Month: October 2013
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High Speed Internet in Cars Found Distracting to Drivers
Psychologists and engineers at University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada found adding high speed Internet connections to cars creates potential distraction risks to drivers, even when used with hands-free voice-controlled devices. The team led by Toronto psychologist Ian Spence published its findings in the September-October 2013 issue of the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology (paid subscription…
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Super-Antioxidant Developed from Catalyst Nanoparticles
Chemists and bioengineers at Rice University in Houston developed an antioxidant from an element used in catalytic converters that they found to be many times more powerful than antioxidants now on the market. The team from the labs of Vicki Colvin and Laura Segatori published their findings earlier this month in the journal ACS Nano…
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Genetic-Based Antibiotic Found Effective in Lab Tests
Researchers at Oregon State University, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, and the biotechnology company Sarepta Therapeutics tested in lab mice an antibiotic developed from synthetic genetic material that kills bacteria resistant to traditional antibiotics. Their findings appear online today in the Journal of Infectious Diseases (paid subscription required). The team from the labs of…
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Evogene, DuPont Pioneer Extend Biotech Soybean Partnership
Evogene Ltd, a biotechnology company in Rehovot, Israel is extending its collaboration with the Pioneer subsidiary of the U.S. chemical company DuPont to develop soybean varieties resistant to Asian soybean rust, a damaging fungus to soybean plants. The agreement adds one year to the partnership between the two companies, but financial aspects of the deal…
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Protocols Linking Underwater Devices to Internet Proposed
Engineers from University at Buffalo in New York are proposing a common set of wireless protocols for connecting underwater sensors, like those detecting tsunamis, to the land-based Internet. Electrical engineering professor Tommaso Melodia and graduate student Yifan Sun will present their proposal next month at ACM’s International Conference on Underwater Networks & Systems in Taiwan.…
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St. Jude Medical Acquires Leadless Pacemaker Developer
St. Jude Medical, a medical device company in St. Paul, Minnesota, is acquiring Nanostim Inc., a developer of self-contained leadless heart pacemakers in Sunnyvale, California. Shareholders in the privately owned Nanostim can receive up to $188.5 million in upfront cash and milestone payments as a result of the purchase. St. Jude Medical has a relationship…
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Fortified Hydrogel Cartilage Regeneration Technique Devised
Researchers at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland developed a method for delivering regenerative drugs at the right place and time to repair damaged cartilage tissue. The team from EPFL’s biomechanical orthopedics and polymers labs published advance results this week of their proof-of-concept tests in the journal Biomaterials (paid subscription required). Because cartilage has…
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On the Road Again …
We will be travelling over the next two days, so Science and Enterprise will not be posting items today or tomorrow. We will be back to our regular posting schedule on Monday 14 October. * * *
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Clinical Trial of ALS Stem Cell Therapy Begins Treatments
The first two of up to 15 patients received their first injections of stem cells to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s disease, in an intermediate-stage clinical trial at University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and Emory University in Atlanta. The study is testing stem cell treatments made by Neuralstem, a biotechnology company…
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Genome Analysis Via Mobile App, Web Site in Development
A genomics lab at Tel Aviv University in Israel is developing a system making it possible to upload a person’s whole genome and get results analyzed through a mobile app. Tel Aviv graduate students Ofer Isakov and Gershon Celniker in the lab of geneticist Noam Shomron are writing the software that they expect to release…