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Lung Function App Service Expanded to Any Phone
3 May 2016. A computer science lab extended the abilities of its smartphone app that measures lung function to a call-in service for any phone in the world. The team led by engineering and computer science professor Shwetak Patel at University of Washington will discuss the new service at the ACM Computer-Human Interaction (CHI) 2016…
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Drug Pricing Reform Even Big Pharma Might Like
2 May 2016. At a press event in Washington, D.C. last week, Representative Lloyd Doggett of Texas, a champion of lower prescription drug prices, took aim at drug companies and their business practices. “An unaffordable drug is 100 percent ineffective,” Doggett told an audience at Center for American Progress on 26 April. He noted that…
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Challenge Seeks New Regenerative Tools with Stem Cells
29 April 2016. A challenge offered through InnoCentive is seeking new methods of harnessing adult stem cells for regenerative medicine. The competition has a total purse of $15,000 and a 24 June 2016 deadline for submissions. The sponsor of the challenge, pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim, also seeks research plans related to the challenge proposals, with…
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University Lab Spins-Off Fertility Testing Company
29 April 2016. A new company is taking shape that aims to make it easier for women to get pregnant, based on research at a biochemistry lab at University of Wisconsin. BluDiagnostics, in Madison, founded by postdoctoral research Katie Brenner in the lab of biochemistry professor Douglas Weibel, a co-founder of the company, already raised…
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Collaboration Explores Humanitarian Satellite Applications
28 April 2016. A start-up satellite imaging provider and agency of the United Nations are partnering on new ways to use satellite imaging to further the UN’s humanitarian, peace-keeping, and climate change mitigation missions. Financial terms between BlackSky Global LLC in Seattle and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, or Unitar, were not…
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Engineered T-Cells Get High Leukemia Remission in Trial
28 April 2016. A clinical trial shows engineered immune-system cells transplanted in patients with one form of leukemia achieves a 93 percent remission rate. Results of the trial, at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, were reported in the 25 April issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation. Fred Hutchinson Center researchers were…
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Sanofi Adopting Big Data for Diabetes Drug Adherence
27 April 2016. Drug maker Sanofi is partnering with two research institutes to harness big data analytics for predicting how people with type 2 diabetes will take their medications. Sanofi’s U.S. division in Bridgewater, New Jersey announced the collaborations today with Duke Clinical Research Institute in Durham, North Carolina and Center for Assessment Technology and…
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Phones, Wearables Studied to Monitor Brain Disorders
27 April 2016. A project now underway in Europe plans to develop techniques for smartphones and wearable devices to monitor people with depression, epilepsy, and multiple sclerosis. The 5-year, €22 million ($US 25 million) initiative known as Remote assessment of disease and relapse – Central Nervous System, or Radar-CNS, is funded by the Innovative Medicines…
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NeuroVive, Penn Partner on Traumatic Brain Injury
26 April 2016. A pharmaceutical company in Sweden is collaborating with University of Pennsylvania’s medical school in preclinical studies of a new drug that protects against long term damage caused by traumatic brain injury. Financial terms of the agreement between NeuroVive Pharmaceutical AB in Lund, Sweden and the university were not disclosed. NeuroVive develops drugs…
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Genetic Techniques Quickly Build Crop Disease Resistance
26 April 2016. Plant scientists in the U.K. developed genetic engineering techniques that quickly clone resistance to plant diseases affecting wheat, soybeans, and potatoes. The techniques are described in articles appearing in the 25 April issue of the journal Nature Biotechnology (paid subscription required). Teams from the John Innes Centre and Sainsbury Laboratory in Norwich…