Month: June 2014
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Spin-Off Company Develops Drill-Less Tooth Cavity Treatment
16 June 2014. A spin-off company from Kings College London in the U.K. is developing a technology that makes treating tooth cavities a painless electrical process. Reminova Ltd. — located in Perth, Scotland — was founded earlier this year and is led by two Kings College dental faculty, Nigel Pitts and Chris Longbottom, who serve…
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FDA Grants Experimental Leukemia Drug Orphan Status
16 June 2014. Agios Pharmaceuticals Inc. in Cambridge, Massachusetts says the U.S. Food and Drug Administration designated its therapy for acute myelogenous leukemia an orphan drug, qualifying it for tax incentives and other benefits. The orphan drug status comes at the same time of new findings reported from an early clinical trial of the drug,…
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Taking a Break
We’ll be traveling for a few days, to explore a few other interests, and recharge our batteries. Science & Enterprise will resume on Monday 16 June. * * *
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Trial Shows Single-Dose Antibiotic Effective with MRSA
5 June 2014. Researchers at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina and the Medicines Company in Parsippany, New Jersey show in a late-stage clinical trial that a single dose of the antibiotic oritavancin works as well in treating acute bacterial skin infections, including those from methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria, as the current standard of care…
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Mobile App/Sensor Designed to Help Parents Control Stress
4 June 2014. Computer scientists at University of California in San Diego and Microsoft Research designed a system for smartphones and tablets providing immediate research-based guidance for parents to control their stress. The team led by San Diego engineering Ph.D. candidate Laura Pina, with colleagues from Microsoft’s Visualization and Interaction for Business and Entertainment group…
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Clinical-Stage Biotech Lands $15M in Early Venture Funding
4 June 2014. Trevi Therapeutics Inc., a biotechnology company in New Haven, Connecticut developing therapies for chronic itching conditions, secured $15 million in its second venture financing round. The funding, the first installment in a projected $25 million round, was led by current investor TPG Biotech and includes current angel investors in the company. Trevi…
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Polymer CO2-Capture Material Devised for Natural Gas Wells
3 June 2014. Chemists and materials scientists at Rice University in Houston developed a material that inexpensively extracts and captures carbon dioxide, or CO2, from natural gas wells at ambient temperatures. The team led by Rice chemistry and engineering professor James Tour, including colleagues from National Institute of Science and Technology in Maryland, published their…
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Project Underway to Enable Mobile Health Data Collection
3 June 2014. A joint project of the University of California campuses in San Diego and Irvine aims to answer technical and policy questions needed to collect health-related data from mobile devices and social networks for public health research. The Health Data Exploration Network project received a $1.9 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson…
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Challenge Seeks Methods to More Accurately Detect Epilepsy
2 June 2014. Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota and University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia are seeking through an open competition new techniques to detect epilepsy seizures sooner and more accurately. The Seizure Detection Challenge has a total prize purse of $8,000 and a deadline for submissions of 19 August 2014. Epilepsy is a neurological disorder…
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Quest, Sloan Kettering Partner on Solid Tumor Diagnostics
2 June 2014. Quest Diagnostics in Madison, New Jersey and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York are developing tests to give physicians more precise data on genetic causes of solid tumor cancers, such as breast, prostate, colon, and lung cancer. Financial and intellectual property aspects of the collaboration were not disclosed. In the…