Tag: Europe
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U.K. Medical Tech Company Acquires Wound Care Developer
Smith & Nephew, a medical technology company in London, is purchasing Healthpoint Biotherapeutics, a developer of wound treatments in Fort Worth, Texas. In the transaction, Smith & Nephew will acquire all Healthpoint assets for $782 million in cash, with the deal expected to close next month. Olivier Bohuon, Smith & Nephew’s CEO, says the acquisition…
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International Consortium Sequences Bread Wheat Genome
Researchers from the U.S., U.K., and Germany sequenced the genome of the strain of wheat used to make bread, an achievement that is expected to increase yields and enhance the nutritional value of this crop. The findings of the consortium, comprising researchers from 10 different institutions, appear today online in the journal Nature. U.S. Department…
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Functioning Lung Transport System in Clinical Trial
A system for transporting functioning human lungs for transplants is being tested in a clinical trial, with the first transplant surgery in the U.S. occuring earlier this month. The Organ Care System tested in the trial is developed by TransMedics Inc. in Andover, Massachusetts, with the first U.S. transplant taking place at the UCLA medical…
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Fuel Cell Generates Power from Green Roofs, Wetlands
An environmental scientist at Wageningen University in the Netherlands designed a fuel cell that can generate electrical power from living plant roots and soil bacteria found in natural wetlands or vegetation on green roofs of urban buildings. Wageningen’s Marjolein Helder defends her doctoral dissertation today describing the technology, and she has started a company to…
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High-Tech Sheet Fabric Developed to Reduce Bed Sore Risk
Researchers at Empa, a scientific institute in Switzerland, the Swiss Paraplegic Centre, and Schoeller Group, an advanced textiles company also in Switzerland, created a new type of bed linen that reduces the chance of bed sores developing on immobile patients. Schoeller Group’s medical division plans to introduce the new material as a commercial product next…
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U.K. Devotes £60 Million for Science Entrepreneurship
The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council or EPSRC in the U.K. is funding 31 projects at British universities to encourage scientists to become new or better entrepreneurs. The £60 million ($US 95.3 million) program was announced today by Vince Cable, U.K.’s Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills. Under the program, EPSRC is…
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Swine Genome Offers Insights for Agriculture, Medicine
An analysis of the pig genome by an international consortium highlights genetic mechanisms that can improve breeding practices and show similarities with humans for development of drugs. The findings by the International Swine Genome Sequence Consortium appear online in the journals Nature and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers from North America,…
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Nanotech Strategy Developed for Solid Tumor Drug Delivery
Researchers at Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, with colleagues from Munich Technical University and Helmholtz Center Munich, engineered a gene that can generate anti-cancer agents deep inside solid cancerous tumors. The team led by Ludwig-Maximilians pharmacologist Manfred Ogris reported its findings online yesterday in the journal Molecular Therapy (paid subscription required). Ogris (pictured right) and colleagues…
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Universities, Biotechs to Research Epilepsy Treatments
A consortium of universities and biotechnology companies in Europe are developing a new strategy for treating epilepsy, a neurological disease affecting 50 million people worldwide. The group called EPIXCHANGE includes researchers from Lund University in Sweden, University of Ferrara in Italy, and the biotech companies Bioviron in France and NsGene in Denmark. Epilepsy covers a…
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European Commission Approves Metabolic Disorder Gene Therapy
The biotechnology company uniQure BV in Amsterdam says the European Commission approved Glybera, its gene therapy for patients with lipoprotein lipase deficiency, a rare metabolic disorder. The approval of Glybera, says uniQure, represents the first gene therapy approved by the European Commission. Lipoprotein lipase deficiency, also called familial hyperchylomicronemia, is an inherited condition that disrupts…