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Ford to Open Silicon Valley Research Lab
Automobile maker Ford Motor Company says it will open a new research facility during the first quarter of 2012 located in the Silicon Valley region of California near San Francisco. The lab will be part of Ford’s Research and Innovation division, according to chief technical officer Paul Mascarenas who made the announcement in a statement…
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Cleantech Investment Volume Up, Deal Numbers Down in 2011
Global investment dollars in clean technologies increased in 2011 from the previous year, but the number investment deals declined somewhat, according to the industry research company CleanTech Group in San Francisco. Clean technologies, as defined by Cleantech Group, include renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, as well as energy efficiency, pollution control, infrastructure…
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Ophthalmology Drug Delivery Start-Up Gets $4M Investment
An Atlanta-based start-up, Clearside Biomedical, has received a $4 million venture capital investment from Hatteras Venture Partners in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. Clearside Medical is commercializing technology developed at Emory University and Georgia Tech that delivers drugs to precise locations in the eye using hollow microneedles. Research behind the Clearside Biomedical technology was conducted…
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Electronics Show to Feature Science Start-Up Exhibits
The 2012 CES in Las Vegas, the world’s largest consumer electronics trade show, will feature an exhibit of start-up companies and technologies emerging from research and development, including small businesses funded by National Science Foundation. The exhibit, called Eureka Park, is a collaboration of the National Science Foundation (NSF), Startup America Partnership, CNET, and UK…
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Forma, Boehringer Ingelheim to Partner on Cancer Drugs
Forma Therapeutics, a biotechnology company in Watertown, Massachusetts says it signed an agreement with the German pharmaceutical maker Boehringer Ingelheim to discover and develop drug candidates for cancer. The deal involves the discovery of small molecule drugs targeting interactions among proteins. Forma’s technology for cancer drug discovery involves computational and medicinal chemistry, parallel synthesis, and…
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Lizard Tail Feedback Boosts Jumping Robot Stability
A team of biologists and engineers at University of California, Berkeley have documented the way lizards manage to leap successfully even when they slip and stumble, and applied that capability to robots. Berkeley professor of integrative biology Robert Full and colleagues, including graduate and undergraduate students, describe their findings in the 5 January online issue…
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Prototype Livestock Device Cuts Pollutants, Energy Use
Researchers from North Carolina State University in Raleigh, West Virginia University in Morgantown, and University of Maryland in College Park have developed a new technology that can lower harmful emissions from some chicken and swine barns, and reduce energy use by recovering heat. The authors published their findings in the December 2011 issue of the…
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Standards Proposed for Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Integrity
The U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) is proposing a set of recommended best practices to help ensure supply chain integrity, and reduce the risks of counterfeit or mishandled medicines. USP released the draft standards for comment in advance of a workshop on supply chain integrity at its headquarters in Rockville, Maryland on 22-23 May 2012. Supply…
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U.S. Patent Granted for Anti-Microbial Polymer Technology
Quick-Med Technologies Inc. in Gainesville, Florida says it has received a patent for its process that combines disinfectant and polymer to apply anti-microbial properties to surfaces, including human skin. Patent number 8,088,400, awarded on 3 January 2012 by the U.S. Patent and Tradmark Office, covers the company’s solution with opposite-charged polymers built into its line…
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Stem Cells to be Produced for Research in Muscle Disorders
BioTime Inc. in Alameda, California says it will market to researchers progenitors of muscle stem cells bearing hereditary diseases. The company says it will produce the cells from five human embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines provided by Reproductive Genetics Institute (RGI) in Chicago. The cell lines will display the genes for six hereditary muscle diseases:…