Month: April 2016
-
Technique Extends Bioactive Device Coating Lifetime
14 April 2016. A new process is shown to regenerate therapeutic coatings on implanted medical devices in lab tests and with animals, possibly extending the devices’ lifetimes in patients. The techniques, developed in the lab of Harvard University biomedical engineering professor Elliot Chaikof, are described in the 13 April 2016 issue of the journal Nature…
-
Charity Starts Industry-Backed Cancer Research Effort
13 April 2016. The charitable group Stand Up to Cancer unveiled today a new program to spur research on cancer treatments begun by pharmaceutical companies. The program known as Catalyst will harness funds and products from participating companies that will be bid out to the research community at large for further research and development. Charter…
-
Cell-Free Synthetic Biochemical Process Devised
13 April 2016. A biochemistry lab at University of California in Los Angeles developed techniques for producing synthetic bio-based chemicals without processing sugars through cells. The discoveries from the lab of biochemistry professor James Bowie is described in the 11 April 2016 issue of the journal Nature Chemical Biology (paid subscription required). Bowie, with postdoctoral…
-
Many Clinical Trial Protocol Changes Avoidable, Costly
12 April 2016. When clinical trials make changes in plans, known as protocol amendments, after they’re underway, the impact in time and costs are substantial, with many changes considered avoidable. These are conclusions of a review of clinical trial protocol amendments carried out by Center for the Study of Drug Development at Tufts University in…
-
Tropical Disease Diagnostics Now on Market
12 April 2016. PATH research institute and medical test developer Standard Diagnostics are making available tests for the tropical diseases onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis. The rapid, point-of-care tests are designed to help health authorities in Africa and other regions better monitor the spread of the diseases in campaigns to eradicate their occurrence. Onchocerciasis is an…
-
NIH Funds Biosensors to Monitor Oxygen in Tissue
11 April 2016. Profusa Inc., a company designing sensors that measure tissue oxygen levels in individuals with peripheral artery disease, received an NIH grant to advance its technology. The $225,000 Small Business Innovation Research grant for 2016 is divided between two agencies of National Institutes of Health: National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences and National…
-
Flair4IT Helps Cloud Computing Become Mainstream in the EU
– Sponsored Content – 11 April 2016. Flair4IT, a UK based IT agency, has been working on making the cloud more mainstream in the EU. They have looked specifically at software applications and infrastructures. To enable the market to become more aware of cloud computing, and to make it as common as what it is…
-
Smartphone-Based Sensor Gives Early Epilepsy Warning
8 April 2016. An academic and business consortium in Germany is developing a small sensor worn in the ear that detects and warns of seizures in people with epilepsy. The 3-year Epitect project to develop the system, including smartphone software and cloud-based analytics, is led by University Hospital Bonn and supported with €2 million ($US…
-
Start-Up Licensing Biologic Delivery Nanoparticles
8 April 2016. A start-up enterprise is licensing research from a university pharmacy lab that harnesses nanoscale particles to boost the performance of biologic therapies. Financial details of the agreement between Zoetic Pharmaceuticals in Amherst, New York and University at Buffalo were not disclosed. Biologic therapies are synthetic proteins derived from living systems, such as…
-
Cancer Centers, Analytics, Pharma Plan Precision Medicine
7 April 2016. A cancer care center network, with pharmaceutical and informatics companies, plan to apply precision medicine techniques to increase the pool of patients for clinical trials of new cancer therapies. The coalition includes cancer centers in the Orien network — short for Oncology Research Information Exchange Network — with bioinformatics company M2Gen, and…