Science and Enterprise

Tag: Canada

  • 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…

  • Global Venture Capital Volume Up in Q1, Deal Number Down

    The volume of venture deals for companies in the U.S., Europe, Canada, Israel, China, and India jumped 20 percent to $9.8 billion in the first quarter of 2011 compared to the same quarter in 2010. However, the number of deals worldwide declined 7 percent in the first quarter, to 967. The data compiled by Dow…

  • Remote-Control Intubation Device Developed for Anesthesia

    Physicians and engineers at McGill University Health Centre in Montreal, Canada have developed a remote-control system for intubation in anesthesia, and used the device for the first time on a live patient. Endotracheal intubation is a medical procedure in which a tube is placed into the windpipe, through the mouth or the nose to deliver…

  • Chlorine Found to Boost Flat Panel Display Technology

    Materials scientists at University of Toronto in Canada have found a simple way to use chlorine to reduce the complexity of Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) devices and improve their efficiency. The faculty/student team published their findings in this week’s issue of the journal Science (paid subscription required). OLEDs are used in a wide variety of…

  • Company-University Partnership to Help Develop Nuclear Fuel

    IBC Advanced Alloys Corp. in Vancouver, Canada signed research agreements with Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana and Texas Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) operated by Texas A&M University in College Station, to advance the company’s beryllium oxide (BeO) nuclear fuels R&D project. The project aims to develop high thermal conductivity BeO nuclear fuel that is…

  • Smartphone App Gives Voice to Those Who Cannot Speak

    Students at University of Toronto in Canada have designed a smartphone application that merges a voice synthesizer with a GPS to give people who cannot speak the words they need. The app, called MyVoice, is available for the iPhone, with an Android version in development. MyVoice is an assistive and augmentative communication device that adds…

  • Organic Nanoparticle in Development for Cancer Drug Delivery

    A research team at Ontario Cancer Institute in Toronto, Canada have created an organic nanoparticle that they say can potentially change the way tumors are treated. Their findings appear online in the journal Nature Materials (paid subscription required). The researchers, led by the institute’s Gang Zheng (pictured left), say these new nanoscale particles — 1…

  • Clinical Trial Underway for Seasonal/H1N1 Vaccine

    Medicago Inc., a biotechnology company in Quebec City, Canada has begun a phase I clinical trial of its H1N1 influenza vaccine candidate in the United States. The trial tests the drug’s safety, tolerability, and capacity to induce an immune response, with results expected in three months. The randomized, double-blind, multicenter, active- and placebo-controlled dose-ranging study…

  • Wide Variations in Pain-Killers Prescribed by Family MDs

    Some family physicians are prescribing opioids such as OxyContin at rates many times higher than their peers, according to a study by researchers at St. Michael’s Hospital and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) in Toronto, Canada. The study, published online in the journal Canadian Family Physician, also showed an association between the number…

  • Nanotech Emergency Water Treatment Technology Devised

    Chemistry researchers at McGill University in Montreal, Canada have developed a technology for a cheap, portable, paper-based water treatment system when disasters like floods or earthquakes strike. The team’s findings were published earlier this month in the Journal of Environmental Science and Technology (paid subscription required). The researchers, led by industrial chemistry professor Derek Gray,…