Tag: university

  • First Results Released from Lung Fibrosis Registry

    22 October 2015. The first results from a registry of individuals with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis show most people in the group have limited lung function and show symptoms for about a year before the disease is diagnosed. These findings and other characteristics of people taking part in the Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis – PRospective Outcomes (IPF-PRO)…

  • Trial Testing Aspirin to Prevent Cancer Recurrence

    22 October 2015. A new late-stage clinical trial is underway in the U.K. testing the ability of a daily aspirin to prevent the recurrence of solid tumor cancers. The trial is financed by the advocacy group Cancer Research UK and National Institute for Health Research, a medical research funding agency. The study, led by oncologist…

  • Gates Grant Funding Whooping Cough Antibody Test

    21 October 2015. A protein engineering lab at University of Texas in Austin is evaluating the potential of an engineered antibody to prevent pertussis, also known as whooping cough, among newborn infants. The study and lab are led by chemical engineering professor Jennifer Maynard, who is testing the antibody under a $400,000 grant from the…

  • Delivery Technique Devised to Cross Blood-Brain Barrier

    21 October 2015. Medical researchers developed a technique that allows drugs for treating neurological disorders to penetrate the blood-brain barrier, a difficult obstacle up to now. The team led by ear, nose, and throat, or ENT, specialist Benjamin Bleier at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Hospital and Harvard Medical School described its methods with lab mice…

  • Immunotherapy Start-Up Gains $102M in Venture Funds

    20 October 2015. A new enterprise founded by researchers in the U.S. and Europe that aims to provide personalized cancer therapies harnessing the immune system raised $102 million in its first round of venture financing. The company Gritstone Oncology — in San Francisco and Cambridge, Massachusetts —  says it plans to focus initially on developing…

  • Universal Wireless Charging Device Designed

    14 October 2015. Engineering researchers designed a prototype device that can simultaneously charge mobile phones compatible with leading wireless charging specifications. Dukju Ahn and Patrick Mercier at University of California in San Diego describe their device in a recent issue of the journal IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics (paid subscription required). Wireless charging of mobile devices…

  • Spin-Off to Provide Lower-Cost Molecular Imaging Technology

    13 October 2015. A new enterprise based on research at Harvard University is offering a technology that allows ordinary microscopes to display high resolution images of single molecules. The company, Ultivue Inc., is founded by and licensing technologies from the lab of Peng Yin at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. Yin and colleagues…

  • Study Shows Blood Test Finds Early Pancreatic Cancer

    12 October 2015. An evaluation of a blood test to find early stages of pancreatic cancer showed the test successfully identified early-stage cancer in the vast majority of study participants with the disease. The findings published by a team from diagnostics company VolitionRx in Belgium and Lund University in Sweden appeared last week in the…

  • Chip Device in Development to Simulate Human Gut

    9 October 2015. A team of medical researchers and engineers in North Carolina is developing a miniaturized device derived from human stem cells to better simulate the workings of a human gut. The five-year project is funded by $5.3 million grant from National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, part of National Institutes…

  • Harvard Spin-Off Commercializing Sepsis Treatment

    9 October 2015. A new enterprise spun-off from Harvard University is developing a device for treating sepsis, a life-threatening infection often contracted in hospitals. The company, Opsonix Inc. in Boston, also raised $8 million in its first round of venture funding. Opsonix is licensing a technology for treating sepsis developed in Harvard’s Wyss Institute for…