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Stanford University Adds Funds for Start-Up Accelerator
Stanford University and its hospital system, with the business accelerator program StartX, unveiled a three-year, $3.6 million fund to support early-stage enterprises started by Stanford-affiliated entrepreneurs. StartX is a training and mentoring program for founders of new companies with a connection to Stanford including students, faculty, postdocs, and alumni. StartX, a not-for-profit organization, connects new…
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Shanah Tovah 5774
The Jewish new year starts tonight and extends through tomorrow night, so Science and Enterprise will not be published tomorrow, 5 September. We wish everyone a wonderful and peaceful new year. Science and Enterprise will be back on Friday 6 September. * * *
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Biopharm Raises $45.9M in Venture Funding for Ear Disorders
Otonomy Inc., a biopharmaceutical company in San Diego specializing in middle and inner-ear disorders, collected $45.9 million in its third venture financing round. OrbiMed Advisors, a venture capital company specializing in health care investments, led the round with new investors Aperture Venture Partners and Osage University Partners taking part, along with current investors Avalon Ventures,…
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University of Houston Spins-Off Nanotech Coatings Company
A physics professor at University of Houston in Texas started a company to develop and manufacture protective coatings for industrial and consumer goods based on his research in nanotechnology. C-Voltaics, started by Houston physicist Seamus Curran, was awarded last week the Young Technology Award at the Commercialization of Micro- and Nanosystems conference in The Netherlands, according…
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Transparent Skull Implant Devised for Laser Brain Treatments
Engineers at University of California at Riverside developed a transparent material for implants in the skull that could allow for lasers to treat brain disorders. A team from the lab of mechanical engineering professor Guillermo Aguilar published its findings online last month in the journal Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine (paid subscription required). The advance…
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Top Hospital Infection Costs Estimated at $9.8B Per Year
Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston estimate the annual cost of the five leading infections contracted in health care facilities in the U.S. at $9.8 billion, with surgical site infections causing about one-third of those costs. The team led by Brigham and Women’s research fellow Eyal Zimlichman published its…
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Labor Day Holiday
Today is Labor Day in the U.S.A., so Science and Enterprise is taking a break as well. For the holiday, here’s Joan Baez singing “Joe Hill” at Woodstock in 1969. Nobody does it better. Science and Enterprise will return to regular posting tomorrow. * * *
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Menthol Cigarette Smoking Rising Among Teens, Young Adults
Public health researchers from University at Buffalo in New York found smoking of mentholated cigarettes is increasing among teenagers and young adults in the U.S., while smoking of non-menthol cigarettes declined in this age group. The findings of the team led by Buffalo’s Gary Giovino — with colleagues from Johns Hopkins and Georgetown universities, Biostatistics…
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Portal Launched Matching Cancer Cells to Drug Molecules
The Broad Institute, a medical research organization with scientists from Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, opened its Cancer Therapeutics Response Portal, an online resource that matches potential drug molecules to their sensitivities among hundreds of cancer cell lines. The portal is described this week in the journal Cell (paid subscription required), in an…
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Genetic Technique Tracks Salmonella Strain in Supply Chain
Agricultural scientists at Pennsylvania State University found a way of identifying and tracking strains of antibiotic resistant Salmonella bacteria through the food supply chain, even if the strain evolves. The team from the lab of food science professor Edward Dudley describes the technique in the September issue of the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (paid…