Tag: physical sciences
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Compression Software for Genomic Analysis Being Designed
6 July 2015. Engineers at University of Illinois in Urbana and Stanford University in California are tackling the problem of massive data files generated by genomic analyses, an emerging issue as precision medicine harnessing genomics takes hold. A team led by engineering faculty Olgica Milenkovic at Illinois and Tsachy Weissman at Stanford is funded by…
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Commercial Space Launch Site Slated for New Zealand
2 July 2015. Rocket Lab Ltd, a company aiming to make orbital space launches frequent and less costly, says it plans to build a launch site in New Zealand, with completion scheduled by the end of 2015. The company says test flights will begin soon after completing construction of the site, with commercial operations planned…
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Environmental Sensor Developer Reveals Collaborations
30 June 2015. Aclima Inc., a designer of environmental monitoring sensors and networks, unveiled today collaborations with Google Inc., U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, among others. The San Francisco company, operating with little publicity for long as 5 years, did not disclose financial details from any of these partnerships. Aclima Inc.…
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Broad, Google Partner on Genomic Analysis Platform
24 June 2015. The Broad Institute, a molecular medicine research organization affiliated with Harvard University and MIT, and Google Genomics are collaborating to offer a readily-available cloud-based analysis platform for genomic data. Financial aspects of the agreement between Broad Institute — officially Eli and Edythe L. Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard — and Google…
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Smartphone Eye Exam Company Raises $6M in Venture Funds
24 June 2015. Smart Vision Labs Inc., a two-year-old company developing vision exam technology that works on smartphones, raised $6.1 million in its first venture funding round. Financing for the New York City enterprise was led by Techstars Ventures, with contributions from Heritage Group, Connectivity Capital, and Red Sea Ventures. The company’s technology aims to…
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Smart Insulin Patch Designed to Regulate Blood Glucose
23 June 2015. A skin patch made with tiny needles can dispense insulin and regulate blood glucose levels in lab mice for up to 9 hours. The device is being developed by a joint biomedical engineering department at University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University in Raleigh, and described in…
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Internet-of-Things Security Architecture Designed
19 June 2015. Engineering students at Ruhr-Universität Bochum in Germany are developing a security architecture to protect wireless communications among small household devices connected in what’s known as the Internet-of-Things. The team from the university’s Horst Görtz Institute that specializes in IT security is also receiving funds from a German government program to start a…
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Anti-Infection Compound Devised for Dental, Wound Care
18 June 2015. A new formulation of a common antibacterial agent can protect against infections for weeks or months at a time, according to its developers at University of Bristol in the U.K. The team led by Bristol dental materials scientist Michele Barbour is developing Pertinax, an extended antimicrobial compound, and receiving this year’s £25,000…
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Institute Developing Engineered Bacteria for Gut Diseases
17 June 2015. Engineers and medical researchers at Harvard University are designing genetically engineered bacteria that can diagnose and treat gastrointestinal disorders affecting travelers, as well as people suffering from acute or chronic gut diseases. The team from Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard developing the engineered microbes is funded by a $4.7…
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Patent Awarded for Early, Pre-Symptom Cancer Tests
16 June 2015. Three researchers at Kansas State University in Manhattan received a patent for an early-stage test that the inventors say can diagnose some solid tumor cancers well before symptoms develop. Kansas State chemistry professor Stefan Bossmann and anatomy-physiology professor Deryl Troyer, with postdoctoral fellow Matthew Basel, received U.S. patent number 8,969,027 in March…