Science and Enterprise

Tag: biotechnology

  • New Technology Promises Faster Drug Candidate Testing

    Scientists at the Universities of Toronto, Stanford, and Columbia have developed a technology called mass cytometry that measures the action and function of candidate prescription drugs faster and on a larger scale. The team’s findings appear this week in the journal Science (paid subscription required). Mass cytometry enables the measurement of up to 100 biomarkers…

  • Antibody-Based Biosensor Aids Environmental Cleanups

    Researchers at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) in Gloucester Point have built and tested an aquatic sensor device that uses antibodies to detect marine pollutants. The developers of the device published their test results that appear today in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (paid subscription required). The research team that built the…

  • California Supporting Embryonic Stem Cell Clinical Trial

    The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) awarded a $25 million grant to support the first FDA-approved clinical trial based on human embryonic stem cells. The award to Geron Corporation in Menlo Park, California, will support the company’s early phase trial, already underway, for people with spinal cord injury. CIRM, the state’s stem cell agency,…

  • Grant Awarded for New Technology to Develop Polio Vaccine

    The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded University of Central Florida in Orlando a grant to develop a tablet-based vaccine for polio using a new technology that promises to make vaccines faster, safer, and less expensive. The $761,302 two-year grant will fund research by UCF biotechnology professor Henry Daniell (pictured left). Most vaccines are…

  • Diagnostics Companies Get European Grant for Bladder Cancer

    Molecular diagnostics companies MDxHealth SA in Liege, Belgium and NovioGendix B.V. in Nijmegen, Netherlands have received a $1.1 million grant from Eurotrans-Bio to advance their bladder cancer program. NovioGendix is a spin-off company from Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre (RUNMC). Eurotrans-Bio is a European Commission initiative to encourage cross-border research and development between small companies…

  • NIH Panel to Study Biomedical Workforce Future

    A National Institutes of Health (NIH) working group will study the U.S. biomedical workforce of the future, but with limited input from private companies. Of the 12 members of the panel, only one participant — Garry Neil, vice president of Johnson & Johnson in New Brunswick, New Jersey — is from the private sector. The…

  • Company Tests Stem Cells Creating Liver Cells in Animals

    International Stem Cell Corporation (ISCO) in Carlsbad, California says it completed the first animal lab tests of hepatocytes — cells that make up most of the tissue in the liver — derived in the lab from human unfertilized egg stem cells. The results of the tests will be presented at scientific meetings in May and…

  • FDA Approves Drug for Rare Blood Vessel Disorders

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Rituxan (rituximab) as a therapy for two rare disorders that cause severe vasculitis or blood vessel inflammation. The drug was developed by Biogen Idec in Weston, Massachusetts, and is manufactured by Genetech in South San Francisco, California. The diseases approved for treatment by Rituxan — Wegener’s granulomatosis…

  • Molecular Probes Developed to Analyze Cancer Cells

    Chemical engineers at University of California, Santa Barbara have created molecular probes that the developers say can lead to new drugs to treat cancer and other illnesses. Chemical engineering professor Patrick Daugherty and postdoc Abeer Jabaiah published their findings in a recent online issue of the journal Chemistry & Biology (paid subscription required). Their work…

  • SBIR Grant Awarded for Drug-to-Drug Interactions Research

    Optivia Biotechnology Inc. in Menlo Park, California received a $1.85 million Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from National Institutes of Health to determine the mechanisms that underlie certain drug-to-drug interactions, to help improve medication safety. The award was made by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences at NIH. The phase 2 SBIR grant…