Month: August 2015
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Small Business Grant Funds Preclinical Lupus Research
24 August 2015. A grant from National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is funding preclinical research by a biotechnology company on stem cells as a therapy for a type of lupus. The $225,000 grant from NIAID, part of National Institutes of Health, is made to Ocata Therapeutics Inc. of Marlborough, Massachusetts under the institute’s…
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Synthetic Biology Company Raises $200 Million in IPO
21 August 2015. Intrexon Corp., a company developing genomic solutions with synthetic biology, raised some $200 million in its initial public stock offering. The Germantown, Maryland enterprise issued 4,878,049 shares of common stock priced at $41.00, and traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol XON. The company’s shares closed today at $45.46,…
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Antipsychotic Drug Savings Expected as Patents Expire
21 August 2015. Medicaid is expected to save nearly $3 billion by the year 2019 from patents expiring on leading branded antipsychotic drugs, and as generic forms of those drugs replace them. Researchers from University of Maryland medical school in Baltimore made those calculations in a paper published last month in the journal Psychiatric Services…
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Early Trial Results Targeting Cancer Mutations Promising
20 August 2015. A clinical trial testing the efficacy of a cancer drug to treat multiple types of cancer based on a common genomic mutation, showed a melanoma drug could treat at least a few other cancers. A team from the U.S. and Europe, led by researchers from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New…
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Biomedical Accelerator Accepts 12 New Research Projects (Updated)
20 August 2015, Updated 21 August 2015 (see below). The Blavatnik Biomedical Accelerator at Harvard University is adding 12 new campus research projects to transform their findings into marketable products and services. The accelerator aims to bridge the gap between academic labs and venture financing, often called the Valley of Death because of the lack…
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Flatiron, Guardant Partner on Cancer Genomics, Analytics
19 August 2015. Guardant Health, a provider of genomic analysis from liquid biopsies, and Flatiron Health, a provider of electronic records and analytics for cancer patients are collaborating on a cloud-based platform to support research leading to targeted therapies for cancer patients. The companies expect the service to be available in the first half of…
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Glucose Control Implant Bests Diabetes Drug in Trial
19 August 2015. A clinical trial shows an implanted system did a better job of lowering blood glucose levels in people with type 2 diabetes, than an approved glucose control drug. Intarcia Therapeutics in Boston, developer of the system code-named ITCA 650, released top-line results of the late-stage trial testing the device against the drug…
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NSF Funds Math Tutoring Software Commercialization
18 August 2015. Software to help primary and secondary school students learn mathematics is receiving financial support from National Science Foundation to bring the software to market. NSF awarded a grant of nearly $200,000 to Beverly Woolf, a computer scientist at University of Massachusetts in Amherst, for the 18-month project. Woolf is developer of the…
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Cancer Precision Medicine Trial Underway
18 August 2015. A new clinical trial is enrolling participants that tests multiple types of therapies on a number of different cancers based on the genomic make-up of individual patients. The intermediate-stage trial is part of the National Cancer Institute’s Molecular Analysis for Therapy Choice, or NCI-MATCH program. NCI-MATCH seeks to determine if tumors with…
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Wireless Light-Activated Circuit Connects to Mice Neurons
17 August 2015. Engineers at Stanford University designed a wireless circuit implanted under the skin for sending light-activated signals to nerve cells in lab mice. The team led by electrical engineering professor Ada Poon published its findings in today’s issue of the journal Nature Methods (paid subscription required). Poon and colleagues are seeking a simple,…