Science and Enterprise

Month: February 2012

  • University Spinoff Designs Virtual Reality for Architects

    A start-up company begun in 2010 by students at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany is developing virtual reality systems to enable visualizing proposed designs for building spaces before construction. The company, inreal Technologies GmbH, also in Karlsruhe, will demonstrate its system at the CeBIT technology show on 10 March in Hannover, Germany. The…

  • Mass Production Process Devised for Micro Robots, Devices

    Engineers at Harvard University have developed a technology that makes possible the mass production of miniature electronic and robotic devices, using layering and folding processes similar to the Japanese paper-folding art of origami. Doctoral candidates Pratheev Sreetharan and Peter Whitney say their discovery is scheduled for publication in the March 2012 issue of the Journal…

  • ARPA-E Grant Funding Plant Hydrocarbon Feedstock Research

    The Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E, part of the U.S. Department of Energy) has awarded a $1.8 million grant to Texas AgriLife Research in College Station to study the potential of tobacco as a direct source of fuel. The grant can also provide Texas AgriLife plant pathologist Joshua Yuan (pictured left) with another…

  • iPhone App Tells Best and Worst Times for Coffee

    Computer scientists at Pennsylvania State University in University Park have devised an iPhone application that tells the best time for coffee to get a mental kick, and when caffeine can ruin your sleep. Frank Ritter, who is on the IT, psychology, and computer science faculties at Penn State and Kuo-Chuan (Martin) Yeh, computer science and…

  • U.S. Patent Issued for Stem Cell Wound Care Technology

    Stemedica Cell Technologies Inc. in San Diego has been granted a patent for its scaffolding technology based on adult stem cells used in healing wounds. Patent number 8,105,380 was awarded to Ludmilla and Alex Kharazi, Stemedica’s senior scientist and chief technology officer respectively, by the United States Patent and Trademark Office on 31 January 2012.…

  • Cancer Diagnostics Company Gains $5M in Early Round Funds

    On-Q-ity in Waltham, Massachusetts, a developer of cancer diagnostics technology, says it has added $5 million in series B financing, the second round of funding after initial start-up. Participants in the round are Mohr Davidow Ventures, Atlas Ventures, and Physic Ventures, all of which are current investors in the company. On-Q-Ty — short for Oncology…

  • Traumatic Brain Injury Cases Likely Under-Reported

    A study by researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota suggests that the number of cases of traumatic brain injury (TBI) is greater than current estimates offered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The team’s findings appeared late last year in the journal Epidemiology (paid subscription required). The investigators used a new,…

  • Cleveland Clinic, 23andMe Partner on Parkinson’s Database

    Cleveland Clinic has agreed to recruit Parkinson’s disease patients to contribute their DNA and complete online health surveys for a research database compiled by genetics testing company 23andMe in Mountain View, California. The project has the support of the Michael J. Fox Foundation, National Parkinson Foundation, and Parkinson’s Institute. The goal of project is to…

  • Patent Awarded for Clinical Trial Molecular Matching System

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office awarded a patent to the Moffitt Cancer Center at University of South Florida in Tampa on its system for matching patients to clinical trials based on molecular profiles of the patients and drugs. Patent number 8,095,389 was granted last month to inventors William Dalton, president of the Moffitt Cancer…

  • Stem Cells Repair Heart Muscle in Clinical Trial

    A clinical trial at Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles and Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore has shown that treating patients with their own heart-derived stem cells helps re-grow healthy muscle damaged by a heart attack. The team led by Raj Makkar of Cedars-Sinai using technology developed by Eduardo Marbán (pictured right), director of…