Science and Enterprise

Month: March 2013

  • Polymer Light-Trapping Properties Enhanced for Photonics

    Researchers at North Carolina State University and University of North Carolina developed a process for enhancing a polymer’s ability to trap light waves, making it a better material for photonic semiconductors. The team led by NC State materials scientist Lewis Reynolds published its findings online in a recent issue of the journal Applied Physics Letters.…

  • Clinical Trial to Test Stroke Hemorrhage Treatment

    A clinical trial at University of Nottingham and other sites in the U.K. will test the drug tranexamic acid as a treatment for hemorrhaging in the brain caused by a stroke. The trial is funded by a £2.6 million ($3.9 million) grant from the Health Technology Assessment Programme of the U.K.’s National Institute for Health…

  • Database Enables Documentation of Rare Genetic Disorders

    A new online database developed by Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston will make it possible for researchers and clinicans to collect data on diseases caused by single faulty genes. The database, known as PhenoDB is described in a recent online issue of the journal Human Mutation. PhenoDB is…

  • Harvard Institute, Sony to Partner on Organs-on-Chips

    The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University in Massachusetts and Sony Corporation’s optical media division (Sony DADC) will collaborate on developing plastic chips that emulate human organs. Financial terms and timetable of the deal were not disclosed. Chips that emulate human organs are made of clear, flexible polymer plastic, about the size…

  • AstraZeneca Consolidates Research in U.K. and U.S.

    The pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca will consolidate its research operations at three main hubs in its U.K. home base, as well as the U.S. and continental Europe. The four-year plan, which includes moving its corporate headquarters, is expected to cost the company $1.4 billion and result in a reduction of some 1,600 jobs, mainly in the…

  • Hospital, Community MRSA Forms Predicted to Coexist

    Epidemiologists and mathematicians at Princeton University in New Jersey developed a computer model of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) transmission that shows the two leading forms of the bacteria will both continue to exist, without one dominating the other. The team working under the direction of population biologist Bryan Grenfell published its findings online in a…

  • 23andMe Identifies New Genetic Nearsightedness Factors

    Researchers at the consumer genetics company 23andMe in Mountain View, California found 20 new associations with myopia or nearsightedness from data provided by their customers. The team led by Nicholas Eriksson, the company’s principal scientist, published its findings online in a recent issue of the journal PLoS Genetics. Nearsightedness is a common vision condition, which…

  • Grant to Fund Glucose-Sensitive Insulin Development

    Case Western Reserve University’s medical school in Cleveland received a grant of almost $1 million for research to develop a fast-acting form of insulin that can respond to an individual’s glucose levels. The three-year grant from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust will fund the work of medical professor Michael Weiss, who…

  • Software Advances Improve Cardiac Ultrasound Images

    Biomedical engineers at University of Oxford in the U.K. developed software that they say enhances the ultrasound image quality of the heart. The original research, funded by the U.K.’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, led to a start-up company to commercialize the technology, which is on display today at the Healthcare Innovation Expo 2013…

  • Merck, Luminex Partner on Alzheimer’s Screening Device

    The pharmaceutical company Merck & Co and diagnostics developer Luminex Corp. in Austin, Texas will develop a device to screen patients for tests of Merck’s experimental drug to treat Alzheimer’s disease. Financial terms and timetable of the deal were not disclosed. Merck is researching a potential treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, code-named MK-8931, that inhibits an…