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  • Stem Cell Method Developed to Increase Bone Strength

    Medical researchers from University of California at Davis and engineering faculty at University of California at Berkeley have developed a technique to increase bone growth by stimulating stem cell activity in bones. The team’s findings appear online in the journal Nature Medicine (paid subscription required). The research team led by Wei Yao of UC Davis’s…

  • Semiconductor Sales Gain in 2011, Decline in 4th Quarter

    The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) in Washington, D.C. says worldwide semiconductor sales for 2011 reached a record $299.5 billion, an annual increase of 0.4 percent from $298.3 billion recorded in 2010. But sales for semiconductors at the end of 2011 dropped off compared to the same period in the previous year. In the last quarter…

  • InnoCentive Acquires London-Based OmniComplete

    InnoCentive Inc. in Waltham, Massachusetts, a provider of open-innovation and crowdsourcing competitions, says it has acquired OmniCompete Limited based  in London, U.K. that also conducts challenge contests. No financial terms were disclosed. InnoCentive says it plans to adds OmniComplete’s experience in big-ticket competitions to InnoCentive’s so-called Grand Challenges, contests with larger payouts. Among the larger…

  • Grants for Orphan Disease Academic-Industry Partnerships

    The Wellcome Trust in the U.K. has unveiled new funding for academic-industry partnerships in early-stage research and development projects targeting orphan and neglected diseases. The Pathfinder Awards aim to encourage pilot research projects with potential for developing new products that address diseases affecting a small percentage of the population (orphan diseases) or conditions that that…

  • Biotech, Diagnostics Companies Partner on Microbe Detection

    SDIX, a biotechnology company in Newark, Delaware and BD Diagnostics in Sparks, Maryland have agreed to collaborate on the development of systems to detect microorganisms, in a deal worth as much as $3.75 million. BD Diagnostics is a division of the medical technology company Becton Dickinson and Company in New Jersey. The goal of the…

  • Challenge Seeks Sustainable Material Substitute for Wood

    A new challenge on Innocentive seeks materials or processes that can be used create materials with the physical properties of softwoods, but are more sustainable than natural wood. The competition has a prize of $20,000 and a deadline of 31 March 2012 for submissions. InnoCentive in Waltham, Massachusetts is a company the conducts open-innovation crowd-sourcing…

  • Merck, Biopharm to Partner on Hypoxia-Targeting Cancer Drug

    Threshold Pharmaceuticals Inc., a biopharmaceutical company in South San Francisco, California and Merck KGaA, the global drug manufacturer in Darmstadt, Germany have agreed to co-develop and commercialize Threshold’s drug TH-302. The drug TH-302 targets hypoxia, caused by low oxygen levels due to insufficient blood vessel growth, a common condition of tissues with many solid tumors,…

  • Warfarin, Aspirin Provide Similar Stroke Prevention

    In a six-year, 11-country clinical trial, researchers at Columbia University found aspirin and the anti-clotting drug warfarin to offer about equal protection against death and strokes in heart failure patients with normal heart rhythms. The findings of the study led by Columbia medical school professor Shunichi Homma were presented at the International Stroke Conference in…

  • Eye Treatment Delivery Option to Syringe Being Developed

    Engineers at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada have developed a new system using an implanted patch to deliver drugs to the back of the eye, as an alternative to direct injection with a syringe. The results of their research appear online in the Journal of Biomaterials Applications (paid subscription required). The team led by…

  • Manchester to Host U.K. Graphene Research Institute

    The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) in the U.K. confirmed today that University of Manchester will host the U.K.’s national graphene institute, a facility for graphene research and commercialization activities planned for use by both scientists and businesses. University of Manchester is the home of Sir Andre Geim and Sir Kostya Novoselov, who…