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Antibiotic Found Effective On Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis
Researchers in the U.S. and Korea found the antibiotic linezolid largely effective in treating patients with extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, who had not responded to previous treatments. The findings of the team led by Clifton Barry of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, and Sang-Nae Cho at…
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Lab Developing Fabric that Repels Chemical, Bio Agents
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California is developing a new material for military wear that repels chemical and biological agents using a fabric made from carbon nanotubes. The five-year, $13 million project is funded by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, with collaborators from MIT, Rutgers, University of Massachusetts, Natick (Mass.) Soldier Research Development and Engineering…
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Drug Developer BioCryst to Acquire Presidio Pharmaceuticals
BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc. in Durham, North Carolina and Presidio Pharmaceuticals Inc. in San Francisco agreed to a merger of the biopharmaceutical companies. The deal in which BioCryst acquires Presidio is an all-stock transaction valued at $101 million. The merger will combine two clinical stage drug development operations that the companies say will focus on infectious…
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Highly Sensitive Microscale Laser Accelerometer Developed
Physicists at California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and University of Rochester in New York built a microscale accelerometer, a motion sensing device that measures acceleration forces. The team led by Cal Tech applied physics professor Oskar Painter published its findings online this week in the journal Nature Photonics (paid subscription required). The forces measured…
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Study Aims for Improved Oil Extraction Methods Using CO2
Engineers at University of Pittsburgh are studying new, more economical ways of extracting crude oil from older wells using carbon dioxide (CO2). The work of principal investigators Eric Beckman and Robert Enick is funded by a 1.3 million grant from the National Energy Technology Laboratory, part of the U.S. Department of Energy. Older oil wells…
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Patent Awarded for RNA Process of Inhibiting Gene Expression
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office awarded a patent last week for the use of RNA interference to inhibit expression of a target gene in animal cells. Patent 8,283,329 was awarded on 9 October to eight inventors — including Andrew Fire and Craig Mello, winners of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine —…
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Rice, NIST to Partner on Nanoscale Carbon Materials Research
Rice University in Houston and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, Maryland will collaborate in research on nanoscale carbon particles interacting with other materials at the molecular and atomic levels. The five-year, $2.7 million cooperative research agreement is funded by NIST and expected to benefit the emerging field of advanced nanomaterials manufacturing.…
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Consortium to Develop Northeast U.S. Biofuels Supply Chains
Pennsylvania State University in University Park will lead a consortium of institutions, national labs, and companies to develop biofuel production and supply chain demonstration projects in the U.S. Northeast. The $10 million, five-year project is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative. The Northeast Woody/Warm-season Biomass Consortium, or NEWBio, will…
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Checklist System Helps Cut Hospital Blood Clot Cases
Johns Hopkins University medical center in Baltimore reports a computerized checklist system helped prescribe appropriate preventive treatments and reduce the number of blood clots in hospitalized trauma patients. The findings from the project are described in this month’s issue of the journal Archives of Surgery (paid subscription required). The hospital installed a computerized checklist system…
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Reprogrammed Stem Cells Help Test for Inherited Diseases
Researchers at University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, National Institutes of Health, and the company SAIC reprogrammed adult stem cells to develop a test for Gaucher disease and related inherited conditions. The team’s findings appear online in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers led by Maryland medical…