Month: November 2015
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Governments, Private Investors Unveil Clean Energy Plans
30 November 2015. Two separate but related initiatives from governments and private investors were unveiled today to boost investment in clean energy innovations for reducing the threat of climate change. Statements announcing the initiatives, expected to double global government spending on clean energy innovation to $20 billion, were made to coincide with the opening of…
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GMO Database Begun for European Regulators
30 November 2015. A database of DNA sequences found in genetically modified organisms or GMOs opened on Friday to help European regulators detect GMOs in food and feed products. The GMO-Amplicons database, available to the public, is run by the Joint Research Centre, the in-house science policy service of the European Commission. Europe now grows…
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A Thanksgiving Celebration
26 November 2015. It’s Thanksgiving in the United States, a day of family gatherings, feasting, football, and (for some) shopping. This year is also the 50th anniversary of the counterculture anthem for Thanksgiving, Arlo Guthrie’s Alice’s Restaurant, a song about Thanksgiving and a lot more. Here’s Arlo Guthrie singing Alice’s Restaurant 10 years ago at…
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FDA Approves Antibody Treatment for Lung Cancer
25 November 2015. U.S. Food and Drug Administration yesterday approved necitumumab, an engineered antibody to treat squamous non-small cell lung cancer that spreads to other parts of the body. Necitumumab is marketed under the brand name Portrazza by Eli Lilly and Company. Worldwide, lung cancer causes some 1.6 million deaths, according to World Health Organization. Non-small cell lung…
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Crop Disease Images Collected, Available Via Smartphones
25 November 2015. A team in the U.S. and Switzerland is assembling a database of 50,000 images of plant diseases for a smartphone app to help farmers worldwide deal with those diseases. Entomologist David Hughes at Pennsylvania State University in University Park and epidemiologist Marcel Salathé at Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne or EPFL, the…
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Antibodies to Treat Staph Infections in Early Trial
24 November 2015. A study testing the safety of antibodies to prevent and treat Staphylococcus aureus infections, including those contracted in hospitals, is underway in Vienna, Austria. The clinical trial is evaluating an experimental biologic drug for the prevention and treatment of S. aureus or staph infections made by Arsanis Biosciences, a biotechnology company in…
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Trial Tests Vibrating Mattress to Prevent Infant Apnea
24 November 2015. A mattress that provides occasional mild vibrations was shown in a clinical trial to prevent episodes of interrupted breathing in preterm babies, a condition known as infant apnea. Results of the study testing the device, developed at the Wyss Institute, a biomedical engineering research center at Harvard University, were reported yesterday in…
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ARPA-E Funding 41 Energy Generation, Efficiency Projects
23 November 2015. Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or ARPA-E, the agency funding riskier energy research and development initiatives in the U.S., announced funding for 41 new projects, including those at 19 private companies. The grants totaling $125 million were revealed today by Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz at 1776, a technology incubator and seed fund…
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Chip Device Removes Nanoparticles from Plasma
23 November 2015. A team from University of California in San Diego used a miniature electronic chip to quickly separate nanoparticles for delivering drugs from blood plasma. The process, with a technology developed in the engineering lab of Michael Heller at UC-San Diego and licensed to a spin-off company from the university, is described in…
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FDA Approves Nasal Spray for Opioid Overdose
20 November 2015. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration this week approved the first formulation of a current drug to treat opioid overdose in nasal spray form. The Narcan nasal spray is made by Adapt Pharma Ltd., a company headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. Opioids work by reducing the intensity of pain signals to the brain, particularly…