Science and Enterprise

Tag: U.K.

  • Pharmas, Foundations, Agencies Partner on Tropical Diseases

    In London yesterday, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 13 pharmaceutical companies, three governments, the World Bank and global health agencies announced a new plan to eliminate or control 10 neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) by 2020. The effort announced at an event at the Royal College of Physicians is aimed at 1.4 billion people living…

  • Nanotech Paint Devised to Monitor for Structural Damage

    Researcher engineers at University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, U.K. have developed a type of paint that can help detect early signs of structural damage in bridges or buildings. Because this “smart paint” can be applied like any other paint and requires little maintenance, it costs a small fraction of traditional instrument-based sensors. Strathclyde civil engineering…

  • Soap Developed with Magnetic Properties

    Researchers at University of Bristol in the U.K. and Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble, France have developed a soap with iron salts that can be controlled by magnets. The discovery is expected to lead to products useful in cleaning up oil spills at sea, which can be better captured and removed after use than currently available…

  • Process IDs Rice Traits to Help Tsunami-Hit Rice Growers

    A collaboration between scientists in Japan and the U.K. is developing methods to identify genetic markers that can help cut the time needed to breed salt-tolerant and shorter rice to help Japanese growers recover from the tsunami in March 2011. The new process, called MutMap, is described online in the journal Nature Biotechnology (paid subscription…

  • Consortium Develops Virtual Mouse for Lab Testing

    Simcyp Ltd. in Sheffield, U.K., a consortium of pharmaceutical and biotech companies and research universities, has created a virtual lab mouse for use in cancer and toxicological research. Simcyp is a spin-off enterprise from Sheffield University that develops modeling and simulation tools for lab testing. Lab mice are used frequently in the development of new drugs…

  • Foundation to Fund Drug Maker Diabetic Eye Disease Research

    KalVista Pharmaceuticals in Southampton, U.K. and JDRF in New York have formed a partnership to develop a drug candidate with potential to slow the advance of diabetic macular edema (DME). The collaboration aims to move KalVista’s plasma kallikrein inhibitor into human proof-of-concept clinical trials and generate clinical data to highlight its potential as a new…

  • European Grant Awarded for Research on Enhanced MRI

    A chemistry professor at University of Southampton in the U.K. has received a grant for research on enhanced nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), a principle underlying magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), widely used in medical diagnostics. Malcolm Levitt and colleagues at Southampton were awarded a four-year, €2.8 million ($US 3.8 million) grant from the European Research Council…

  • GSK, University of Dundee Partner on Huntington’s Disease

    University of Dundee in Scotland and the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) will collaborate in research to tackle Huntington’s disease, an inherited brain disorder. The joint project is valued at more than £1 million ($US 1.6 million). Dundee medical professor Susann Schweiger, who has discovered a mechanism that controls production of the disease-causing protein involved in…

  • Mobile Tech Developer Raises $15M in Expansion Round

    The Cambridge, U.K. mobile technology developer ip.access says it has closed a new $15 million round of funding from its current investors in the U.S. and Europe. The company makes small and low-power cellular base stations that boost signal coverage for mobile Internet devices. The collection of ip.access’s current investors all participated, including Amadeus Capital…

  • Dried Blood Test Developed, Spin-Off Company Formed

    Researchers at King’s College London have developed a process to screen patients for genetic and acquired clinical conditions from a single dried blood spot.  The college also started today a spin-off diagnostics company providing services using this method. The test, developed by a team from King’s College and clinician collaborators from King’s Health Partners Academic…