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Biotech, Pharma Companies Partner on Schizophrenia Research
Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, a global drug manufacturer in Osaka, Japan, and Envoy Therapeutics Inc., a drug discovery company in Jupiter, Florida, said today they formed a three-year research alliance aimed at discovering drugs for schizophrenia with greater efficacy and safety compared to current therapies. Envoy’s technology, called bacTRAP, combines genetic engineering with molecular biology techniques…
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Virginia Medical Device Company Wins Small Business Grants
HemoSonics LLC, a developer of blood diagnostics devices in Charlottesville, Virginia, has received three grants totaling some $2 million from National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Office of Naval Research. The company was founded by three faculty members at University of Virginia, also in Charlottesville, to commercialize their research in biomedical engineering. HemoSonics’ technology, called…
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University of Rochester Launches Commercialization Fund
University of Rochester in New York has started a new Technology Development Fund that will award grants to help scientists advance their findings closer to the stage where they can be transferred to the market. Awards from the fund will range from $40,000 to $100,000. Robert Clark, dean of Rochester’s Hajim School of Engineering and…
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Chemists Streamline Cooking Oil Conversion to Biodiesel
As the U.S. seeks to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels, the country continues to discard large quantities of waste vegetable oil — consider the quantity of oil used to cook one order of french fries, for example — that could be converted into bio-based fuels. But this process presents problems, notably the time and…
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U.S. Health Research Spending Level Flat in 2009
Spending in the U.S. on health research made gains in 2009, due mainly to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, but as a percentage of overall spending on health care, stayed at about the same level as 2008. These findings came in a report yesterday from an annual audit of health research spending by Research!America,…
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Venture Fund-Raising Remains Slow So Far in 2010
U.S. venture capital (VC) companies raised $9.2 billion for 103 funds during the first three quarters of 2010, according to Dow Jones LP Source, an industry database that tracks venture and private equity fund-raising. Through September 2010, that represents a slight increase from the $8.9 billion raised for 105 funds during the same period in…
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City to Test Bio-Based Asphalt from University, Startup
A lab at Iowa State University in Ames has developed a potential green replacement for asphalt derived from petroleum, which will be put to a test in Iowa’s sometimes extreme winters and summers. The lab, in the Institute for Transportation’s Asphalt Materials and Pavements Program at Iowa State, developed the asphalt substitute, which will be…
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FDA, NIH Award Grant to Study Adaptive Clinical Trial Design
Researchers from academia and business aim to improve the process for testing therapies and medical devices by investigating a new type of clinical trial called adaptive clinical trials. This kind of clinical study makes adjustments to the trial using information accumulated as patients are enrolled, with the goal of improving clinical trials’ efficiency as a…
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Bacteria Monitors Can Measure State of Oil Fields
A doctoral dissertation published at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands suggests that monitoring bacteria levels in an oil field can provide useful indicators on the state of that oil field. Geert van der Kraan, who conducted the research, received his doctorate degree this week. For his dissertation research, van der Kraan investigated…
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Three Companies Win NIH Biodefense Research Contracts
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, awarded three new contracts to fund research on vaccines and vaccine delivery against dengue fever and anthrax that could be used in a terror attack. Total funding for the three contracts could reach $68 million, depending on the successful…