Tag: Europe
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Consortium Developing Synthetic Biology Technology Platform
The Flowers Consortium, a group of five universities in the U.K., is developing a common platform technology for synthetic biology. Development of the platform — a basic set of standard technologies, from which specific applications can be designed — is being funded by a grant of some £5 million ($US 7.8 million) from the Engineering…
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Universities to Examine CO2 Injections for North Sea Oil
Geoscientists at University of Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt University in Scotland, with the British Geological Survey, will examine the use of carbon dioxide (CO2) to recover more oil from North Sea wells, while storing the CO2 underground. The program, called Centre for North Sea Enhanced Oil Recovery with CO2 (CENSEOR-CO2) aims to unlock three billion barrels…
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FDA Approves Assay for Rare Cell Disorders
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a new test to help physicians diagnose a group of rare cell disorders. The test, or assay, was developed by Lawrence Schwartz (pictured right), a medical school professor at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond and a researcher in the field of mast cells. Mast cells are found in…
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Japanese Robot to be Adapted for Work with Humans
Engineers at the Tecnalia Research and Innovation Centre in San Sebastián, Spain will further develop the intelligence of a Japanese humanoid robot to enable the device to work along side humans in European factories. The robot model, known as Hiro — short for Human Interactive Robot — is made by Kawada Industries in Tokyo. The…
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Lundbeck, Foundation to Partner on Huntington’s Research
The U.S. subsidiary of the pharmaceutical company Lundbeck A/S and the CHDI Foundation in Los Angeles will collaborate on research for a targeted therapy for Huntington’s Disease. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Huntington’s disease is an inherited disease that causes the progressive degeneration of nerve cells in the brain, affecting a person’s…
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Grant to Fund Research on Network Efficiency Math Theory
The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council in the U.K. has awarded a £1.6 million ($US 2.5 million) grant to two researchers at University of York to study mathematical theory with applications in electronic communications, including the efficiency of wireless networks. The EPSRC grant will fund the work of York mathematicians Sanju Velani (pictured right)…
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Statins Found to Reduce Cancers After Heart Transplants
A study by physicians and medical researchers at University Hospital Zurich in Switzerland indicates heart transplant patients taking statins — drugs used to lower cholesterol — reduced their risk of getting cancer, and were associated with overall survival independent of their cholesterol levels. The findings were reported yesterday at a meeting of the European Society…
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Faster, Higher Capacity Memory Chip Developed
Engineers at University College London (UCL), with colleagues in France and Spain, have developed a silicon oxide memory chip that is faster can operate in ambient conditions. The discovery is described online in the Journal of Applied Physics (paid subscription required), and a patent has been filed for the technology. The team led by UCL…
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Study: FDA Approves Drugs Faster Than in Europe, Canada
Researchers at the Yale University medical school have found that since 2001, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) generally approves drug therapies faster and earlier than its counterparts in Canada and Europe. The findings of medical student Nicholas Downing and colleagues appear online in the New England Journal of Medicine. Downing’s team, under the…
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Technique Devised to Measure Pipeline Gas Bubbles
Researchers at University of Southampton in the U.K. have discovered a method to more accurately measure gas bubbles that develop in pipelines. The team led by Tim Leighton of Southampton’s Institute of Sound and Vibration Research describe their findings online in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society A (paid subscription required). Pipelines are used…