Month: February 2012

  • Nanotech Enhanced Oils Boost Insulation Properties

    Materials scientists at Rice University in Houston have developed a process for enhancing the efficiency of lubricants to help remove excess heat in electric-power devices from micro-scale components to industrial transformers. The findings of graduate student Jaime Taha-Tijerina, postdoctoral researcher Tharangattu Narayanan, and colleagues appear in the journal ACS Nano (paid subscription required). The team…

  • Sanofi to Cut Genzyme Massachusetts Research Staff

    The French pharmaceutical maker Sanofi says it will reduce its research workforce employed in and around Boston, as a result of its acquisition of Genzyme Corporation a year ago. Sanofi confirmed the cuts today in a statement to the industry Web site Fierce Biotech. Genzyme, headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was acquired by Sanofi last year…

  • Prostate Cancer Therapy Shown Effective in Chemo Patients

    A phase 3 clinical trial has shown a new drug to treat prostate cancer is effective with patients who had previously been treated with chemotherapy. The results of the study of MDV3100 — made by the biopharmaceutical company Medivation Inc. in San Francisco and Astellas Pharma Inc. in Tokyo, Japan — will be presented tomorrow…

  • Risk-Based Air Passenger Screening Could Improve Security

    A University of Illinois computer scientist has developed algorithms to assess the relative risk of air passengers that can improve the effectiveness of pre-flight security checks. The work of Sheldon Jacobson in Urbana, Illinois, with Springfield researcher Adrian Lee, appears in the December 2011 issue of the journal Transportation Science (paid subscription required). Jacobson —…