Month: June 2011
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Audion, Sanofi to Partner on Hearing Loss Therapies
The French pharmaceutical company Sanofi and biotechnology company Audion Therapeutics in Amsterdam have agreed to develop potential treatments for hearing loss through through regenerative medicine and biologics. The collaboration will build on technology developed by Audion’s co-founder Albert Edge at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston. Audion originally licensed Edge’s technology from Mass…
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Netherlands to Open Bio-Solar Research, Production Center
The Netherlands begins on 17 June its BioSolar Cells research program to strengthen the science behind the sustainable production of bio-energy and food through photosynthesis. Also on 17 June, Wageningen University and Research Centre in the Netherlands opens its Algae Production and Research Centre (AlgaePARC), a production-scale lab to raise the output from algae bio-reactors…
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FDA Approves Genetic Test for Breast Cancer Treatment
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a new genetic test that will help health care professionals determine if women with breast cancer are candidates for Herceptin (trastuzumab), a commonly used breast cancer treatment. The Inform Dual ISH test is made by Ventana Medical Systems, a division of the Roche Group, in Tucson, Arizona. The…
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Self-Repairing Structural Stress Sensor Developed
A research team at North Carolina State University in Raleigh has built a sensor to measure the strain in structural materials and that can fix itself if broken. NCSU mechanical engineering student Young Song and faculty member Kara Peters published their findings in the June issue of the journal Smart Materials And Structures (paid subscription…
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Wireless Security Devised for Implanted Medical Devices
Engineers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge and University of Massachusetts in Amherst have designed a system that shields implanted medical devices like heart pacemakers and defibrillators from unauthorized wireless access or sabotage. Their findings will be presented at the ACM Special Interest Group on Data Communication (SIGCOMM) conference in Toronto, Canada in August.…
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Lab Tests Indicate Inhaled Carbon Nanotubes Pose Cancer Risk
Researchers at University of Edinburgh in Scotland found some types carbon nanotubes could cause cancer if inhaled. Ken Donaldson, a toxicology professor at Edinburgh, and colleagues published their findings in the June 2011 issue of the American Journal of Pathology (paid subscription required). Carbon nanotubes are a type of nanoscale material (1 nanometer equals 1…
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150+ Organizations Call for End to USPTO Fee Diversion
Some 154 organizations sent a letter yesterday asking the House of Representatives leadership to preserve a section in the proposed patent reform legislation that lets the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office use collected patent fees to fund its operations. The organizations — representing companies, universities, and not-for-profit groups — sent the letter to Speaker of…
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NIH Adds Five Clinical/Translational Research Centers
National Institutes of Health says it will provide $200 million to five U.S. health research centers to speed scientific discoveries into treatments for patients. The five-year grants are part of the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) program, under the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) at NIH. CTSAs are now located at 60 institutions…
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Engineers Developing Human Driving Model to Reduce Crashes
Researchers at University of Michigan and MIT are devising an algorithm that models human driving behavior to help cars avoid accidents on the road. Early results of the model are expected to be published in the journal IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine. Mechanical engineers Domitilla Del Vecchio of MIT and Rajeev Verma at University of…
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Water Cooled Cap Helps Relieve Primary Insomnia
Researchers at University of Pittsburgh have developed and tested a cap that cools the brain during sleep, and appears to help people with primary insomnia — sleeplessness not caused by some other condition — find relief. Eric Nofzinger and Daniel Buysse presented their findings on 13 June at a meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep…