Science and Enterprise

Tag: U.K.

  • Inhaler Developed to Deliver Lung Cancer Treatments

    Researchers at University of Strathclyde in Glascow, Scotland have developed an inhalation-based process to administer treatments to lung cancer patients. The method uses a nebulizer that delivers drugs in the form of a fine mist, rather than the current intravenous delivery methods. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that more people in the…

  • Graphene Electronic Properties Configured for Computer Chips

    A team of physicists from the U.K., Russia, and Japan has proposed a method for using the light weight and conductivity of graphene in computer chips. The researchers, including Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov at University of Manchester in the U.K. who won the Nobel Prize in 2010 for their discovery of graphene, published their…

  • Genomics Consortium Adds Two Members, Gains $49 Million

    The Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) says it added two new pharmaceutical companies as members and $48.9 million in new funding. The partnership of drug companies and science funding agencies conducts basic drug discovery research, with its findings released to the public domain. SGC added Eli Lilly Canada and Pfizer Inc. to its membership that also…

  • U.S. Biotech Gets Approval for Stem Cell Trial in Europe

    Advanced Cell Technology Inc. in Marlborough, Massachusetts has received clearance from authorities in the U.K. to begin treating patients with compounds derived from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) as part of a clinical trial. The approval from the U.K. Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency involves a test of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) from hESCs…

  • U.K. Grant Awarded to Develop Non-Rare Earth Electric Engine

    The Technology Strategy Board in the U.K. has awarded a grant to two companies and a university to develop an engine not dependent on rare earth metals for electric vehicles. The funding worth £518,000 ($US 821,000) to companies Sevcon and Cummins Generator Technologies, and Newcastle University is aimed at building a new type of engine…

  • Superbug Therapy Based on University Research in Development

    MGB Biopharma, a biotechnology company in Glascow, U.K., is developing a new antibiotic treatment for resistant infections including MRSA and Clostridium Difficile (C. Diff.) bugs. The company licensed the discoveries from labs at University of Strathclyde, also in Scotland, that they are developing into oral and IV -administered drugs. C. Diff. is a bacterium that…

  • Review: Reminder Packaging Can Help Medication Adherence

    A review of studies conducted in the past few years shows instruction reminders on medication packaging helps some patients more closely follow those instructions. The review, led by health sciences professor Kamal Mahtani of Oxford University in the U.K., appears in the current issue of The Cochrane Library (paid subscription required). The analysis by Mahtani…

  • New Method Can Increase Commercial Antibiotic Yields

    Researchers from the U.K. and Japan have devised a new method for increasing the yields of antibiotic compounds from bacteria. The process, which has practical applications in commercial pharmaceutical production, is scheduled to be described this week in an online issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Most known antibiotics are…

  • Improved Cellulose Processing Developed for Biofuels

    A team of university and industry researchers in Europe and the U.S.  have developed a process to hasten the breakdown of cellulose in waste plant matter for conversion to ethanol. Their findings appear online in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Scientists with the company Novozymes in Davis, California, and Bagsvaerd, Denmark,…

  • Nanotech-Enhanced Graphene Can Propel Optical Communications

    Physicists and engineers from the universities of Manchester and Cambridge in the U.K. have devised a method for improving graphene devices as photodetectors in future high-speed optical communications. Their findings appear in the 30 August issue of the journal Nature Communications (paid subscription required). Graphene is a two-dimensional layer of carbon atoms arranged in a…