Science and Enterprise

Month: June 2012

  • Biomarker Diagnostics Company Gains $40M in Venture Funding

    Astute Medical Inc. in San Diego, a developer of biomarker-based medical diagnostics, says it completed $40.4 million in series C venture financing, the third cycle of funding after initial start-up. The funding round was led by MPM Capital and included new investor Kaiser Permanente Ventures, as well as existing investors De Novo Ventures, Delphi Ventures,…

  • Grant to Fund Research on Earthquakes, Building Design

    Engineers at University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) and UC-Berkeley will study the impact of building construction practices, particularly the design and performance of structural walls, on resisting earthquake damage. The team led by UCLA civil and environmental engineering professor John Wallace is funded by a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s…

  • High-Energy Infrared Beams Adapted for Tabletop X-Ray Device

    Physicists from University of Colorado at Boulder, with colleagues from the U.S., Austria, and Spain, have developed an X-ray system that captures concentrated infrared beams, in a compact device that can fit on a lab table. The team led by Colorado researchers Henry Kapteyn and Margaret Murnane published their findings in the 8 June issue…

  • Universities Awarded Clean Coal Research Grants

    The U.S. Department of Energy says 10 universities will receive grants for research on the development of clean coal technologies. Each grant of about $300,000 will be supplemented with additional funds from the schools, for a total research budget of $3.1 million. The grants are expected to support research on high-pressure corrosion-resistant alloys, protective coatings,…

  • Novartis, Foundation Medicine to Partner on Genome Analysis

    The pharmaceutical company Novartis has agreed to use the genomic analysis services of Foundation Medicine in Cambridge, Massachusetts in Novartis’s clinical trials of cancer drugs. The agreement expands an 18-month pilot program between the two companies. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Foundation Medicine conducts a detailed genomic analysis of tumors to help…

  • IVF Assessment Company Lands $18M in Venture Capital

    Auxogyn Inc., in Menlo Park, California, a developer of viability tests of embryos during in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures, has raised $18 million in series B venture funds, the second round of financing after initial start-up. The financing was led by new investor SR One — the corporate venture capital arm of GlaxoSmithKline — and…

  • EPA/NIH Challenge Seeks Air Pollution, Physiology Sensor

    Two federal agencies will award a total of $160,000 for sensors that can map air pollution concentrations, but also provide the physiological responses to those pollutants. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of National Institutes of Health, are sponsoring the My Air, My Health Challenge with InnoCentive,…

  • Patent Awarded for Sustained Release Drug Implant in Eyes

    The company pSivida Corp., a medical device developer in Watertown, Massachusetts, has received a patent for its system to continuously deliver drugs to the eyes. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office awarded patent number 8,192,408 yesterday (5 June) to four inventors, including pSivida vice-presidents Martin Nazzaro and Hong Guo, and assigned it to pSivida. The…

  • Daily Bathing of Elderly Sharply Reduces MRSA Infections

    A study at an Ontario geriatric facility shows the bathing each day of acute care patients with antiseptic cloths resulted in a sustained decrease in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) incidence among those patients. The team led by Heather Candon, an infection prevention and control practitioner at Baycrest, a Toronto geriatric care facility, presented its findings…

  • Grant to Fund Drug Reformulation for HIV Therapy

    A $1.1 million grant from the National Research Council of Canada will fund research and development at University of British Columbia and iCo Therapeutics Inc. in Vancouver, B.C. to reformulate an existing drug into a therapy to fight HIV infection. The company iCo Therapeutics specializes in redosing or reformulating current drugs into new or expanded…