Month: June 2012
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Nanotech Method Devised for Capturing Firefly Light
Researchers at Syracuse University in New York and Connecticut College in New London have found a new process using nanotechnology for efficiently harnessing bioluminescence, the natural light emitted by fireflies. The findings of the team led by Syracuse chemistry professor Matthew Maye, which offer the potential for a natural non-fossil fuel light source, appear online…
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MassVentures Starts New $5 Million Early-Stage Fund
MassVentures, Massachusetts’s venture capital agency, unveiled a new $5 million fund for early stage technology companies. The organization had been known, up to yesterday, as the Massachusetts Technology Development Corporation. The new MassVentures financing will be managed through the Massachusetts Emerging Technology Fund of MassDevelopment, a state economic development agency. The Emerging Technology Fund makes…
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Michigan Adds Six Embryonic Stem Cell Lines for Research
University of Michigan in Ann Arbor has added six new human embryonic stem cell lines to the national registry maintained by National Institutes of Health (NIH). The action makes a total of eight lines from the university available for federally-funded research. The university says the stem cells came from couples receiving treatments at Michigan’s Center…
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New Process Speeds Multiple Sclerosis Treatment to Trial
The Myelin Repair Foundation in California says research it has sponsored has moved to clinical trial stage faster than expected due to a model that accelerates the research process. The phase 1 clinical trial, for which enrollment has begun, will test the efficacy of a treatment for multiple sclerosis that repairs myelin through a therapeutic…
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Display Surface Developed from Air-Water Interaction
University researchers in Finland and the U.K., and Nokia Research Center in the U.K., have developed an optical display technology based on the ability of a surface structure to repel water. The findings of the team led by physicist Robin Ras (pictured left) of Aalto University in Finland appear online this week in the journal…
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Patent Awarded for Non-Medicinal Emphysema Treatment
Aeris Therapeutics in Woburn, Massachusetts has received a patent for its lung volume reduction technology to treat emphysema with a polymer-based hydrogel. Patent number 8,198,365 was awarded earlier this week by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to four inventors and assigned to Aeris Therapeutics. Emphysema is a form of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, often triggered…
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Blood Disease Start-Up Lands $40.7M in Venture Funding
Global Blood Therapeutics Inc., a biotechnology company in San Francisco launched today with $40.7 million in funding from venture capital company Third Rock Ventures. The company plans to develop small molecule drugs to treat genetic blood disorders, such as sickle cell disease. The company’s founders include three biomedical researchers from University of California in San…
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Georgia Tech/Emory Spin-Off Gains SBIR Funding
A spin-off company founded by faculty at the biomedical engineering department shared by Georgia Tech and Emory University in Atlanta has received a small-business grant for its technology that protects the delivery of cell-based therapies, such as stem cells. SpherIngenics Inc., also in Atlanta, was awarded the two-year $730,000 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding…
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Novo Nordisk, Foundation to Partner on Type 1 Diabetes
JDRF, a foundation supporting research on type 1 diabetes, and the Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk will partner on studies of the autoimmune process that plays a key role in type 1 diabetes. Financial details of the collaboration were not disclosed. Type 1 diabetes is sometimes called insulin-dependent, immune-mediated, or juvenile-onset diabetes, although it can…
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Patent Awarded for Curry Compound as Drug Ingredient
A patent has been awarded for compounds based on a substance in the spices curry and turmeric, to use in treatments for a number of diseases, including some cancers. Patent number 8,198,323 was awarded yesterday by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to nine inventors, and assigned to University of Rochester in New York, University…