Month: December 2014
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Autoimmune Therapy Developer Raises $23M in Early Funds
18 December 2014. Padlock Therapeutics, a biotechnology company creating treatments for diseases where the immune system attacks the body, gained $23 million in its first venture funding round. Financing for the Cambridge, Massachusetts enterprise was led by Atlas Venture, with participation from Index Ventures, MS Ventures, and Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, the company’s venture…
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Simpler, Lens-Free Microscope Developed
18 December 2014. Engineers and medical researchers at University of California in Los Angeles designed a new type of microscope that combines holograms with computational techniques to generate images of pathology samples with quality comparable to lens-type microscopes. The team led by electrical and biomedical engineering professor Aydogan Ozcan published its findings yesterday in the…
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Janssen, Biotech Partner on Drug Delivery Technology
17 December 2014. Halozyme Therapeutics, a biotechnology company in San Diego, is licensing its drug delivery technology for under-the-skin injections to Janssen Biotech, one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical companies and a division of Johnson & Johnson. The deal is expected to bring Halozyme up to $581 million in initial and milestone payments. Halozyme develops synthetic…
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Eye Tracking System Devised to Diagnose Brain Injuries
17 December 2014. Researchers at New York University Medical Center designed a technology that spots brain injuries in patients by tracking their eye movements while watching a few minutes of videos. The team led by neuroscience and physiology professor Uzma Samadani, with colleagues from other NYU departments and VA New York Harbor Healthcare System, published…
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Spin-Off Building Simplifed Signal Processing Connections
16 December 2014. An engineering lab at Columbia University in New York is spinning off a new company aiming to design simpler connections between analog and digital signals as systems get smaller and performance becomes more demanding. Seamless Devices Inc., founded by electrical engineering professor Peter Kinget and former graduate student Jayanth Kuppambatti, began in…
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Pfizer, Opko Partner on Growth Hormone Drug
16 December 2014. The pharmaceutical company Pfizer is licensing an engineered compound to treat human growth hormone deficiency in adults and children from Opko Health Inc., a provider of therapeutics and diagnostics. The deal has a potential value to Opko of $570 million, plus royalties from sales. Opko Health, based in Miami, offers drugs and…
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University Prof to Commercialize 3-D Printed Cell Platforms
15 December 2014. A biomedical engineer at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston plans to develop a commercial platform for three-dimensional printing of artificial cells in research, education, and industrial applications. Mark DeCoster, an engineering faculty member at Louisiana Tech, received a $50,000 National Science Foundation I-Corps grant to further develop the idea into a marketable…
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Nanomedicine Developer Secures $7.5M Venture Funds
15 December 2014. Cristal Therapeutics, a developer of medications formulated as nanoscale particles, raised more than €6 million ($7.5 million) in early-stage venture funds. The financing round for the company, based in Maastricht, The Netherlands, was led by Chemelot Ventures, with current seed investors Thuja Capital, BioGeneration Ventures, Nedermaas, Utrecht University Holding, and Beheer Innovatiefonds…
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SpaceX Mission to Carry University Pathogen Research
12 December 2014. The next launch of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station will carry a set of specially-configured petri dishes testing the effect of microgravity on the virulence of salmonella bacteria. The research is the work of microbiologists at Arizona State University and engineers at University of Colorado in Boulder. Salmonella…
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Test Reveals, Measures Breast Cancer Recurrence Risk
12 December 2014. A study by Genomic Health, a developer of diagnostics for personalized cancer treatments, shows its test of an early-stage breast cancer can predict long-term chances of recurrence. Frederick Baehner, a pathologist at University of California in San Francisco and vice-president of Genomic Health, is scheduled to present the findings with colleagues today…