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Rice, Baylor to Study Hydrogel, Stem Cell Scaffolding
Researchers at Rice University in Houston and Baylor College of Dentistry in Dallas received a National Institutes of Health grant to develop an injectable hydrogel that forms an active biological scaffold for tissue repair in a patient. The $1.7 million, five-year project will focus on the regeneration of the dentin-pulp complex found inside human teeth.…
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Cancer Diagnostics Biotech Lands $13 Million Series B Funds
Epic Sciences Inc., a biotechnology diagnostics developer in San Diego, secured $13 million in series B financing, the second round of venture funding after initial start-up. The funding round includes new investors Domain Associates, Roche Venture Fund, and Pfizer Venture Investments, as well as undisclosed individual participants. Epic Sciences exclusively licensed research by the lab…
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Genomics Institute to Back Umbilical Cord Stem Cell Company
Ontario Genomics Institute in Toronto, Canada is investing in Tissue Regeneration Therapeutics, also in Toronto, a company developing a technology for medical treatments with stems cells extracted from umbilical cords. Financial aspects of the investment were not disclosed. The technology developed by Tissue Regeneration Therapeutics uses human umbilical cord perivascular cells or HUCPVCs that are extracted…
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VC, University Partner on Medical Device Start-Up Company
George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and venture capital company Allied Minds Inc. in Boston, formed LuxCath LLC, a new company that makes a device for increasing the speed and safety of surgery for irregular heartbeat. LuxCath’s technology is based on research by faculty at George Washington’s medical school and engineering department. LuxCath is developing…
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Universities, Biotechs to Research Epilepsy Treatments
A consortium of universities and biotechnology companies in Europe are developing a new strategy for treating epilepsy, a neurological disease affecting 50 million people worldwide. The group called EPIXCHANGE includes researchers from Lund University in Sweden, University of Ferrara in Italy, and the biotech companies Bioviron in France and NsGene in Denmark. Epilepsy covers a…
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Metamaterials Enhanced to Improve Invisibility Functions
Researchers at Duke University in North Carolina improved the invisibility functions of materials engineered to deflect light waves and hide objects from view, with potential uses in fiber optic communications. Engineering graduate student Nathan Landy and professor David Smith published their findings online yesterday in the journal Nature Materials (paid subscription required). In 2006, Smith…
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Taking a break
We’re taking a post-election break for the rest of the week, thus we will not publish anything new until Monday, 12 November. See you then. * * *
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Self-Cleaning Surfaces Tested that Emulate Natural Models
Engineers at Ohio State University in Columbus devised and tested material surfaces that clean themselves and reduce drag, based on models in nature such as shark skin and butterfly wings. Mechanical engineering professor Bharat Bhushan and doctoral candidate Gregory Bixler recently published their findings online in the journal Soft Matter (paid subscription required). Materials that…
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Takeda Pharma to Acquire Envoy Therapeutics
Takeda Pharmaceuticals, in Osaka, Japan, will acquire the drug discovery company Envoy Therapeutics in Jupiter, Florida for $140 million. Takeda says the merger will mean moving Envoy’s management and scientific staff to Takeda’s San Diego offices after March 2013. Envoy was founded by biophysicist and 2000 Nobel prize winner Paul Greengard, and Rockefeller University colleague…
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Dual-Purpose Medical Imaging Contrast Agent Developed
Biomedical engineers from University at Buffalo in New York and medical researchers at University of Toronto in Canada developed a new type of contrast agent applicable to two medical imaging technologies. The findings of the Buffalo-Toronto team are described in a recent issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society (paid subscription required). The…