Tag: university

  • Patent Awarded for Fractal Connections in Implants

    28 July 2015. Electronic microcircuits designed to resemble fractals in nature used in implanted medical devices received a patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Patent number 9,079,017 was awarded on 14 July 2015 to physicist and materials scientist Richard Taylor at University of Oregon and Simon Brown at University of Canterbury in New…

  • Computer Model Predicts Protein Binding to DNA, RNA

    28 July 2015. Geneticists and computer scientists wrote a machine-learning model for predicting the way proteins bind to genetic material, and uncovering mutations causing disease. The team led by Brendan Frey with the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research in Toronto published its findings yesterday in the journal Nature Biotechnology (paid subscription required). Frey and other…

  • Allergan Acquires Depression Therapy Developer for $560M

    27 July 2015. Pharmaceutical maker Allergan plc is acquiring Naurex Inc., a designer of fast-acting therapies for depression and other neurological disorders, for $560 million. The deal covers Naurex’s products now in clinical trials, with the company’s technology platform and preclinical research spun-off into a new enterprise. Naurex, a spin-off company from Northwestern University in…

  • Dental Implants Found Prone to Fractures

    22 July 2015. A review of manufactured dental implants discarded because of bone loss in the jaw of their wearers, indicates more than 6 in 10 of the devices had cracks or similar mechanical defects. The findings from the study by Keren Shemtov-Yona, a dentist and engineering doctoral student at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in…

  • Cough Diagnostics Mobile App in Clinical Trial

    22 July 2015. A smartphone app designed to diagnose the nature of a cough by the sound it makes is now being tested in a clinical trial in Australia. The app, developed in the lab of engineering professor Udantha Abeyratne at University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia was licensed to a spin-off company from the…

  • Trial Shows Engineered T-Cells Act on Multiple Myeloma

    21 July 2015. An early-stage clinical trial shows immune system cells from patients with the blood-related cancer multiple myeloma — modified to attack a protein suspected of helping the cancer grow — generated a positive clinical response in most of the participants. The team from University of Pennsylvania cancer center, University of Maryland medical school,…

  • Navy Seeks Graphene Nanoribbons for Electricity Distribution

    20 July 2015. The U.S. Navy wants a more efficient way to distribute electric power on its ships, and believes ultrathin ribbons made of graphene may help them do it. The Office of Naval Research awarded an $800,000 grant to the lab led by engineering professor Cemal Basaran at University at Buffalo to find out more…

  • Early Test Shows Alzheimer’s Candidate Lowers Brain Deposits

    20 July 2015. A drug developed to treat Alzheimer’s disease reduced a large percentage of accumulated harmful peptides and proteins in brains of laboratory mice induced with the disorder. Results of the tests were reported today by the biotechnology company Treventis Corp. in Philadelphia, developer of the drug code-named TRV-101. Alzheimer’s disease is progressive neurodegenerative…

  • Wireless System Developed to Deliver Drugs to Brain

    17 July 2015. Engineers and medical researchers designed and tested in animals a system that implants drugs for the brain in ultra-thin optical cables, then triggers their release through wireless signals. The proof-of-concept system, developed at Washington University in St. Louis and University of Illinois in Urbana, is described in yesterday’s issue of the journal…

  • Genetic Engineered Variety Controls Destructive Moth

    16 July 2015. A genetically engineered diamondback moth that prevents females of the species from maturing is found in greenhouse tests to quickly control populations of this destructive pest. Results of the tests, led by biotechnology company Oxitec Ltd., appear today in the journal BMC Biology. The diamondback moth — Plutella xylostella — is a…