care systems in the U.S. announced today a collaboration to improve health care quality while reducing costs. Participating organizations — representing networks of hospitals, clinicians, and researchers — include Dartmouth-Hitchcock, Cleveland Clinic, Denver Health, Geisinger Health System, Intermountain Healthcare, and Mayo Clinic. The Collaborative, as it is called, promises to share data on…

  • Collaboration to Develop Smart Power Grid in Denmark

    A collection of 32 partners — companies, not-for-profits, research institutes, and universities — have agreed to develop a new intelligent power grid in Denmark. Called the iPower platform, the new system aims to be ready in 2025, when Denmark is scheduled to generate half of its electricity from wind energy. The iPower platform’s full name…

  • Pharma R&D Q3 Output Keeps Pace, But Revenue Slides

    The financial research company Fitch Ratings said in a report issued today that the global pharmaceutical companies followed by the company maintained a modest, but steady pace of new product approvals and regulatory filings to U.S., European, and Japanese regulators in the third quarter of 2010. The report, “Global Pharmaceutical R&D Pipeline: Third-Quarter 2010” (subscription…

  • Clinical Trial Shows Results for Prosthetic Heart Valve

    On-X Life Technologies Inc. in Austin, Texas, said today results of a large, multi-site clinical trial of its On-X prosthetic heart valve showed favorable outcomes for patients with the device on freedom of thromboembolism (blood clotting) and hemorrhaging. The findings were published in the November issue of the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery (paid…

  • Fund Established to Develop Cancer Vaccines

    Cancer Research Institute (CRI) a not-for-profit organization in New York to advance the science of tumor immunology and discover new cancer therapies, launched today the Cancer Vaccine Acceleration Fund (CVAF), a new model of philanthropic investment and academic-industry collaboration. CRI established the fund with the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research to encourage development of therapeutic…

  • Israeli Prof. Develops Catalysts for Biodegradable Plastics

    Moshe Kol, professor chemistry at Tel Aviv University in Israel, is developing new processes using corn starch and sugar to make biodegradable plastics more competitive in the industry. Kol’s approach involves a new variety of catalysts, substances that initiate or sustain chemical reactions in other substances. Kol’s team in Tel Aviv is working with collaborators…

  • Collaboration Researching Vaccine Against Malaria Parasite

    The PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative, Merck & Co. in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, and NYU Langone Medical Center in New York are working on a new approach targeting a part of a major surface protein on the malaria parasite. The goal of the joint project is to develop a vaccine to prevent the malaria parasite…

  • Biotech Gets DARPA Grant for Respiratory Therapies

    Pulmatrix, a biotechnology company in Lexington, Massachusetts, said today it received a grant for $5.7 million from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in the Department of Defense, to further develop the company’s processes for the treatment and prevention of respiratory infections. DARPA identified Pulmatrix’s inhaled cationic airway lining modulators (iCALM) technology as a…

  • Lab Tech Company to Release Automated Cell Research System

    InQ Biosciences, a developer of technologies for cell growth and research in Huntsville, Alabama, said today it will begin commercial production of its InQ Cell Research System during the first quarter of 2011. The company made the announcement at the 2010 meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. InQ says its…