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EPA/NIH Challenge Seeks Air Pollution, Physiology Sensor
Two federal agencies will award a total of $160,000 for sensors that can map air pollution concentrations, but also provide the physiological responses to those pollutants. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of National Institutes of Health, are sponsoring the My Air, My Health Challenge with InnoCentive,…
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Patent Awarded for Sustained Release Drug Implant in Eyes
The company pSivida Corp., a medical device developer in Watertown, Massachusetts, has received a patent for its system to continuously deliver drugs to the eyes. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office awarded patent number 8,192,408 yesterday (5 June) to four inventors, including pSivida vice-presidents Martin Nazzaro and Hong Guo, and assigned it to pSivida. The…
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Daily Bathing of Elderly Sharply Reduces MRSA Infections
A study at an Ontario geriatric facility shows the bathing each day of acute care patients with antiseptic cloths resulted in a sustained decrease in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) incidence among those patients. The team led by Heather Candon, an infection prevention and control practitioner at Baycrest, a Toronto geriatric care facility, presented its findings…
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Grant to Fund Drug Reformulation for HIV Therapy
A $1.1 million grant from the National Research Council of Canada will fund research and development at University of British Columbia and iCo Therapeutics Inc. in Vancouver, B.C. to reformulate an existing drug into a therapy to fight HIV infection. The company iCo Therapeutics specializes in redosing or reformulating current drugs into new or expanded…
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Cellulosic Biofuel Process Close to Cost-Competitive
Chemical engineers at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana have devised a process for producing biofuels from non-food feedstocks they say is nearly cost-competitive with fossil fuels. An economic analysis of the process developed in the lab of Purdue’s Rakesh Agrawal is described in the journal Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery (paid subscription required). This method,…
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Low-Dose, High-Rez CT Scanning Technique Developed
Researchers from France, Germany, and Switzerland have devised an X-ray imaging technique that can improve the contrast of computed tomography (CT) scans while reducing the radiation dose of those scans. The results of the team led by Irene Zanette of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France will be published this week in the…
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Math Model Helps Predict Future Medical Problems
A University of Washington statistician, with colleagues from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Columbia University, have devised a mathematical model that predicts a patient’s possible medical conditions in the future based on the patient’s current and past medical history. The work of Washington’s Tyler McCormick (pictured right), with MIT’s Cynthia Rudin and Columbia’s David Madigan,…
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Solar Developer Secures $70 Million in Venture Financing
Nanosolar Inc. in San Jose, California says it has raised $70 million in new capital for further research and development and to expand production. This later-stage investment round includes current and new investors OnPoint Technologies, Inc., Mohr Davidow Ventures, Ohana Holdings LLC, and Family Offices. In February, the company secured $20 million in venture financing…
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International Consortium Studies Corn Genome
A collaboration of genetic and agricultural scientists from the U.S., Mexico, France, Kenya, and China have conducted a comprehensive analysis of the corn genome. The team, led by researchers from Cornell University and the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service, and funded by USDA and National Science Foundation, published their findings online in the journal Nature Genetics…
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U.S. STEM Grad Student Growth Rate Matches Foreign Students
A National Science Foundation report says the number of U.S. science and engineering graduate students at American universities increased 35 percent from 2000 to 2010, the same rate as students from overseas. The numbers of women, African-American, Hispanic, and Native American grad students in science and engineering — which includes technology and mathematics, to make…