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Paralyzed Man Moves Hand with Neuro-Signal Implant System
24 June 2014. Engineers at Battelle Memorial Institute and physicians at Ohio State University medical center in Columbus demonstrated a device that enables people with a spinal cord injury to direct movement of limbs with their thoughts. The research team’s first patient is Ian Burkhart, a 23 year-old man from Dublin, Ohio taking part in…
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Ultrasound-Triggered Hydrogel Shown to Deliver Cancer Drug
24 June 2014. Bioengineers at Harvard University developed a technique with hydrogel and ultrasound that makes it possible to trigger short-term on-demand boosts of chemotherapy drugs. The team led by David Mooney of Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering published its findings online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (paid…
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Student Project Aims to Land Time Capsule on Mars
23 June 2014. Students from four U.S. universities — with help from research labs, not-for-profit organizations, and companies — are building a space vehicle to propel and land a time capsule of digital files from earth on the surface of Mars. The Time Capsule to Mars project also plans to raise $25 million through crowdfunding…
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Early Trial Shows Pneumonia Vaccine Safety, Immune Response
23 June 2014. An early-stage clinical trial testing a vaccine by Genocea Biosciences Inc. to prevent pneumonia and related bacterial diseases shows the vaccine caused no serious side effects and induced more immune system cells to prevent these infections. The Cambridge, Massachusetts biotechnology company says it plans to present the findings at a medical conference…
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Challenge Seeks Development Partner for Nanotech Biosensor
20 June 2014. A new challenge on InnoCentive calls for a medical technology company or institute to develop a new type of nanoscale biosensor for diagnostic and therapeutic applications. The challenge has no immediate financial award, but winners of the competition will earn the right to negotiate a compensated collaboration contract with the Cleveland Clinic,…
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U.K. Public-Private Partnership to Attack Dementia
20 June 2014. Medical Research Council, a science funding agency in the U.K., organized a consortium of academic and industry researchers to better detect, prevent, and treat dementia. The council and six industry partners plan to spend £16 million ($US 27.25 million) on the U.K. Dementias Research Platform that includes studies involving some 2 million…
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Foundation, Biopharm Partner on RNA-Interference Therapy
19 June 2014. Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc. in Cambridge, Massachusetts and the Alpha-1 Project in Miami are collaborating on advancing Alnylam’s therapy to treat alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, a rare genetic condition responsible for liver disorders and a lung disease similar to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD. Alpha-1 Project is the for-profit venture division of the…
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Lasers Embed Sensors in Smartphone Display Glass
19 June 2014. Engineers at École Polytechnique de Montréal and Corning Inc. in Corning, New York designed a process for embedding sensors into the display glass covers on smartphones. The research team led by doctoral candidate Jerome Lapointe published its findings in the 30 June 2014 issue of the journal Optics Express, published by Optical…
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Portfolio Model Proposed for Funding Alzheimer’s Research
18 June 2014. Financial and biomedical researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of California in Santa Barbara, and the biotechnology company Genentech outlined a different approach to funding research on Alzheimer’s disease that supports multiple simultaneous studies addressing various drug targets. The team led by MIT finance professor Andrew Lo published its findings today…
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FDA Issues Draft Industry Guidance on Social Media
18 June 2014. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued draft guidance for medical products companies on their use of social media to communicate with patients. The agency announced yesterday the documents’ availability for comment in a blog post authored by Thomas Abrams, director of FDA’s prescription drug information office. Abrams says the documents —…