Science and Enterprise

Month: February 2011

  • Institute to Provide On-Board Space Payload Specialists

    Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in San Antonio, Texas says today it agreed to send scientists as payload specialists aboard eight suborbital flights, some to altitudes greater than 350,000 feet. SwRI researchers will also fly at least six high altitude missions flown by XCOR Corporation. At least two SwRI researchers will fly into space aboard the…

  • Tufts University Gets Patent for Kidney Disease Treatment

    Researchers at Tufts University’s veterinary school in Grafton, Massachusetts have received a U.S. patent for an antibody-based treatment for hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a potentially fatal outcome of E. coli poisoning and a leading cause of kidney failure in children. The Tufts technology covered by the patent, developed by microbiology professor Saul Tzipori, uses human…

  • Universities, Brewery Partner on Biofuels from Brewery Waste

    Researchers from Anheuser-Busch Inbev Inc. in St. Louis, Missouri  and three universities have discovered stable microbe communities in brewery sludge with the potential to produce the basic building blocks of fuels. Their findings appear in the 22 February online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The team from Cornell University, University…

  • Biotech Licenses Technology for Colorectal Cancer Blood Test

    Epigenomics AG in Berlin, Germany says it has an agreement for QIAGEN NV in the Netherlands to further develop Epigenomics’s research into a blood test for colorectal cancer. QIAGEN also has an option under the agreement to take the blood test to market. The technology is based on Epigenomics’s research into genomics and DNA indicators…

  • Venture Fund to Finance Univ. Tech. Start Ups

    Osage University Partners in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania says it completed fund raising for its first venture capital fund financing new enterprises that license technology developed in university labs. The company says the fund, called Osage University Partners 1, achieved its goal of raising $100 million. Osage University Partners was founded in 2009 by venture professionals…

  • Finance Friday: 25 February 2011

    Here are recent angel and venture finance transactions for science- and engineering-based companies, as reported by Xconomy. Biomedical/Life Sciences CardioFocus in Marlborough, Massachusetts. Attrial fibrilliation devices. $13.6 million in equity financing. CalciMedica in San Diego, California. Biotech with experimental psoriasis candidate. $6 million in venture financing. Acetylon Pharmaceuticals, in Boston, Massacusetts. Drugs to treat cancer…

  • USDA Tests Climate Change Impact on Arizona Wheat

    Scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) research center in Maricopa, Arizona devised a method of testing the potential impact of warming temperature from climate change on the wheat crop in the U.S. southwest. The technology and the results are discussed in the February issue of USDA’s Agricultural Research magazine, and earlier in the…

  • Small Business Grant Awarded for Tuberculosis Test

    Chembio Diagnostics Inc. in Medford, New York has received a three-year $2.9 million Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to continue development of a simple, rapid, inexpensive, and accurate blood serum test for tuberculosis. The grant funds further development of the test, following an earlier SBIR grant to…

  • Georgetown Univ., FDA to Partner on Regulatory Science

    Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) in Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in Rockville, Maryland signed a new agreement to encourage research and education in the fields of regulation and public health. The memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed today covers regulatory science, ethics, education, and training. The five-year agreement is expected…

  • Pharma Companies Developing 460 Orphan Drugs

    A report from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) says there are now 460 medicines for rare  or “orphan” diseases in late stages of the pipeline, either in clinical trials or awaiting Food and Drug Administration (FDA) review. The group says this is the largest number of drugs for orphan diseases in development…