Science and Enterprise

Month: June 2012

  • Robot Recommends and Plays Music Based on Listener Feedback

    A robotic device developed at Georgia Institute of Technology, and licensed to a start-up company in Atlanta, can recommend songs based on listeners’ tastes, and even dance to the music selected. Shimi, a musical companion derived from technology developed at Georgia Tech’s Center for Music Technology, is expected to be demonstrated today at Google’s I/O…

  • Intel Corp. to Fund Social Computing Research Center

    Intel Corporation in Santa Clara, California will support a new research center on social computing, hosted by University of California at Irvine. The $12.5 million project is the seventh of the company’s Intel Science and Technology Centers (ISTCs) and includes partnerships with researchers at Cornell University, Georgia Tech, Indiana University, and New York University. ISTC-Social…

  • Roche to Close N.J. Research Labs, Cut 1,000 Jobs

    The pharmaceutical company Roche, based in Switzerland, says it will close its research labs in Nutley New Jersey, resulting in the loss of 1,000 jobs. The company also says it plans to open a new, but smaller, translational research support facility on the east coast of the U.S. next year. The company says the company-wide…

  • VTT, GE Healthcare to Partner on Alzheimer’s Biomarkers

    VTT Research Centre in Espoo, Finland and GE Healthcare, a division of General Electric Company, will collaborate on research involving biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease. The aim of the research is to validate one biomarker already discovered by VTT, as well as discover other early indicators of the disease. World Health Organization estimates some 18 million…

  • Device Maker Teleflex Acquires Biomedical Materials Company

    Teleflex Inc., a medical device provider in Limerick, Pennsylvania, has acquired Semprus BioSciences in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a developer of coatings for medical implants. The deal has an immediate value of $30 million. Teleflex is a manufacturer of medical devices for vascular access, including catheters and dialysis access products. The company also develops devices for regional…

  • Report: Foreign Scientists Key to U.S. Innovation, Patents

    A new report on the impact of immigration on innovation in the U.S. says researchers from overseas account for a large majority of the patents granted to inventors from top research universities, particularly in high-growth science and engineering fields. The report, “Patent Pending: How Immigrants Are Reinventing The American Economy,” was prepared by the Partnership…

  • Merck Serono, Compugen to Form Toxicity Biomarkers Start-Up

    Merck Serono, a division of the global pharmaceutical company Merck in Geneva, Switzerland and the drug discovery company Compugen in Tel Aviv, Israel have agreed to form Neviah Genomics, a new enterprise to develop biomarkers for the prediction of drug-induced toxicity. While some financial arrangements were revealed, the total value of the deal was not…

  • National Lab Opens Battery Manufacturing R&D Center

    Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, part of U.S. Department of Energy, has opened a research and development center for battery manufacturing. The lab says the facility is designed for open collaboration among participating companies, although the lab did not disclose which companies are taking part. The facility, which the lab says costs $3 million,…

  • Oracle Unveils Internet-Based Clinical Trial Services

    The global software company Oracle has revealed two new Internet cloud-based services aimed at improving clinical trial design and recruitment. The services are expected to be announced today at DIA 2012, a medical products industry meeting in Philadelphia. Oracle says the two applications — Health Sciences Protocol Validator and Health Sciences Patient Recruiter — will…

  • Nanotech Window Glass Developer Lands $55M in Venture Funds

    Soladigm, a developer of energy-efficient office building window glass in Milpitas, California, secured $55 million in series D venture funding, the fourth financing cycle after initial start-up. The funding round, led by Reinet Investments and NanoDimension, join current investors DBL Investors, GE, Khosla Ventures, Navitas Capital, Sigma Partners, and The Westly Group. Soladigm’s lead product,…