Tag: entrepreneurs
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Wireless Sensor System Detects Occurrence of Elderly Falls
Engineers at University of Utah in Salt Lake City developed a system combining wireless radio-wave sensors and a control algorithm to detect a person falling, without the individual wearing a separate device. Graduate student Brad Mager, representing the Utah team, presents the findings of a proof-of-concept test of the system today at the IEEE Personal,…
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Stanford University Adds Funds for Start-Up Accelerator
Stanford University and its hospital system, with the business accelerator program StartX, unveiled a three-year, $3.6 million fund to support early-stage enterprises started by Stanford-affiliated entrepreneurs. StartX is a training and mentoring program for founders of new companies with a connection to Stanford including students, faculty, postdocs, and alumni. StartX, a not-for-profit organization, connects new…
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Biopharm Raises $45.9M in Venture Funding for Ear Disorders
Otonomy Inc., a biopharmaceutical company in San Diego specializing in middle and inner-ear disorders, collected $45.9 million in its third venture financing round. OrbiMed Advisors, a venture capital company specializing in health care investments, led the round with new investors Aperture Venture Partners and Osage University Partners taking part, along with current investors Avalon Ventures,…
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University of Houston Spins-Off Nanotech Coatings Company
A physics professor at University of Houston in Texas started a company to develop and manufacture protective coatings for industrial and consumer goods based on his research in nanotechnology. C-Voltaics, started by Houston physicist Seamus Curran, was awarded last week the Young Technology Award at the Commercialization of Micro- and Nanosystems conference in The Netherlands, according…
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Nanotech Window Coating Controls Building Light, Heat
Chemists and materials scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California created a window coating of nanocrystals that can dynamically control the sunlight passing through the window and thus improve a building’s energy efficiency. The team led by Berkeley Lab’s Delia Milliron published its findings yesterday in the journal Nature (paid subscription required). The Department…
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Design for Microenterprise Helps Target Emerging Markets
Engineers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge recommend designing products for small entrepreneurial businesses as a strategy for success in large emerging markets, such as India and China. Graduate student Jesse Austin-Breneman and engineering professor Maria Yang describe their findings in a paper delivered last week at the International Design Engineering Technical Conference of…
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GSK Starts Venture Fund for Nerve-Signal Devices, Medicines
The pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline is starting a venture capital fund to invest in companies making therapeutic devices and medications harnessing the body’s electrical signaling system. The fund, called Action Potential Venture Capital (APVC) Ltd. will have $50 million, with its first investment in a California company developing a device to regulate nerve signals for treating…
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U.S. University Research Commercialization Gains in 2012
American universities and research institutes report more research discoveries headed toward the marketplace in their 2012 fiscal year, with increases in discoveries disclosed, patents, licenses and licensing income, and start-up companies formed. The Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM), the group representing campus technology transfer specialists, released today highlights of its annual survey for institutions’…
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Genomics Therapy Company Secures $60M Venture Financing
Dicerna Pharmaceuticals Inc., in Watertown, Massachusetts, closed its third round of venture financing after start-up with $60 million in additional capital from new and current investors. Dicerna is a six year-old biotechnology company developing therapies harnessing genomic material to silence genes causing diseases. Dicerna’s technology is based on ribonucleic acid or RNA interference (RNAi), a…
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Renewable Biochemical Spin-Offs Land Small Business Grants
Two start-up companies, founded to commercialize research on renewable biochemicals at Iowa State University at Ames, received small business research grants from National Science Foundation to develop their technologies for the marketplace. The companies — OmegaChea Biorenewables in Ames and Glucan Biorenewables in St. Louis — are spin-off enterprises from Iowa State’s Center for Biorenewable Chemicals. OmegaChea Biorenewables,…