Month: June 2014
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Student Project Aims to Land Time Capsule on Mars
23 June 2014. Students from four U.S. universities — with help from research labs, not-for-profit organizations, and companies — are building a space vehicle to propel and land a time capsule of digital files from earth on the surface of Mars. The Time Capsule to Mars project also plans to raise $25 million through crowdfunding…
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Early Trial Shows Pneumonia Vaccine Safety, Immune Response
23 June 2014. An early-stage clinical trial testing a vaccine by Genocea Biosciences Inc. to prevent pneumonia and related bacterial diseases shows the vaccine caused no serious side effects and induced more immune system cells to prevent these infections. The Cambridge, Massachusetts biotechnology company says it plans to present the findings at a medical conference…
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Challenge Seeks Development Partner for Nanotech Biosensor
20 June 2014. A new challenge on InnoCentive calls for a medical technology company or institute to develop a new type of nanoscale biosensor for diagnostic and therapeutic applications. The challenge has no immediate financial award, but winners of the competition will earn the right to negotiate a compensated collaboration contract with the Cleveland Clinic,…
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U.K. Public-Private Partnership to Attack Dementia
20 June 2014. Medical Research Council, a science funding agency in the U.K., organized a consortium of academic and industry researchers to better detect, prevent, and treat dementia. The council and six industry partners plan to spend £16 million ($US 27.25 million) on the U.K. Dementias Research Platform that includes studies involving some 2 million…
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Foundation, Biopharm Partner on RNA-Interference Therapy
19 June 2014. Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc. in Cambridge, Massachusetts and the Alpha-1 Project in Miami are collaborating on advancing Alnylam’s therapy to treat alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, a rare genetic condition responsible for liver disorders and a lung disease similar to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD. Alpha-1 Project is the for-profit venture division of the…
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Lasers Embed Sensors in Smartphone Display Glass
19 June 2014. Engineers at École Polytechnique de Montréal and Corning Inc. in Corning, New York designed a process for embedding sensors into the display glass covers on smartphones. The research team led by doctoral candidate Jerome Lapointe published its findings in the 30 June 2014 issue of the journal Optics Express, published by Optical…
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Portfolio Model Proposed for Funding Alzheimer’s Research
18 June 2014. Financial and biomedical researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of California in Santa Barbara, and the biotechnology company Genentech outlined a different approach to funding research on Alzheimer’s disease that supports multiple simultaneous studies addressing various drug targets. The team led by MIT finance professor Andrew Lo published its findings today…
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FDA Issues Draft Industry Guidance on Social Media
18 June 2014. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued draft guidance for medical products companies on their use of social media to communicate with patients. The agency announced yesterday the documents’ availability for comment in a blog post authored by Thomas Abrams, director of FDA’s prescription drug information office. Abrams says the documents —…
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Fibrocell Science Licenses Stem Cell Technology from UCLA
17 June 2014. The biotechnology company Fibrocell Science Inc. in Exton, Pennsylvania is licensing stem cell discoveries from University of California in Los Angeles for personalized treatments of serious bone and connective tissue conditions. Financial aspects of the licensing deal were not disclosed. Fibrocell Science develops treatments for rare and serious conditions affecting bones, connective…
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Code Language Developed for Building Lab-On-Chip Devices
17 June 2014. Engineers at University of California in Riverside developed a programming language to automate the design of lab-on-a-chip devices used in medical diagnostics and other life science applications. The team from the lab of computer science and engineering professor Philip Brisk published its results in a recent issue of the ACM Journal on…