Tag: entrepreneurs
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Bill Gates, VC Finance Science Collaboration Network
ResearchGate, an online network to encourage collaboration among scientists and sharing of research data, based in Berlin, closed a $35 million series C financing round, the third cycle of venture funding after start-up. The round was led by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and later-stage venture capital (VC) company Tenaya Capital. ResearchGate is a five-year old…
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FDA Approves Robotic Device for Stroke Rehabilitation
Oregon Health and Science University in Portland reports that the Food and Drug Administration approved for marketing in the U.S. a robotics device that helps stroke patients move limbs and improve muscle function during their rehabilitation. The device was developed by Paul Cordo, a biomedical engineering professor at Oregon Health and AMES Technology, a spin-off…
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Smartphone Biosensor Devised to Detect Toxins, Pathogens
Engineers at University of Illinois in Urbana created a system harnessing an iPhone’s camera to turn the phone into a biosensor that can detect proteins, bacteria, viruses, and toxins. The team led by engineering professor and entrepreneur Brian Cunningham published its findings in a recent online issue of the journal Lab on a Chip (paid…
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Airborne Wind Energy Systems Company Acquired by Google
Makani Power Inc., a company in Alameda, California developing airborne wind energy systems that fly in the air like kites, was acquired by Google, according to the company’s Web site. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. The company says its wind energy system operates like a wind turbine, but is flown from 250…
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Start-Up Creating Audio Technology from UC Davis Research
A two year-old company spun-off from University California in Davis is designing a new type of audio experience based on research in the school’s engineering department. Dysonics Inc., located in San Francisco, was founded by three Davis engineering faculty members, bringing to market more than a decade of research on multi-dimensional audio from the university’s…
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Biotech, Sloan-Kettering Partner on Blood Cancer Test
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and biotechnology company Foundation Medicine are developing a new test to diagnose blood-related cancers and connect patients to the best treatment options. Foundation Medicine plans to commercialize the test and bring it to market by the end of 2013. Other financial and intellectual property aspects of the deal…
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Low Cost Soft-Touch Robotic Sensor Circuits Commercialized
Computer scientists at Harvard University developed and are taking to market circuits for robotic devices and potentially other electronic products that can sense the slightest application of pressure. The team led by Ph.D. candidate Leif Jentoft and postdoctoral fellow Yaroslav Tenzer in Harvard’s Biorobotics Laboratory started a company to commercialize the technology, and are licensing…
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Venture Funding Declines in Q1, Health Companies Buck Trend
Venture capital funding in the U.S. declined in the first quarter of 2013, continuing a trend begun in 2011, but companies in the health care sector, particularly those based on scientific discovery, played a prominent role in the quarter’s venture transactions. VentureSource, a service of financial publishers Dow Jones, released the first quarter data today.…
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Forum: Focus Research Funding on Scientists Not Science
Elazer Edelman, a health sciences and technology professor at MIT called for a different funding formula during tight economic times that finances scientists rather than big scientific initiatives. Edelman made his remarks at a forum today on biomedical innovation in Washington, D.C. put on by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He also…
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Researcher Studies, Commercializes Nanoscale Drug Delivery
A researcher at University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada developed a process of delivering drugs to targeted locations in the body with nanoscale polymer capsules, and has received a patent for that process. Afsaneh Lavasanifar, a professor in Alberta’s pharmacy school, also started a company in 2010 to take her process to market. Lavasanifar devised…