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Research on Insects Leads to Forestry Biochemical Start-Up
Biochemical researchers at University of Nevada in Reno started a company making compounds to control forest pests, based on their research in insect enzymes. Rubi Figueroa-Teran and Claus Tittiger, in Reno’s College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, started the company EscaZyme Biochemicals and were invited to join National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps (I-Corps) to get the…
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Grant to Fund Patient-Sourced Health Outcome Measures
PatientsLikeMe, a health data-sharing network and platform in Cambridge, Massachusetts, received a $1.9 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to establish a system for involving patients in the development of health outcome measures. Paul Wicks, PatientsLikeMe’s research director (pictured right), is scheduled to describe the project today at the TED2013 conference in Long…
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Patent Issued for Drug Technology with Prostate Treatment
Medifocus Inc. in Columbia, Maryland received a patent for a technique of delivering heat-sensitive drugs with its treatment for enlarged prostate. U.S. patent 8,374,702 was awarded to Medifocus chief operating officer John Mon and MIT engineer Alan Fenn on 12 February and assigned to Medifocus. The patent covers a technology for delivering drugs targeted to…
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Pharmas Recall Anemia Drug for Dialysis Patients
Affymax Inc. in Palo Alto, California and Takeda Pharmaceuticals Company in Osaka, Japan are recalling its drug Omontys in the U.S. after reported cases of anaphylaxis, a serious and life-threatening allergic reaction. The recall is being coordinated with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Omontys, the branded form of the drug peginesatide, is a synthetic…
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NSF Adding Three I-Corps University Innovation Centers
National Science Foundation is adding three regional consortiums under its Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program to encourage campus entrepreneurship from university research. The three awards going to university I-Corps nodes in and around San Francisco, Washingon, D.C., and New York City total some $11.2 million. I-Corps aims to help academic scientists funded through NSF make the…
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Nanoscale Technique Welds Polymer Materials with Light
Physicists and materials scientists at North Carolina State University in Raleigh developed a technique to attach portions of polymers by melting aligned nanoparticles with light waves. The researchers describe their process in a recent online issue of the journal Particle & Particle Systems Characterization (paid subscription required). The team led by physicists Jason Bochinski and…
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Robotic Bat Wing Developed to Simulate Flight Dynamics
Biologists and engineers at Brown University in Providence created a robotic bat wing that simulates the aerodynamics of bats, but can also be applied to the design of small pilotless aircraft. The team from the labs of Brown engineer Kenneth Breuer and biologist Sharon Swartz published results from early experiments with the device in the…
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Artificial Ears with Living Cells Created by 3D Printing
Biomedical engineers and physicians at Cornell University in New York developed a process to create artificial human ears from animal cells that resembles real ears, and offers a form on which live cartilage cells can grow. The Cornell researchers published their findings yesterday in the online journal PLoS One. The team led by Jason Spector,…
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Merck, Samsung to Collaborate on Biosimilars
The pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. in New Jersey and Samsung Bioepis Co. in Seoul, South Korea agreed on a deal for licensing and taking to market non-branded biologic therapies called biosimilars. While the companies released an outline of the financial arrangements, the dollar amount of the agreement was not disclosed. Biosimilars are treatments and…
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Informatics Tools Underused to Fight Hospital Infections
Researchers at the Regenstrief Institute in Indianapolis report relatively few professionals responsible for controlling hospital-based infections are engaged in or even aware of automated systems designed to share data about these infections. The findings of the survey led by Regenstrief’s Brian Dixon, with colleagues from Indiana University medical school (affiliated with Regenstrief Institute), and the…