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Robotic System to Test 10,000 Compounds for Toxicity
Three U.S. agencies have begun a testing program of some 10,000 chemical compounds for potential toxicity. The Tox21 program is a collaboration of National Institutes of Health, Environmental Protection Agency, and Food and Drug Administration. The program aims to find out if these chemicals have the potential to disrupt human processes that can lead to…
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University Builds Virtual-Reality Factory Simulation
Iowa State University in Ames has built a simulated factory lab based on virtual reality technology. The lab, called Multimodal Experience Testbed and Laboratory or METaL, seeks to create natural interactions in virtual reality for industrial purposes, such as to design new parts, explore design functionality, or develop better assembly methods. METaL consists of two…
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New Radiation Therapy Directly Attacks Cancer Cells
Researchers at Tel Aviv University in Israel have developed a new method of tumor removal that improves the likelihood of permanently destroying the tumor, and reduce the odds of it returning. The ablation process devised by Tel Aviv medical researcher Yona Keisari and physicist Itzhak Kelson is described in the journal Translational Research (paid subscription…
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Video Game Players Add to Genetic Disease Understanding
Users of a Web-based video game developed by McGill University computer scientists in Montreal, have helped advance an understanding of the genetic basis of diseases such as Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and cancer over the past year. Jérôme Waldispuhl of the McGill School of Computer Science and collaborator Mathieu Blanchette released results today of the solutions collected…
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Genome Institute to Fund Research on Rare Diseases, Medical Care
Funding announced by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of National Institutes of Health, will support new research on rare inherited diseases, informatics tools, and use of genomic data in medical care delivery. The four-year, $416 million plan also continues funding for current initiatives on large-scale genomic sequencing production. NHGRI plans to award…
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Prototype Molybdenite Microchip Developed
Researchers at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland have developed the first microchip on a molybdenite platform. The chip, with capabilities that exceed the limits of silicon, is described in a recent online issue of the journal ACS Nano (paid subscription required). Physicist Andras Kis and colleagues from EPFL’s Laboratory of Nanoscale Electronics and…
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Biogen Idec, Samsung to Form $300M Biosimilar Venture
Biogen Idec, a biotechnology company in Weston, Massachusetts, and the Korean conglomerate Samsung will form a joint venture to develop and market follow-on biologic drugs known as biosimilars. Investments by both companies in the venture will total $300 million. Samsung will contribute $255 million of the $300 million for an 85 percent stake in the…
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UC San Francisco, GE to Partner on Cord Blood Research
University of California at San Francisco and and GE Healthcare are collaborating on an R&D project to help overcome the lack of blood-forming stem cells available to patients suffering from several life-threatening diseases. The three-year, $841,000 project aims to make better use of umbilical cord blood gathered at the birth of a baby, which is…
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Report: Electrical Grid Needs Technology, Regulatory Changes
The electrical power grid in the U.S. faces significant changes in technology over the next two decades, says a new report from the MIT Energy Initiative, but the grid also needs regulatory, economic, and security upgrades to meet these changes. The authors — 13 MIT faculty members plus one author from Harvard — discussed the…
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Mobile Lab to Test Environmental Impact of Farms
The Basque Institute for Agricultural Research and Development, (Neiker-Tecnalia) in Spain has built a mobile environmental monitoring unit to assess on site greenhouse gas and ammonia emissions from farms. The measurements from the mobile lab will be used to assess techniques based on scientific protocols to ease the environmental impact of livestock farming developed by…