Tag: Europe

  • Neuromuscular Drug Gets Fast-Track, Orphan Approval

    Repligen Corp. in Waltham, Massachusetts says its drug candidate for spinal muscular atrophy received fast-track and orphan drug status from U.S. and European regulators. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted fast-track status to Repligen’s RG3039, while the European Medicines Agency gave the drug its orphan medicinal product designation. Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is…

  • Challenge Seeks Increase in Hepatitis C Treatment

    A new challenge at InnoCentive, a company that conducts challenge contests for sponsoring organizations, seeks ways to increase the treatment rate of hepatitis C in Europe. The sponsor of this challenge, with a prize of $15,000, is not disclosed. The deadline for submissions is 22 August 2011. InnoCentive says the goal of the challenge is…

  • U.S. Patent Office Signs New, Expanded Reciprocity Deals

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced new or expanded patent reciprocity agreements with Israel, Korea, and the Nordic Patent Institute that covers Denmark, Norway, and Iceland. All of the agreements involve pilot tests of expedited patent examinations between the U.S. and partner countries. USPTO calls the overall reciprocity program the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH).…

  • Computer Model Tests for Car Noise During Design Stage

    A researcher at Luleå University of Technology in Sweden has built a computer simulation model to help car designers locate potential sources of unwanted car noise. Matti Rantatalo (pictured right) developed the model as part of his doctoral studies at Luleå, in the university’s Center for Automotive System Technologies and Testing (CASTT), and with help…

  • Imaging Technology Used to Improve Grain Yields

    Scientists at University of Adelaide in Australia are developing a technology based on computer imaging to better understand growth patterns of cereal grains and improve their yields under various conditions. The project involves a collaboration among computer scientists and plant physiologists at the university, with a German computer-imaging company. The team aims to develop technology…

  • Platform, Tools Developed to Network Smart Objects

    Researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim have devised a platform and tools to connect home and office objects with built-in intelligence. The Infrastructure for Integrated Services (ISIS) offers a common framework for developing and distributing applications in what the researchers call the Internet of Things. ISIS addresses a need…

  • Audion, Sanofi to Partner on Hearing Loss Therapies

    The French pharmaceutical company Sanofi and biotechnology company Audion Therapeutics in Amsterdam have agreed to develop potential treatments for hearing loss through through regenerative medicine and biologics. The collaboration will build on technology developed by Audion’s co-founder Albert Edge at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston. Audion originally licensed Edge’s technology from Mass…

  • Netherlands to Open Bio-Solar Research, Production Center

    The Netherlands begins on 17 June its BioSolar Cells research program to strengthen the science behind the sustainable production of bio-energy and food through photosynthesis. Also on 17 June, Wageningen University and Research Centre in the Netherlands opens its Algae Production and Research Centre (AlgaePARC), a production-scale lab to raise the output from algae bio-reactors…

  • Lab Tests Indicate Inhaled Carbon Nanotubes Pose Cancer Risk

    Researchers at University of Edinburgh in Scotland found some types carbon nanotubes could cause cancer if inhaled. Ken Donaldson, a toxicology professor at Edinburgh, and colleagues published their findings in the June 2011 issue of the American Journal of Pathology (paid subscription required). Carbon nanotubes are a type of nanoscale material (1 nanometer equals 1…

  • Researchers to Study Blood Transfusion Risk in the U.K.

    Researchers in the U.K. will examine the risks and benefits of receiving blood or blood products, including the need for patients to give informed consent before receiving blood. The study will be a collaboration between Helen Busby at the University of Leicester, Julie Kent at University of the West of England in Bristol, and Anne-Maree…