Tag: physical sciences

  • XPrize Awards $5.25M for Lunar Technologies

    26 January 2015. A competition to develop new technologies for landing and robotic exploration of the moon awarded $5.25 million in 9 prizes to 5 private companies, as part of the Google Lunar XPrize challenge. The companies — from the U.S., Germany, Japan, and India — received the prizes for their design and development of…

  • University Spin-Off Develops Bone Repair Technology

    20 January 2015. A materials science research center and university spin-off company in Ireland are developing a technology using natural materials to repair bones in people and animals. The bone-repair technology is a product of Ireland’s Advanced Materials and BioEngineering Research (Amber) center at Trinity College in Dublin and SurgaColl Technologies in Cork, a spin-off…

  • New Process Expands Samples for Microscope Magnification

    16 January 2015. Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed a process for expanding the size of tissue samples that makes possible high resolution images with ordinary laboratory materials and microscopes. The team led by MIT bioengineering professor Ed Boyden published its findings yesterday in the online journal Science Express (paid subscription required). Microscopes have…

  • Biotech, Device Maker Partner on Retinal Disease Therapy

    7 January 2015. GenSight Biologics, a Paris-based biotechnology company, and Pixium Vision, a developer of vision restoration systems also in Paris, are collaborating with a French vision and hearing foundation to design a therapy for people with retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic disorder causing people to lose their vision over time. The project is funded by…

  • Computer Model Predicts Bacteria Mutations, Aids Drug Design

    2 January 2014. Researchers at Duke University and University of Connecticut wrote a mathematical model with open-source software that predicts mutations in bacteria to help design treatments for bacteria resistant to antibiotics. A team of computer scientists and biochemists from the two universities published their findings on 31 December 2014 in Proceedings of the National…

  • Simpler, Lens-Free Microscope Developed

    18 December 2014. Engineers and medical researchers at University of California in Los Angeles designed a new type of microscope that combines holograms with computational techniques to generate images of pathology samples with quality comparable to lens-type microscopes. The team led by electrical and biomedical engineering professor Aydogan Ozcan published its findings yesterday in the…

  • Eye Tracking System Devised to Diagnose Brain Injuries

    17 December 2014. Researchers at New York University Medical Center designed a technology that spots brain injuries in patients by tracking their eye movements while watching a few minutes of videos. The team led by neuroscience and physiology professor Uzma Samadani, with colleagues from other NYU departments and VA New York Harbor Healthcare System, published…

  • Spin-Off Building Simplifed Signal Processing Connections

    16 December 2014. An engineering lab at Columbia University in New York is spinning off a new company aiming to design simpler connections between analog and digital signals as systems get smaller and performance becomes more demanding. Seamless Devices Inc., founded by electrical engineering professor Peter Kinget and former graduate student Jayanth Kuppambatti, began in…

  • Nanomedicine Developer Secures $7.5M Venture Funds

    15 December 2014. Cristal Therapeutics, a developer of medications formulated as nanoscale particles, raised more than €6 million ($7.5 million) in early-stage venture funds. The financing round for the company, based in Maastricht, The Netherlands, was led by Chemelot Ventures, with current seed investors Thuja Capital, BioGeneration Ventures, Nedermaas, Utrecht University Holding, and Beheer Innovatiefonds…

  • SpaceX Mission to Carry University Pathogen Research

    12 December 2014. The next launch of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station will carry a set of specially-configured petri dishes testing the effect of microgravity on the virulence of salmonella bacteria. The research is the work of microbiologists at Arizona State University and engineers at University of Colorado in Boulder. Salmonella…