Science and Enterprise

Month: October 2011

  • Q3 Venture Investments Rise in China, Decline in Europe

    Venture capital (VC) investments, according to Dow Jones VentureSource, moved in opposite directions in China and Europe during the third quarter of 2011. Dow Jones VentureSource is a database of investments from 67,000 venture-backed companies in North America, Europe, Israel, China, and India. In the third quarter, investors put $1.3 billion into 89 deals for…

  • Company, Institute Partner on Cancer Drug Candidate Catalog

    Researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia and Reaction Biology Corporation in Malvern, Pennsylvania have compiled an index of 178 candidate drugs capable of blocking the activity of one or more of 300 enzymes, including enzymes involved with cancer. Their findings appear online in the journal Nature Biotechnology, and are also scheduled for publication…

  • FDA Approves Post-Surgical Pain Medication

    Pacira Pharmaceuticals Inc. in Parsippany, New Jersey says the Food and Drug Administration has approved its drug Exparel for the management of post-surgical pain. The non-opioid local analgesic, says the company, can provide pain relief for surgical patients of up to 72 hours. Exparel combines the compound bupivacaine in the company’s DepoFoam drug delivery platform.…

  • U.S. Agencies Directed to Speed Science to Marketplace

    President Obama today directed federal research agencies to take additional steps to transfer discoveries from their labs into the hands of businesses. The actions outlined by the White House also require agencies to develop five-year plans with goals and measures of progress. The president’s memorandum aims to cut in half the time it takes to…

  • $40K Challenge Seeks High-Speed Missing Food Finder

    A new challenge on InnoCentive seeks a method or process of identifying trays with missing food servings in a system where servings are delivered to trays one at a time at high speeds. The competition has a prize of $40,000 and a deadline of 2 January 2012 for submissions. InnoCentive in Waltham, Massachusetts is a…

  • Open-Source Software Models Human Muscle Movements

    A software package called OpenSim, developed by biomedical engineers at Stanford University in California, enables researchers and clinicians to simulate movements of human muscles. A participatory exhibit developed around OpenSim is now open at The Leonardo, a new Salt Lake City science and technology museum. OpenSim builds musculo-skeletal models used in research on ergonomics, rehabilitation,…

  • European Project to Advance Organic Solar Cells

    The Belgian research institute Imec will lead a consortium of 17 European organizations and companies to develop a more commercially-viable organic photovoltaic technology. The X10D project, funded by the European Commission, aims to improve the efficiency of organic solar cells while retaining their low manufacturing costs. Organic solar cells are made from low-cost polymers that…

  • Synthesized Methods Developed for Anti-Coagulant Drugs

    Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill have developed a new method for producing the anti-coagulant drug fondaparinux that is purer, faster, and less expensive. Their findings, which the authors say offer a template for the discovery of other drugs, appear in the 28 October issue…

  • EADS to Share Nanotech Patents with Russian Agency

    The European aerospace consortium EADS and the Russian nanotechnology corporation RUSNANO have agreed to collaborate on research and development of nanotechnology-related products.  The first stage of the partnership is to identify relevant patents in the EADS portfolio suited for new development by Russian industry. The EADS Group includes the Airbus, Astrium, Cassidian, and Eurocopter organizations,…

  • Gates Foundation, China to Partner on Health, Agriculture

    The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and China’s Ministry of Science and Technology announced a partnership to support research and development and manufacturing of new products to improve global health and agriculture. Bill Gates and vice-minister Zhang Laiwu signed an agreement that they say affirms their focus on meeting the needs of developing countries and…