-
Organ Chip Spin-Off Gains $28M in Venture Funds
28 March 2016. A two year-old company developing chip devices that simulate human organs is adding $28 million in venture capital to its treasury. This is the second venture funding round for Emulate Inc., in Boston, a spin-off enterprise from the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University. Emulate Inc. creates plastic chip…
-
Sensor Material Developed to Detect Fuel Vapors
28 March 2016. A University of Utah engineering team designed a new ultra-sensitive material that can detect traces of hydrocarbon fuel or explosive vapors in the air. Researchers from the lab of Ling Zang published their findings earlier this month of the journal ACS Sensors; paid subscription required. Zang, a professor of engineering and materials…
-
Smartphone App to Support Alzheimer’s Caregivers
25 March 2016. Researchers at Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis are designing a smartphone app that taps social media to assist caregivers providing help for people with Alzheimer’s disease. The team of IUPUI social work professor David Wilkerson, gerontology psychiatrist Daniel Bateman, and informatics professor Erin Brady are supported by an innovation grant from the…
-
Microneedle Patch Delivers Melanoma Immunotherapy
25 March 2016. An engineering group created and tested in mice a patch with tiny needles that applies drugs stimulating the immune system to fight melanoma, an advanced form of skin cancer. The team from the lab of Zhen Gu, in a joint biomedical engineering program at North Carolina State University and University of North…
-
Regeneron, Bayer Collaborating on Eye Disorder Drug
24 March 2016. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and drug-maker Bayer AG are developing a combination of biologic drugs to treat the eye disorders wet age-related macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema. The agreement — the third such deal between the companies — is expected to bring Regeneron as much as $130 million if all milestones are met.…
-
Propeller, Boehringer Partner on Inhaler Adherence Study
23 March 2016. The pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim is collaborating with a mobile health technology developer to track use of its medications for asthma and COPD administered with its inhaler. Financial aspects of the agreement between Propeller Health in Madison, Wisconsin, and Boehringer Ingelheim were not disclosed. Boehringer Ingelheim, headquartered in Germany, markets a number…
-
New Biotech Begins Work on Enhanced Platinum Cancer Drugs
23 March 2016. A new biotechnology company began work today on developing improved platinum-based treatments for solid tumor cancers. The company, Placon Therapeutics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a spin-off enterprise from Tarveda Therapeutics, a developer of biologic cancer drugs. Placon Therapeutics focuses on new treatments for cancer using platinum as a cancer-killing agent that works…
-
Quick Tests for Mosquito-Borne Viruses Being Developed
22 March 2016. A Canadian company is developing diagnostic tests that it says can detect in 1 minute antibodies in blood indicating the early-stage presence of Zika and other mosquito-borne viruses. The company bioLytical Laboratories in Richmond, British Columbia says its proof-of-concept studies show the feasibility of these quick, point-of-care tests to diagnose dengue and…
-
Nanoparticles Shown to Target Tumors, Avoid Adjacent Cells
22 March 2016. A small-scale clinical trial shows cancer drugs formulated into nanoparticles accumulate in solid tumors in humans, while avoiding adjacent healthy tissue. The team from California Institute of Technology in Pasadena published its findings yesterday (21 March) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The CalTech team, led by chemical engineering…
-
23andMe Creates Research Software for iPhone Apps
21 March 2016. The personal genetics company 23andMe wrote a software module for Apple’s ResearchKit platform that makes it possible to add genetics data to iPhone apps used in medical research. The module, says 23andMe, in Mountain View, California, also supports genetics data from other sources, with three research apps now using the software to…