Science and Enterprise

Tag: U.K.

  • Cambridge Univ. Spin-Off Creates Drug Testing Stem Cells

    A spin-off company from Cambridge University in the U.K. is commercializing a technology to convert adult stem cells into human liver cells suitable for drug testing. The technology, say its developers from Cambridge’s Anne McLaren Laboratory for Regenerative Medicine, can also test for a number of inherited liver diseases and has the potential to accelerate…

  • Graphene Layers Used to Build Nanoscale Power Transformer

    Researchers from the U.K., Netherlands, U.S., Russia, and Japan created a nanoscale electric power transformer from one-atom layers of graphene and other materials. The work led by Leonid Ponomarenko and Andre Geim at University of Manchester is described online in the journal Nature Physics (paid subscription required). The process developed by Ponomarenko, Geim, and colleagues…

  • University Spin-Off Developing Super-Porous Nanomaterials

    A spin-off company from Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland is commercializing research on highly porous nanoscale materials, using a simple, safe process for synthesizing these materials developed at the university. The research by Queens chemistry professor Stuart James on these materials, known as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), has led to the founding of the company…

  • Solar Cells Built to Power Portable Devices in Low Light

    Chemistry researchers at University of Warwick in the U.K. and Molecular Solar Ltd., a Warwick spin-off company in nearby Coventry, created an organic solar cell that generates enough power to recharge a lithium-ion battery directly and can work in various levels of light, including partial shade. The team led by Warwick professor Tim Jones (pictured…

  • GlaxoSmithKline to Open its Clinical Trial Data

    The global pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline based in London will make available detailed data from its clinical trials for testing new drugs. The company will also make available 200 compounds from its library with potential for inhibiting tuberculosis and double the funding for its Open Lab project in Spain. GlaxoSmithKline will create a system that makes…

  • AstraZeneca Licenses Kidney Disease Complications Treatment

    AstraZeneca, a global pharmaceutical company based in the U.K., agreed to license a compound to treat complications of chronic and end-stage kidney disease from Ardelyx in Fremont, California. The deal that provides AstraZeneca with an exclusive worldwide license has a value of at least $272.5 million. Ardelyx develops small molecule drugs that restrict absorption in…

  • Enhanced MRI in Development for Faster Alzheimer’s Diagnosis

    Researchers at University of York in the U.K. are developing a new process that increases the sensitivity of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans to diagnose molecular events behind disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease. York’s Signal Amplification by Reversible Exchange or SABRE project conducting the research recently received a £3.6 million ($US 5.8 million) Strategic Award…

  • Tilted Screen Displays Developed for Mobile Devices

    Computer scientists at University of Bristol and Lancaster University in the U.K. and Nokia Research Center in Tampere, Finland created a display technology that can physically adjust parts of the screen at different angles to provide more dramatic 3-D effects. The developers of the Tilt Displays, as the screen is called, will discuss the technology…

  • Home Computer Fetal Ultrasound System Developed

    Engineers at Newcastle University in the U.K. created a low-cost ultrasound scanner that can display images of a fetus on a home computer display. The device aims to make the monitoring of fetal development a more routine task, particularly in less developed areas of the world. The scanner, about the size of a computer mouse,…

  • New Materials Developed with Vast Surface Areas

    Materials scientists and engineers at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois and University of Surrey in the U.K. created two new synthetic materials with the largest reported amounts of internal surface area. The researchers published their findings online in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (paid subscription required). The two new materials, known as NU-109…