Month: August 2013
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Fuel Cells for Refrigerated Trucks Under Development
A project combining the efforts of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland, Washington with two fuel cell manufacturers is developing fuel cells to power the refrigeration units in refigerated trucks. The companies — Nuvera Fuel Cells in Billerica,, Massachusetts and Plug Power Inc. in Latham, New York — each received a $650,000 matching contract…
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Trial Testing Rose Bengal Compound as Melanoma Treatment
A new clinical trial at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida is testing a compound derived from rose bengal, a dye for diagnosing eye disorders, as an injectable treatment for melanoma, a form of skin cancer. The early-stage trial is conducted with Provectus Pharmaceuticals in Knoxville, Tennessee that is commercializing the compound, known as PV-10.…
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Portable Kidney Test Device with Smartphone App Developed
Biomedical engineers at University of California in Los Angeles invented a portable device that tests urine for kidney damage and transmits the results via a smartphone attachment. The smartphone transmission system is described online in an advance issue of the journal Lab on a Chip (paid subscription required). The lab of UCLA engineering professor Aydogan…
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Heart Model Devised to Implant Child’s Defibrillator
Engineers and medical researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore developed a three-dimensional computer model of a child’s heart to guide the optimal location for a defibrillator that regulates heart rhythms. The team led by biomedical engineering professor Natalia Trayanova describes the model online in The Journal of Physiology (paid subscription required). Children born with…
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Diagnostics Developer, Mt. Sinai to Partner on Biomarkers
Exosome Diagnostics and Mount Sinai medical center, both in New York, are collaborating on the discovery of genetic biomarkers to build diagnostics for inflammation, cancer, and other diseases. Financial aspects of the five-year agreement were not disclosed. Exosome Diagnostics develops diagnostics based on biomarkers derived from bodily fluids, such as blood, urine, plasma, serum, and…
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Simple Authentication Scheme Cuts Phishing, Password Theft
Computer scientists at Royal Hollaway in the U.K., a part of University of London, developed a method for verifying the identify of computer users when logging on to password-protected Web sites that reduces opportunities for stealing user credentials. Royal Hollaway professor Chris Mitchell and researcher Haitham Al-Sinani in the university’s Information Security Group describe an…
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Cancer Care Plans Help Survivors Make Lifestyle Changes
Medical researchers at University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia found online care plans encourage cancer survivors to make needed lifestyle changes to help them cope with their treatments. This finding and other results appear online this month in the journal Cancer (paid subscription required). The Institute of Medicine recommended in a 2005 report that cancer patients…
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FDA Grants Muscle-Wasting Disease Drug Breakthrough Status
The global pharmaceutical company Novartis says the Food and Drug Administration granted its therapy candidate bimagrumab breakthrough status to treat a rare muscle-wasting condition for which there are currently no approved treatments. FDA designates new drugs for serious or life-threatening conditions as breakthroughs to expedite their review in the agency. The disorder is known as…
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Trial Testing Non-Invasive Neurostimulation for Migraine
A clinical trial is underway testing a hand-held device developed by Electrocore LLC in Basking Ridge, New Jersey that stimulates the vagus nerve as a treatment for migraine and cluster headaches. The company says it completed enrollment of 60 patients at six sites in the U.S., with results of the study expected in the second…
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Data Review Indicates Drug Improves Brain Cancer Survival
Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota found patients who took the drug bevacizumab for the brain cancer glioblastoma lived somewhat longer than patients with the disease before the drug’s FDA approval in 2009. The team of neurologists Derek Johnson, Heather Leeper, and Joon Uhm describe their findings in a recent issue of the journal…
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