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Kauffman Grant Supports Seed Accelerator Network
The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City, Missouri was awarded a $200,000 grant to TechStars, a network of regional start-up business accelerator programs, based in Boulder, Colorado. The TechStars network began on 31 January as part of a White House initiative encouraging entrepreneurship. The Kauffman funding will be used by the TechStars network to…
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Sanofi-aventis Acquires Genzyme in $20.1B Deal
Sanofi-aventis, the Paris-based pharmaceutical company, has acquired biotechnology company Genzyme Corporation in Cambridge, Massachusetts for $74.00 per share, or about $20.1 billion. The deal includes other payments to Genzyme shareholders based on net sales and developments involving specific Genzyme drugs. Genzyme is expected to add its treatments for several rare diseases to Sanofi-aventis’s current collection…
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Health System, Biotech Collaborate on Diagnostic Biomarkers
Luminex Corporation in Austin, Texas said today that is teaming with Partners HealthCare in Boston, Massachusetts on the discovery of new biomarkers and development of clinical assays. The collaboration is expected to help the Partners HealthCare Center for Personalized Genetic Medicine (PCPGM) develop new molecular diagnostic assays. The new tests will be conducted on Luminex’s…
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Students Develop Remote IED Detonation Technology
Two graduate students at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland have developed a way to remotely detonate improvised explosive devices or IEDs, by using the energy from their electromagnetic impulses. Félix Vega and Nicolas Mora, both from Colombia, developed the technology as part of their doctoral theses, in cooperation with universities in Colombia.…
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Transgenic Switchgrass Improves Biofuel Yield
Plant engineering by The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation in Ardmore, Oklahoma and fermentation research by Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee have led to new lines of native perennial prairie grass that can make the production of cellulosic ethanol more economical. The researchers published their findings this week in in the Proceedings of the National…
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Grant Awarded for Medical Test Results Follow Up Technology
Martin Chieng Were, assistant professor at the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, has received a grant to support his research on health information technology to improve post-hospital management of patients. The $420,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation will fund Were’s work focusing on medical test results that are still pending when…
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Two Pesticides Linked to Higher Rates of Parkinson’s Disease
A new study by government and private research institutes shows higher rates of Parkinson’s disease among people using the highly restricted pesticides rotenone and paraquat. The findings were published recently in an online issue of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. The research team found that people who used either pesticide developed Parkinson’s disease about 2.5…
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European Nanomaterial Reference Repository Created
The European Commission’s research center, based in Italy, has launched Europe’s first nanomaterial repository with a collection representing 25 different types of nanomaterials. The repository, operated by the EC’s Joint Research Centre is expected to aid in safety assessments of nanomaterials. Materials developed at nanoscale (1 nanometer = 1 billionth of a meter) offer a…
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FDA Grants Orphan Drug Status for ALS Candidate
BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics Inc. in Petach Tikvah, Israel says the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted orphan drug designation to the company’s NurOwn adult stem cell product candidate for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease of nerve cells in the…
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Pharma Companies Partner on Dengue Drugs
Medivir AB, a specialty pharmaceutical company in Huddinge, Sweden, will collaborate with Janssen Pharmaceutica N.V. in Beerse, Belgium on drugs for the prevention and treatment of dengue virus infection. Both companies plan to use their expertise in protease inhibitors for this partnership. According to the World Health Organization, dengue is the most common mosquito-borne viral…