Science and Enterprise

Month: November 2012

  • U.K. Devotes £60 Million for Science Entrepreneurship

    The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council or EPSRC in the U.K. is funding 31 projects at British universities to encourage scientists to become new or better entrepreneurs. The £60 million ($US 95.3 million) program was announced today by Vince Cable, U.K.’s Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills. Under the program, EPSRC is…

  • Swine Genome Offers Insights for Agriculture, Medicine

    An analysis of the pig genome by an international consortium highlights genetic mechanisms that can improve breeding practices and show similarities with humans for development of drugs. The findings by the International Swine Genome Sequence Consortium appear online in the journals Nature and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers from North America,…

  • Wear-Resistant Diamond Tip Created for Nano-Manufacturing

    Engineers at University of Illinois, University of Pennsylvania, and Advanced Diamond Technologies Inc. in Romeoville, Illinois, developed a diamond tip for nanoscale lithography better able to meet heat and wear demands of semiconductor manufacturing. The team led by Illinois engineering professor William King (pictured left) published its findings yesterday online in the journal Nanotechnology; free…

  • Nanotech Strategy Developed for Solid Tumor Drug Delivery

    Researchers at Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, with colleagues from Munich Technical University and Helmholtz Center Munich, engineered a gene that can generate anti-cancer agents deep inside solid cancerous tumors. The team led by Ludwig-Maximilians pharmacologist Manfred Ogris reported its findings online yesterday in the journal Molecular Therapy (paid subscription required). Ogris (pictured right) and colleagues…

  • Method Devised to Improve Wireless Network Efficiency

    Engineers at University of California in Riverside developed a method they say can double the efficiency of mobile wireless networks. Riverside electrical engineering professors Yingbo Hua and Ping Liang, with three graduate students, published their findings in a recent online issue of the journal IEEE Signal Processing Letters. The proliferation of smartphones and tablets is…

  • Rice, Baylor to Study Hydrogel, Stem Cell Scaffolding

    Researchers at Rice University in Houston and Baylor College of Dentistry in Dallas received a National Institutes of Health grant to develop an injectable hydrogel that forms an active biological scaffold for tissue repair in a patient. The $1.7 million, five-year project will focus on the regeneration of the dentin-pulp complex found inside human teeth.…

  • Cancer Diagnostics Biotech Lands $13 Million Series B Funds

    Epic Sciences Inc., a biotechnology diagnostics developer in San Diego, secured $13 million in series B financing, the second round of venture funding after initial start-up. The funding round includes new investors Domain Associates, Roche Venture Fund, and Pfizer Venture Investments, as well as undisclosed individual participants. Epic Sciences exclusively licensed research by the lab…

  • Genomics Institute to Back Umbilical Cord Stem Cell Company

    Ontario Genomics Institute in Toronto, Canada is investing in Tissue Regeneration Therapeutics, also in Toronto, a company developing a technology for medical treatments with stems cells extracted from umbilical cords. Financial aspects of the investment were not disclosed. The technology developed by Tissue Regeneration Therapeutics uses human umbilical cord perivascular cells or HUCPVCs that are extracted…

  • VC, University Partner on Medical Device Start-Up Company

    George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and venture capital company Allied Minds Inc. in Boston, formed LuxCath LLC, a new company that makes a device for increasing the speed and safety of surgery for irregular heartbeat. LuxCath’s technology is based on research by faculty at George Washington’s medical school and engineering department. LuxCath is developing…

  • Universities, Biotechs to Research Epilepsy Treatments

    A consortium of universities and biotechnology companies in Europe are developing a new strategy for treating epilepsy, a neurological disease affecting 50 million people worldwide. The group called EPIXCHANGE includes researchers from Lund University in Sweden, University of Ferrara in Italy, and the biotech companies Bioviron in France and NsGene in Denmark. Epilepsy covers a…