Science and Enterprise

Month: April 2012

  • Programmed Nanoparticles Tested as Cancer Treatments

    Researchers from four universities, three hospitals, and the biopharmaceutical company BIND Biosciences are testing a new form of cancer therapy using nanoscale particles designed to deliver a dose of targeted medicine to solid tumors. The findings, including results of early clinical trials, are published in this week’s issue of the journal Science Translational Medicine (paid…

  • Case Western Reserve Builds Utility Scale Wind Turbine

    Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio and its industrial partners have built their largest research wind turbine, with two other turbines already erected and one in operation providing power. The new turbine resides on property owned by industrial grinder manufacturer William Sopko & Sons in nearby Euclid, the site of another university turbine. The…

  • University Licenses Research to Detect Airborne Toxins

    University of California at Riverside is licensing an engineering professor’s research on detecting airborne toxins to a local company that plans to take the technology to market. Nano Engineered Applications Inc. plans to develop the research of chemical and environmental engineer Nosang Myung (pictured right) into handheld detection devices that can spot harmful substances in…

  • Patent Issued for Technology to Suppress Stem Cell Rejection

    Athersys Inc., a biotechnology company in Cleveland, Ohio, has received a patent for its process to reduce or suppress graft-versus-host disease associated with bone-marrow stem cell transplants used to treat leukemia and related disorders. Patent 8,147,824 was issued yesterday by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and assigned to Athersys, as well as the Oregon…

  • U.S. Angel Investment Deals, Dollars Jump in 2011

    The number and dollar amounts of angel investment deals in the U.S. rose sharply in 2011, with financing for science-related companies comprising nearly half of those transactions. The summary report of angel investing released yesterday by the University of New Hampshire’s Center for Venture Research also shows more initial-stage involvement in start-up companies than in…

  • NSF Computer Science Funding Addresses Robots, Big Data

    National Science Foundation today unveiled $40 million in funding for this year’s Expeditions in Computing awards. The four sets of five-year grants, each set totaling $10 million, go one or more universities studying robotics, exploding volumes of data, and computer-assisted programming. Two sets of awards deal with robotics. One team from Massachusetts Institute of Technology,…

  • Trial to Test Gel-Coated Coils for Treating Aneurysms

    A clinical trial at Northwestern University and other sites will test a new gel-coated coil as a treatment to repair ruptured brain aneurysms. The post-market study will test the gel-coated coil against standard bare platinum coils to see which is better at preventing future rupturing or leaking. An aneurysm is a balloon-like bulge in an…

  • Process Developed to Self-Assemble Materials into Objects

    Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have devised a process to enable the self-assembly of smart materials into predetermined shapes. Computer science professor Daniela Rus and grad student Kyle Gilpin from MIT’s Distributed Robotics Laboratory will discuss their findings at the  IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation in May 2012. The research by Rus…

  • Algae Biofuel Start-Up Secures $144M for Demo Plant

    Sapphire Energy in San Diego says it received the last installment of its series C financing — the third round of funding after initial start-up — valued at $144 million. The company develops biofuels from algae and bacteria, and the new financing is expected to fund a demonstration production plant in Luna County, New Mexico.…

  • Efficient, Economical Brain Imaging System in Development

    Biomedical and electrical engineers at University of Toronto have developed a neural imaging system that allows researchers to make much more complex maps of the brain with just one camera and one imaging platform. The team led by engineering professor Ofer Levi published its findings yesterday in the journal Biomedical Optics Express. Clinicians use neural…