Science and Enterprise

Month: March 2011

  • Trial Shows Drug Improved Vision For Macular Edema Patients

    A clinical trial of the drug Lucentis made by Genentech indicates patients with diabetic macular edema (DME) who received the drug had improved vision compared to patients who received a placebo. Genentech, a division of the Roche Group in South San Francisco, California, says vision improvements among those receiving Lucentis began to occur within seven…

  • Nanotubes Reduce Energy Drain in Digital Memory

    University of Illinois engineers have developed a form of ultra-low-power digital memory that is faster and uses 100 times less energy than similar available memory. The student-faculty team at the school’s Champaign campus published its findings online in this week’s Science Express (paid subscription required). Flash memory in mobile devices today stores bits — 0/1…

  • Agencies Use Robotics to Test Chemicals for Toxicity

    National Institutes of Health (NIH) today unveiled a new robotic screening system that will test 10,000 different chemicals for potential toxicity. The system is a result of a collaboration among several federal agencies known as Tox21. The  system is located at NIH’s Chemical Genomics Center in Rockville, Maryland. Tox21 is a joint effort started in…

  • Evotec to Partner with HHMI, Harvard on Diabetes Drugs

    Evotec AG, a biotechnology company in Hamburg, Germany announced today a research collaboration with Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), in Chevy Chase, Maryland to discover and develop new diabetes treatments. The partnership aims to identify and develop physiological mechanisms and targets that regulate beta cell replication. Beta cells are…

  • Nanoparticles Improve Delivery of Chemotherapy Drugs

    An engineering professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois has discovered a process for combining nanoscale carbon particles to chemotherapy drugs to improve the drugs’ effectiveness on tumors. Dean Ho and his colleagues published their findings in this week’s issue of the journal Science Translational Medicine (paid subscription required). In studies of liver and breast…

  • Positive Responses Recorded to Contact with Robotic Nurse

    In an early study, engineers at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta found people generally had a positive response to being touched by a robotic nurse, but their perception of the robot’s intent made a significant difference in the way they responded. The team’s results are being presented at the Human-Robot Interaction Conference underway in…

  • Springy Properties Discovered in Nanotech Metal Alloys

    Researchers from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey have identified a class of high-strength metal alloys that show potential to make springs, sensors, and switches smaller and more responsive. Their findings will appear on 11 March in the journal Physical Review Letters. The Rutgers team discovered new elasticity properties in nanostructured metal alloys currently…

  • Cheap, Disposable Endoscope Microcamera Developed

    Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration (IZM) in Berlin and sensor manufacturer Awaiba GmbH in Nuremberg, Germany have developed a microcamera for endoscopes that provides sharp images, but can be made cheaply enough to be disposable. Endoscopes are instruments to examine the interior of body cavities and organs, and have made possible…

  • Monsanto, Biofuels Company to Research Algae Agriculture

    Agricultural chemicals maker Monsanto Company in St. Louis, Missouri and Sapphire Energy Inc. in San Diego, California signed a multi-year agreement to use Sapphire’s algae-based research platform for the discovery of genes applicable to agriculture. Sapphire Energy’s current work involves synthetic biology to produce replacement fuels for gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel from algae. Under…

  • Laser Technology Can Cut Solar Cell Costs, Raise Efficiency

    Researchers at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana are developing a manufacturing technology based on fast, pulsing lasers that aims to make solar cells more affordable and efficient. The technology creates small microchannels needed to connect solar panels into an array that generates usable amounts of power. Yung Shin, engineering professor and director of Purdue’s…