Science and Enterprise

Month: March 2012

  • Micro Lab Device Developed That Simulates Human Intestine

    Biomedical engineers at Harvard University have created a miniature electronic device with living human cells that mimics the structure, physiology, and mechanics of the human intestine. The team from Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering published its findings online in the journal Lab on a Chip (paid subscription required). The team led by Wyss…

  • European Patent Office Filings, Awards Gain in 2011

    The European Patent Office, based in Munich, says the number of patent applications and awards increased in 2011, with applications from Asia now making up about a third of the total. The largest single technical field among applications was medical technology, which had almost as many filings in 2011 as pharmaceuticals and biotechnology combined. EPO…

  • Process Developed to Convert Polyethylene into Carbon Fiber

    Materials scientists at Oak Ridge National Lab in Tennessee have developed a technology for converting polyethylene, the material used in plastic bags, into carbon fibers engineered for specific applications. The findings of Amit Naskar and colleagues from Oak Ridge and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill appear today online in the journal Advanced Materials…

  • Lab-On-A-Chip Device Developed to Test for Flu Viruses

    Researchers from Boston University and Harvard medical schools have devised an inexpensive, point-of-care prototype device that tests for flu strains. The team led by BU biomedical engineering professor Catherine Klapperich published its findings last week in the journal PLoS ONE. The lab test currently considered the most accurate for influenza uses a process called reverse…

  • Trial to Test Bacteria Elimination on Aspirin Tolerance

    A clinical trial led by University of Nottingham in the U.K. will test the effect of removing a common stomach bacteria on making aspirin safer for some patients. The Helicobacter Eradication Aspirin Trial (HEAT) will also involve academics from Durham, Southampton, Oxford, and Birmingham universities. The trial will investigate if removing the bacterium Helicobacter pylori…

  • Maryland University, VC Partner on Start-Up Accelerator

    Loyola University in Baltimore, Maryland  and Wasabi Ventures, a venture capital company in San Mateo, California, have begun a new-business accelerator near the university’s campus. As part of the collaboration, Wasabi’s co-founder Thomas “T.K.” Kuegler, a 1994 Loyola graduate, will serve as the university’s entrepreneur-in-residence. Loyola says the accelerator will provide opportunities for its students…

  • Process Developed for More Nutritional Supplement Stability

    A Purdue University food scientist in West Lafayette, Indiana has develop a method for enveloping nutritional supplements to protect them from degradation. The process devised by Purdue professor Srinivas Janaswamy and former student Susanne Youngren, now at University of Hawaii in Hilo, appeared online earlier this month in the journal Food & Function (paid subscription…

  • Nanoscale DNA Sequencing Process Developed

    Physicists at University of Washington in Seattle and microbiologists from University of Alabama at Birmingham have developed a sensor with the ability to read the sequence of DNA one strand at a time. A description of their research, with implications for inexpensive DNA sequencing and personalized medicine,  appears in this week’s issue of the journal…

  • Private Equity Company Founds $50M Biologics Start-Up

    Celtic Therapeutics, a private equity company in the U.S. and Europe, has started a new company to bring to market therapies based on antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) that bind to and kill cells with the targeted properties. The new company, known as ADC Therapeutics and based in Lausanne, Switzerland will have an initial investment of…

  • Nissan, College Establish U.K. Electric Vehicle R&D Center

    Nissan Motors and Gateshead College have unveiled plans for an academic center for research on electric vehicle technologies on the college’s campus in northeast England. Nissan is the maker of the plug-in electric Leaf to be produced at a plant in nearby Sunderland. The Zero Emission Centre of Excellence (ZECE), as the joint project is…