Month: August 2014
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FDA Approves AFib Monitor Algorithm for Mobile Devices
21 August 2014. AliveCor Inc. in San Francisco says the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared an analytical processing algorithm to detect atrial fibrillation by its heart monitor designed for smartphones and tablets. FDA already cleared the basic AliveCor mobile device heart monitor system for marketing in the U.S. in February 2014. The company’s heart…
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Analysis Uncovers Biotech Commercialization Bottlenecks
21 August 2014. The path from scientific discovery in an academic lab to the marketplace is rarely a straightforward process, with researchers and entrepreneurs often facing detours and delays keeping new biomedical technologies in limbo for years at a time. Those are the conclusions of faculty at Georgia Institute of Technology’s business school that studied…
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Security Flaws Revealed in Full-Body X-Ray Scanner
20 August 2014. Computer scientists at three universities evaluated the backscatter X-ray scanners used in U.S. airports up to 2013, finding weapons could be readily concealed, and the device vulnerable to hacking. The team from University of California in San Diego, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and University of Michigan in Ann Arbor will present…
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Medications, Phone Calls Boost Smoking Cessation Rates
20 August 2014. Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston found a combination of free medications and repeated automated telephone calls sharply cuts smoking rates among discharged patients, compared to patients receiving the standard counseling before leaving the hospital. The findings of the team led by Nancy Rigotti, director of Mass. General’s Tobacco Research and…
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New Medical Technologies Investment Fund Raises $110M
19 August 2014. HealthQuest Capital, a spin-off investment firm, says it raised $110 million for funding in technology-based start-ups serving the health care industry. The company was spun off from Sofinnova Ventures in Menlo Park, California and founded by Garheng Kong, a Sofinnova general partner. HealthQuest plans to invest in companies developing medical devices, diagnostics, patient-care…
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Novartis Acquires Stake in Stem Cell Therapy Company
19 August 2014. Gamida Cell, a developer of therapies from umbilical cord stem cells, says the global pharmaceutical company Novartis is buying a 15 percent interest in the company, with an option to acquire the entire company later. The deal brings Gamida Cell, located in Jerusalem, Israel, $35 million immediately, with a total potential return…
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Engineered Fluid Devised for Lubricating Joint Cartilage
18 August 2014. Biomedical engineers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore developed a synthetic lubrication fluid for natural or artificial joints in the body that emulates the properties of natural substances. A team led by Johns Hopkins medical professor Jennifer Elisseeff published its results earlier this month in the journal Nature Materials (paid subscription required).…
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$500K Challenge Seeks Techniques to Track Single Cells
18 August 2014. A new challenge sponsored by National Institutes of Health is looking for better ways to follow and predict the functioning of a single cell in a complex multi-cell environment, such as in a tumor or a response to treatment. The competition, managed by the open-innovation/challenge company InnoCentive, expects to award prizes totaling…
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Trial Testing Genetic Profiles for Personal Cancer Therapy
15 August 2014. MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and Foundation Medicine in Cambridge, Massachusetts are testing the benefit of genetic profiles of tumors in determining personalized therapies for patients with metastatic cancer. The researchers conducting the trial also believe genetic profiling can better match cancer patients to studies of new treatments, and lead to…
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System Tests Quality of Engineered Stem Cells, Tissue
14 August 2014. Biomedical engineers and systems biologists developed an online system that tests the fidelity of engineered cells and tissue to the real-life properties of the cells they aim to emulate. The system, known as CellNet, is the creation of researchers from Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston University, and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired…