Science and Enterprise

Tag: Asia

  • Biotech, Pharma Companies to Collaborate on New Vaccines

    Medicago Inc. in Quebec City, Canada and Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corp. in Osaka, Japan have agreed to develop and commercialize at least three new vaccines based on Medicago’s technology. The first part of the deal is expected to provide Medicago with up to $C33 million ($US 33 milion) in revenues. The partnership will give Mitsubishi…

  • Nanotech Fiber Material Converts Heat to Electricity

    Researchers at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina have developed a fiber-like material with the ability to convert heat, such as body heat, into electric power. The team, which includes researchers from universities in New Zealand and Korea, and the company NanoTechLabs Inc. in nearby Yadkinville, North Carolina published its findings online in the…

  • Semiconductor Sales Gain in 2011, Decline in 4th Quarter

    The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) in Washington, D.C. says worldwide semiconductor sales for 2011 reached a record $299.5 billion, an annual increase of 0.4 percent from $298.3 billion recorded in 2010. But sales for semiconductors at the end of 2011 dropped off compared to the same period in the previous year. In the last quarter…

  • Prostate Cancer Therapy Shown Effective in Chemo Patients

    A phase 3 clinical trial has shown a new drug to treat prostate cancer is effective with patients who had previously been treated with chemotherapy. The results of the study of MDV3100 — made by the biopharmaceutical company Medivation Inc. in San Francisco and Astellas Pharma Inc. in Tokyo, Japan — will be presented tomorrow…

  • Faster, More Sensitive Flu Diagnostics Developed

    Researchers at the RIKEN Omics Science Center in Yokohama, Japan have developed a new technique to identify influenza virus infection in only 40 minutes and with 100 times the sensitivity of conventional methods. The findings from the team led by RIKEN Omics’ Toshihisa Ishikawa appear in the online journal PLoS ONE. Ishikawa and his colleagues…

  • Process IDs Rice Traits to Help Tsunami-Hit Rice Growers

    A collaboration between scientists in Japan and the U.K. is developing methods to identify genetic markers that can help cut the time needed to breed salt-tolerant and shorter rice to help Japanese growers recover from the tsunami in March 2011. The new process, called MutMap, is described online in the journal Nature Biotechnology (paid subscription…

  • Report: Asia Closing Gap in U.S. R&D Leadership

    National Science Foundation’s new report on global research and development (R&D) trends, Science and Engineering Indicators 2012, shows in the last decade, U.S. leadership in research and development has come under severe challenge from China and other countries in Asia. The report from NSF’s policy-making body, the National Science Board, shows between 1999 and 2009,…

  • Modified Graphene Found to Dissipate Electronics Heat

    Researchers in the U.S., Korea, and China have discovered a modified form of the material graphene with better thermal properties than graphene in its natural state. The team led by Alexander Balandin, an engineering professor at University of California – Riverside, published its findings online in the journal Nature Materials (paid subscription required). The researchers…

  • $600M Venture Fund Targets Technology, Health Care Sectors

    Canaan Partners, a venture capital company in Menlo Park, California says it has closed contributions to a new fund to finance start-ups in the technology and health care fields. The company says the $600 million fund, the ninth such fund in its series, will support new technology and health care entrepreneurs. Canaan Partners says two-thirds…

  • U.S. Patent Granted for Soft Tissue Reconstruction Implant

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has awarded a patent to Novus Scientific in Singapore for a resorbable mesh implant to be used in the reconstruction of soft tissue defects. The patent — number 8,083,755 — covers the mesh implant material that breaks down and is assimilated back into the body. Novus Scientific developed the…