Month: December 2012
-
University Developing Smart Skin, Fabrics for Robots
Engineers at University of Texas in Arlington are developing smart skin and fabrics that can help robotic devices, such as prosthetics, learn about their environments and react accordingly. The four-year, $1.35 million project is funded by National Science Foundation under the National Robotics Initiative. The research is led by engineering professor Dan Popa (pictured left),…
-
MD Anderson, GlaxoSmithKline Partner on Cancer Immunotherapy
MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, part of the University of Texas, and the global pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline will jointly conduct research leading to new therapeutic antibodies that help the immune system fight cancer. The agreement over its full lifetime could earn MD Anderson as much as $335 million. The agreement gives GlaxoSmithKline exclusive worldwide…
-
Process Converts Greenhouse Gas into Useful Chemicals
Chemists at University of Southern California in Los Angeles devised a method for changing fluoroform, a common yet potent greenhouse gas, into reagents for producing pharmaceuticals and agriculture chemicals. The team led by G.K. Surya Prakash, director of USC’s Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute, published its findings in this week’s issue of the journal Science (paid…
-
Augmented Reality Applications Enhanced for Mobile Devices
Computer scientists at University of California in Santa Barbara are developing augmented reality applications for mobile devices that offer more stable, realistic, and current images than available today. The lab of computer science professors Matthew Turk and Tobias Höllerer (pictured right) recently received a $300,000 grant from the U.S. Office of Naval Research to create…
-
Simple Process Developed to Remove Smokestack CO2 Emissions
Researchers at the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) in Québec City, Canada are developing an economical method for removing most carbon dioxide from emissions put out by large industrial plants. The project led by INRS environmental scientist Guy Mercier, is funded by a two-year, $300,000 grant from Carbon Management Canada, a federal Canadian…
-
Genomics Biotech Raises $40 Million in Venture Funds
Moderna Therapeutics, a biotechnology start-up in Cambridge, Massachusetts developing therapies harnessing messenger RNA, secured some $40 million in venture funding. The financing for this round was led by Flagship Ventures that incubated Moderna Therapeutics, and includes other unamed private investors. The two-year-old company, founded and based on research by scientists at Harvard University and MIT,…
-
New Technique Developed for Stem Cell Delivery to Eyes
Engineers at University of Sheffield in the U.K. devised a new method for attaching stem cells to eyes that can lessen the need for tissue banks and reduce the growth of scar tissue on the eye. The technology, designed to treat damage to the cornea, the transparent layer on the front of the eye, is…
-
U.S. Alzheimer’s Patient Implanted with Deep Brain Pacemaker
A patient in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease at Johns Hopkins medical center in Baltimore received an implanted deep-brain stimulation device, the first such surgery in the U.S. The implant is part of a clinical trial testing the deep brain stimulation device for Alzheimer’s disease patients made by Functional Neuromodulation Ltd. in Toronto, Ontario,…
-
Genetics Company Lands NIH Allergies, Asthma Research Grant
The genetic testing company 23andMe in Mountain View, California received funding from National Institutes of Health for research into the genetics of allergies and asthma. The company also received two other NIH grants, to assess accuracy of new sequencing technologies in clinical applications and develop better genetic research tools based on information in the 23andMe…
-
MIT Entrepreneurial Center Awards Technology Grants
A division of Massachusetts Institute of Technology that promotes entrepreneurship awarded new grants to eight research teams working on early-stage technologies. The Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation at MIT says the grants total $706,000 and cover projects ranging from semiconductor manufacturing to retinal disease detection. The grants support early-stage research and development of new solutions,…