Tag: Europe
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U.K. Universities, Companies Developing Fishmeal Substitute
A consortium of universities and companies in the U.K., led by University of Liverpool, is developing a plant-based substitute for fishmeal as feed for farm-raised fish. Fishmeal is made from fishery by-products or various species caught for fishmeal processing, which is then fed to farm-raised fish as a protein source. In addition to Liverpool, the…
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Biomaterials Developer Lands $10 Million Series C Funds
Regentis Biomaterials Ltd., based in Or Akiva, Israel and Princeton, New Jersey, has secured $10 million in series C funds, the third round of financing after initial start-up. New investors Royal DSM and Crossroad Fund, and existing investors Medica Venture Partners, SCPVitalife and the Technion Investment Opportunities Fund contributed to the round. The company’s lead…
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Agriculture Research Companies to Partner on Insect Control
Syngenta, a developer of agricultural products in Basel, Switzerland and Devgen, an agro-biotech company in Ghent, Belgium have agreed on a licensing and development partnership for new insect-control products based on genetic technologies. The six-year agreement has an estimated value of at least €50.8 million ($US 65.5 million). The partnership will enable Syngenta to add…
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Report: Investment Increasing In Water Technologies
A new report by the London Environmental Investment Forum says venture capital (VC) investors are showing more interest in technologies related to water used in extractive industries, such as oil, gas, and mining. The report, “Water Innovation in Extractive Industries,” can be downloaded from the organization’s Web site. London Environmental Investment Forum is owned and…
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Navigation Module for Inside Buildings in Development
Engineers at four Fraunhofer institutes and five companies in Germany are building a module for smartphones to help people navigate inside interior spaces, much like a GPS works when outside. The researchers plan to give a demonstration of the MST-Smartsense Sensor (pictured at right) at the Sensor+Test trade fair in Nuremberg held 22-24 May 2012.…
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Cancer Institute Spin-Off Lands New €3 Million Financing
iTeos Therapeutics SA, a drug discovery company in Gosselies, Belgium, has secured €3 million ($3.94 million) in series A financing, the first investment round after starting up. The company received its initial seed funding, totaling €6 million, in December 2011. iTeos Therapeutics is a joint spin-off company of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in…
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DNA Bar Code Identifiers Developed for Species Tracking
Botanists at University of Bonn, with researchers from 10 other German institutions, are devising a system of standard identifiers based on DNA sequencing to identify plant and animal species more efficiently. The German Barcode of Life (GBOL) project is coordinated by the Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig in Bonn. “In the DNA of living beings,…
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Government-Industry Consortium Selects U.K. Cereals Studies
A committee of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) selected nine new research projects for funding that involve the U.K.’s main cereal crops: oilseed rape, barley and wheat. The funds for the research total some £4 million ($6.45 million) from Crop Improvement Research Club, a consortium of BBSRC, Scottish government, and 14 private…
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AstraZeneca to Acquire Biotech for $1.26 Billion
The global pharmaceutical maker AstraZeneca says it will acquire Ardea Biosciences Inc., a biotechnology company in San Diego developing small molecule therapies. The deal is valued at $1.26 billion, with AstraZeneca paying $32.00 a share, a 54 percent premium over Ardea’s closing price on Friday 20 April. Ardea’s most advanced drug candidate is lesinurad taken…
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Sanofi, Fox Foundation Partner on Parkinson’s Drug Trial
The drug manufacturer Sanofi, based in Paris, and the Michael J. Fox Foundation in New York agreed today to conduct a clinical trial of AVE8112, a Sanofi compound, in patients with Parkinson’s disease. AVE8112 is a type of anti-inflammatory drug known as PDE4 inhibitors that have been tested as treatments for respiratory diseases, but in…