Author: Marie Powers

Miromatrix, Inc. has one official employee, zero money, and nothing to develop — yet. But make no mistake: everyone wants a piece of it, and Minnesota officials hope the fledgling company will regenerate the state’s medical industry. Miromatrix is close to signing a license agreement with the University of Minnesota to commercialize the regenerative tissue work of Doris Taylor, PhD, director of the university’s Center for Cardiovascular Research (CCVR). Two years ago, the star university scientist drew international attention for successfully growing — and keeping alive — a rat’s beating heart in a jar. (See previous e-News post.) Taylor’s work fueled hopes that scientists can one day grow replacement organs for patients who would typically wait for transplants. U-Minnesota spun out Taylor’s company in December 2009.

Taylor and her team successfully grew the rat’s heart in a jar by stripping the cells off a dead rat’s heart and injecting cells from a live rat into the organ. In addition, Taylor designed a bioreactor that could successfully nurture the nascent heart with blood and oxygen in a sterile environment. More importantly, the technology creates matrix structures that can deliver the right number of cells to an injury, attract new cells, and keep the cells alive so they develop into tissue and, eventually, organs that the patient’s body will more readily accept. “The cells itself are not the whole solution,” Taylor says.

It’s difficult to overstate Miromatrix’s importance to Minnesota. If successful, some say the company could spark a biotechnology boom in the state the same way Earl Baaken’s homemade pacemaker launched Minnesota’s dominance in implantable heart devices 40-plus years ago. State leaders who once paid little attention to homegrown start-ups are now scrambling to craft a package of financial incentives to ensure that Miromatrix stays local. To generate sales, Miromatrix CEO Robert Cohen says the company will operate two businesses: one to develop the core technology and the other to sublicense Taylor’s work to other companies. The first product launch will likely be biological cardiac patches that can repair diseased heart tissue after a heart attack. As for sublicensing, Taylor envisions other biotech companies will use her technology to develop skin grafts for burn victims or cosmetic applications such as breast reconstruction after mastectomy. “It’s exciting to see this moving forward but it’s also a little scary,” Taylor says. “There’s a lot of science yet to be done.”

Source: Med City News

In an article posted on their law firm’s web site, patent attorneys Stephen D. Harper, PhD, and Stephen J. Weed in the Valley Forge, PA, office of RatnerPrestia consider the U.S. Supreme Court’s current deliberation of the Federal Circuit’s decision on business methods in In re Bilski and possible patent protection strategies during this “period of flux.” The Supreme Court is reviewing whether the Federal Circuit erred by finding that a process must be tied to a particular machine or apparatus – or transform a particular article into a different state or thing (the machine-or-transformation test) — and whether the Federal Circuit’s M-or-T test contradicts Congressional intent with respect to patents on methods of doing or conducting business. The Supreme Court’s decision, expected by July, could have serious implications not only on business method patents but also on medical diagnostic methods, Harper and Weed contend.

Inventions related to business methods are typically claimed as a series of steps, with one or more steps often performed using a computer. The decision rendered by the Federal Circuit in Bilski set forth that processes must satisfy at least one prong of the M-or-T test to be eligible for patent protection. The Federal Circuit, however, expressly declined to comment in Bilski on whether a computer could meet the definition of a particular machine or apparatus.

“The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) recently published New Interim Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Examination Instructions (”SME Instructions”) [that] embrace the Federal Circuit’s Bilski decision,” Harper and Weed write. The SME instructions require that, to be eligible for patent protection, process claims must either: 1) be machine implemented or 2) transform a particular article. The SME Instructions also set forth two corollaries to the M-or-T test: 1) the machine or transformation must impose a meaningful limitation in the invention as claimed and 2) the particular machine or transformation must involve more than insignificant “extra solution activity.” In the PTO’s view, it is no longer sufficient to insert a step such as presenting a result on a display. However, the SME instructions provide guidance on the recitation of a computer in a process claim, stating that a “general purpose computer may be sufficiently ‘particular’ when programmed to perform the process steps,” the attorneys write.

In view of that interim guidance, consider ways in which the business method may be characterized to transform articles or how a particular machine such as a computer may be incorporated into the business method in order to satisfy the M-or-T test, Harper and Weed suggest. Second, provide support for the transformation and/or particular machine in the specifications of newly filed applications and consider filing a continuing application to add such support to existing applications. Finally, incorporate features necessary to satisfy the M-or-T test into the claims of the application.

Though most observers have focused attention on the case’s impact on software patents, innovations in the diagnostics space are also affected, the attorneys note. Patent applications claiming methods of diagnosis typically recite the basic steps of gathering data from a patient sample, comparing the data with a standard, and generating information about or diagnosing the patient based on the comparison, Harper and Weed add. The Federal Circuit addressed the question of whether such medical diagnostic methods can constitute patent-eligible subject matter on two occasions post-Bilski. In Classen Immunotherapies, Inc. v. Biogen Idec, the Federal Circuit affirmed a district court’s grant of summary judgment that certain claims were invalid as directed to ineligible subject matter. The claims covered a method for determining whether an immunization schedule affects the incidence or severity of a chronic immune-mediated disorder, and included a step of immunizing a patient in accordance with an immunization schedule, followed by interpreting the incidence, prevalence, frequency, or severity of a chronic immune-mediated disorder compared with a control group. The Federal Circuit found that such claims were not tied to a particular machine or apparatus and did not transform a particular article into a different state or thing, thereby failing the M-or-T test. More recently, the Federal Circuit held in Prometheus v. Mayo that claims directed to a method of optimizing therapeutic efficacy for treatment of an immune-mediated gastrointestinal disorder satisfied the M-or-T test and thus represented patent-eligible subject matter. The claims included a step of administering a drug to a subject followed by determining the level of the drug’s metabolite in that subject.

“Although the SME instructions issued by the PTO do not specifically discuss medical diagnostic method claims, they do advise examiners to reject method claims if they do not tie at least one step to a particular machine or if they do not confer a different function or use on the data they manipulate,” Harper and Weed write. “Thus, one possible solution to the problem of patenting medical diagnostic methods is to include claims that specify that a comparing step is carried out using a computer programmed to compare gathered data with a standard. An alternative solution may be to include a step of treating a specific condition in the patient consistent with a diagnosis. Still another approach, as suggested by Mayo, is to include in the claims a step where either a drug or other substance is administered to a patient in connection with diagnosing the patient and/or a step where a sample from the patient is analyzed in some way.”

Source: Ratner Prestia

Wilfred Konneker attended Ohio University in the 1940s and was an early pioneer in nuclear physics before founding several companies and becoming one of the university’s financial benefactors. He’s come through again — big time. Diagnostic Hybrids, a company Konneker helped found in 1983 with two OU professors and the financial backing of the university foundation, was sold to a California company for $130 million. The foundation’s cut could total almost $41 million, according to OU officials. About $10 million of the foundation’s share represents the value of stock that Konneker donated after the company was started. Diagnostic Hybrids develops and manufactures lab-testing kits to quickly screen for viral infections, such as herpes and H1N1. The purchasing firm, Quidel Corp., is a leading provider of similar diagnostic tests that can be administered in doctors’ offices. The purchase is an all-cash deal.

Konneker founded Diagnostic Hybrids with former OU professors Joseph Jollick and Thomas E. Wagner. The foundation invested $1 million, or about $2.17 million in inflation-adjusted 2009 dollars. “There are faster ways to make money for a university through tech transfer than investing in start-ups, such as licensing technology to companies around the world,” says OU chancellor Eric D. Fingerhut. “But there is only one way to create jobs in Ohio, and that’s what OU is doing. This is a model we are following across the state.”

Source: The Columbus Dispatch

Through a new partnership with ktMINE, 2Market Information, parent company of Tech Transfer E-News, is offering hands-on access to an incredibly rich source of royalty rate data, full-text license agreements, and detailed agreement summaries. ktMINE is an online, interactive IP database of more than 6,000 license agreements that allows you to quickly find true market comparables using specific search criteria. Users can run unlimited searches and see unlimited results, including all royalty rates and full text agreements. Access is made available through affordable 2-day and 5-day passes, which can be activated at the user’s convenience. For complete details or to order, CLICK HERE.

Roswell Park Cancer Institute’s (RPCI) TTO has signed a licensing agreement with Zhejiang Hisun Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., for tumor imaging technology developed by RPCI researcher Ravindra Pandey, PhD. Zhejiang Hisun Pharmaceutical is one of China’s largest producers of oncology drugs. Additional terms were not disclosed, but Richard Matner, PhD, MBA, director of RPCI’s TTO, recently spoke about the institute’s focus on deal-making in Asia in an interview with Technology Transfer Tactics. “We’ve found that, overall, the capacity for risk tolerance is higher in Asia than in the U.S. or Europe,” Matner said. “Assets or free capital move projects forward, and there’s a higher level in China and India. Right now China’s got $2 trillion in the bank and a straightforward mission from the Premier to bring various therapies into China. We’ve been a little ahead of the curve in that we’ve been negotiating in Asia for some time.”

The RPCI tumor imaging technology also shows potential as an anti-cancer treatment agent, according to Hua Bai, president and CEO of Zhejiang Hisun. “We believe a drug with these properties would be extremely valuable for patients in China,” he says. “It may play a significant role in improving treatment options for people with cancer and will greatly enrich Zhejiang Hisun’s growing oncology drug pipeline.”

Source: Newswise

In another sign of China’s emergence as a hot market for technology partnerships, a biotech company launched through the University of Edinburgh (Scotland) has signed a multi-million pound deal to sell its products in China. Burdica Biomed, a Fife-based firm that develops personal lubricant products, has reached a partnership agreement with Sinopharm, China’s largest pharmaceutical and medical device distributor. Under the terms of the 10-year deal, Sinopharm will seek regulatory approval in China for Burdica’s products, which include a lubricant that improves fertilization. The regulatory process is expected to take 12 to 18 months. Thereafter, Sinopharm will distribute Burdica’s products in China. Burdica expects product sales in China to exceed £50 million in revenues.

The deal is a major coup for Burdica and for the university, which helped to launch the company in 2007 through its Edinburgh Pre-Incubator Scheme (EPIS). EPIS provided Burdica with space at the university as well as business mentoring support and an interest-free loan. “This is a huge success for Burdica and the university,” says Adrian Smith, program director of EPIS. “It shows that supporting innovation can have real results, with substantial financial consequences for Scottish companies and the economy.”

Source: EPIS

The University of Utah pumps millions of dollars and thousands of jobs into the Utah economy, according to a new study. “The Economic Impact of Sponsored Research at the University of Utah” clearly illustrates the financial impact of research spending, which is increasingly important to TTOs as their missions become intertwined with local economic development. According to the independent study, every dollar spent by U-Utah creates an additional 95 cents in gross state product (GSP) — the measure of a state’s overall economic output over a one-year period. Every two jobs supported by research create three new jobs in other industry sectors, the study calculated. “Research conducted at the University of Utah not only advances science, technology, and medicine but also has positive economic effects that are felt broadly outside of academia,” notes Jan Crispin, the study’s author and senior research economist at the Bureau of Economic and Business Research (BEBR) at U-Utah’s David Eccles School of Business.

Crispin used data from U-Utah’s Financial and Business Services to estimate the economic role of research spending on jobs, earnings, gross state product, and tax revenue. The analysis, conducted during the fall of 2009, is based on research expenditures during the university’s 2008 fiscal year. Crispin estimates that every $1 million spent on sponsored research at the university supports 20 jobs in Utah, generates approximately $849,450 in earnings for Utah workers, contributes $1.4 million in GSP, and provides $86,135 in state and local tax revenue. “This new study makes it easy to translate the power of [research] funding, not only for students and research outcomes on campus but also on the economy of the entire state,” says Tom Parks, the university’s vice president for research.

Source: University of Utah News Center

Germany’s Georg-August-Universitat Gottingen and University of Regensburg have inked exclusive licenses with the U.K.’s Medical Research Council Technology (MRCT) to develop a therapy for inflammatory and immune diseases based on the depletion of inflammatory monocytes. The first targets will be rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and multiple sclerosis (MS). MBM ScienceBridge GmbH, the TTO of the Georg-August-Universitat Gottingen, negotiated the license agreement, which covers technology developed by scientists at the Universities of Regensburg and Gottingen. The collaboration will enable MBM ScienceBridge GmbH to access the antibody humanization expertise of MRCT’s Centre for Therapeutics Discovery and the work of its Therapeutic Antibody Group. MRCT plans to take the lab compounds and turn them into clinical candidates, which will then be licensed to the pharmaceutical and biotech industry.

“This licensing deal is just one example of the innovative ways that MRCT is now exploiting both its antibody humanization and drug discovery capabilities,” says Dave Tapolczay, PhD, CEO of MRCT. “We can collaborate with other technology transfer organizations, on a shared risk basis, to develop novel antibodies and targets with therapeutic potential. When the resulting clinical candidate is subsequently licensed, both parties will not only accomplish their translational research aims but also share in its commercial success going forward.” MRCT receives an exclusive worldwide license to the related IP rights of the universities. MRCT and both universities will receive downstream payments dependent on successful development and out-licensing of the antibody.

Source: Healthcare Industry Today

Our Distance Learning Division has lined up four practical audioconference events over the coming weeks, each one filled with real-world strategies and take-aways. Click on the titles below for complete faculty and program details or to register, and CLICK HERE for information on getting discounted rates using our customized Distance Learning Subscription program.

• “Shrink Wrap” Your University’s Technologies for Industry: Packaging Your Innovations to Minimize Corporate Risk and Extract Optimum Licensing Value – Wednesday, January 27, 2010
• Patent Prosecution: Best Practices for Reducing Costs While Improving Patent Quality – Tuesday, February 9, 2010
• Performing Market Research Studies: Testing the Waters to De-Risk Your IP Investments – Wednesday, February 24, 2010
• Tech Transfer Marketing on a Shoestring: Guerilla Tactics in a Budget-Cut World – Tuesday, March 9, 2010

A runner-up at Ireland’s 2009 BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition has evolved into a web-based company that is a corporate exhibitor at this year’s show. The Sound of Silence project, developed by students and a physics professor at Ursuline College Sligo, investigated a therapy for people suffering from temporary tinnitus, or ringing in the ears. After the project won the Health Research Board’s prize for innovation, the four-person team developed the technology into the company Restored Hearing (www.restoredhearing.ie), which was launched in August 2009.

Temporary tinnitus is caused by exposure to loud environments, such as listening to loud music or operating loud machinery. This noise can damage the sound receptor cells in the cochlea — the part of the ear that converts wave-vibrations into electric signals before sending these signals to the brain. When these receptor cells, or tiny hairs, are bent during exposure to loud noise, they continue to send signals to the brain even after exposure to the noise has ceased.

Restored Hearing offers web-based therapy based on sound and wave theory, using a low hum to stimulate the cochlear hairs of the ear that may have been damaged. The therapy helps the hairs return to an upright position. The online therapy, which takes one minute, simply requires a broadband connection and a pair of external earphones. Trials have shown a 99% success rate, and the company has received sales and interest in the U.K., Europe, and North America. Restored Hearing now is a client company of NovaUCD, the TTO of University College Dublin, and next plans to investigate the therapy’s effect on permanent tinnitus.

Source: The Irish Times and PRLog

Although most university TTOs acknowledge their mission of advancing academic research to benefit society and ensuring public access to university innovations, there is currently no effective measure of licensing success that gauges this central aspect of research effectiveness. The Access Metrics Initiative, developed by Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) in Berkeley, CA, seeks to change that. The Access Metrics Index has been designed to measure the dissemination of university innovation and to provide research institutions with a mechanism to monitor and evaluate their progress towards this strategic goal.

In collaboration with TTO directors and experts in IP law, UAEM has composed a Pilot Survey for Technology Transfer Offices 2009 to gather input from TTOs on the successful implementation of policies and licensing provisions that ensure broad access to university-derived technologies. The pilot survey is focused on technologies that affect human health — particularly those classified as diagnostics, prophylactics, therapeutics, and medical devices. In the future, the Access Metrics Initiative survey will expand to include information regarding access policies and practices. The deadline to submit survey data is January 29, 2010.

Source: Universities Allied for Essential Medicines

Angel investors fund more companies than any other source of capital for start-up ventures — except for entrepreneurs themselves, their friends, and their families. Not surprisingly, angels tend to invest in new ventures in business sectors they understand, says Bill Payne, the 2010 Bank of New Zealand University of Auckland entrepreneur-in-residence at The ICEHOUSE, an Auckland-based business incubator. While angel investments cover the spectrum of start-ups, most specialize in a single or narrow set of business verticals, such as software, energy, or medical devices. Other angels choose to fund low-tech ventures, such as retail, growth services, and manufacturing. When angels consider funding a start-up, they look for common characteristics among those companies, Payne says. Here are the criteria for investment used by most angels:

• Angels bet on the jockey, not the horse. A qualified, coachable entrepreneur and management team are the first consideration. “A ‘B’ team is unlikely to be successful in commercializing an ‘A’ product, but an ‘A’ team will quickly upgrade a ‘C’ product into a viable business,” according to Payne.
• Angels invest in start-ups that can ramp revenues to US$25 million or more in five years. Rapid scalability is important. If one in 10 angel-funded start-ups must provide all of the portfolio’s ROI, angels must bet only on potential home runs.
• Angels fund ventures with customer-ready products or services. Investors want to talk to customers or potential customers to confirm that the product or service meets an important need. “Angels invest in painkillers, not vitamin pills,” Payne says.
• A competitive advantage – a patent, trade secret, or huge head start in the technology space – is important to angels. They don’t fund companies with products that can easily be duplicated by more mature companies with deep pockets.
• Angels seek companies with solid sales and marketing plans. They fund entrepreneurs who know that products or services don’t sell themselves and understand the channels they must use to reach customers.
• Angels prefer to invest in local companies so they can kick the tires before investing and then coach, mentor, and serve on boards of directors of portfolio companies. Most are part-time investors with multiple interests, and many are motivated to give back to their communities by investing locally.
• Angels tend to invest US$200,000 to US$1 million in the first outside round of funding for new ventures at a valuation of $1 to $2 million and hold equity stakes of 20% to 40% after the first round of financing. Angels are not lenders who expect to be paid back with interest, but equity investors who purchase ownership in start-up companies.
• Angels expect entrepreneurs to have an exit strategy that will enable both the entrepreneur and investors to sell the start-up within five to 10 years, providing shareholders with a substantial return.
  For all of their trouble and risk-taking, there is good evidence that patient angels can earn about a 25% internal rate of return when measured over a 10-year period.

Source: NZ Herald News

The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) has won an appeal in federal court against Canadian drug company Xenon in a case clarifying that co-ownership of patents is controlled by contracts, when they exist. The lawsuit brought by WARF dealt with Xenon’s handling of patent rights to an enzyme that can lower cholesterol levels. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin discovered the enzyme in 1999 and two years later the Foundation licensed the technology to Xenon, which partially sponsored the work. The Foundation gave Xenon an exclusive license to commercialize the discovery and market any resulting products in exchange for a share of the profits. In 2005, the Foundation filed a lawsuit claiming that Xenon violated its contract rights by entering into a partnership with Swiss drug maker Novartis without paying the required fees. Xenon argued it had a right as co-owner of the patent to enter into the Novartis agreement without being subject to the terms of its deal with the Foundation. In 2006, U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb ruled that Xenon had broken its contract and awarded the Foundation $300,000 in damages. The appeals court agreed, ruling that Xenon broke the contract and the $300,000 in damages was justified.

In his legal blog Patently-O, Dennis Crouch, associate professor at the University of Missouri School of Law, writes that Xenon’s argument is based on the law of concurrent patent ownership, which generally does not require a patent co-owner to share licensing revenue with other co-owners. The district court found that the contract between WARF and Xenon was controlling over the patent law default rule. The Seventh Circuit affirmed that ruling, making it clear that the “statutory default rule controls unless there is an agreement to the contrary.” The appellate panel went on to characterize the agreement between WARF and Xenon as an “agreement to the contrary.” The negotiated exchange between the parties provided that the Foundation would forego its right to separately license the patent in exchange for receiving a share of the profits from Xenon’s commercialization of the technology, either directly or via a sublicense to a third party. Xenon cannot avoid paying royalties or sublicense fees to the Foundation simply by labeling the Novartis transaction a “license” rather than a “sublicense.”

Sources: The New York Times and Patently-O

Find out how to meet and exceed corporate expectations and de-risk your IP for a faster, smoother and more lucrative deal by attending “Shrink Wrap” Your University’s Technologies for Industry: Packaging Your Innovations to Minimize Corporate Risk and Extract Optimum Licensing Value, a unique distance learning event scheduled for January 27th. Innovation and licensing expert Nick Webb will reveal:

1. How to incorporate a “stage gate” process into your innovation launch procedures.
2. What analytical tools you should be using when evaluating an innovation … and which ones to avoid.
3. How to “shrink wrap” your technologies for a quick and profitable transfer.
4. A step-by-step process for creating compelling technology offering memorandums.
5. How to avoid the five “deal killers” when negotiating your technology licenses.
6. How to use technology “dovetailing” to optimize the value of your IP.

This 90-minute audio program will bring you critical new insights into the corporate licencee’s decision-making process. For complete details and to register, CLICK HERE.

Also coming soon:

• Patent Prosecution: Best Practices for Reducing Costs While Improving Patent Quality – Tuesday, February 9, 2010
• Tech Transfer Marketing on a Shoestring: Guerilla Tactics in a Budget-Cut World – Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (A*STAR) and the Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R) have developed MPEG4-SLS (scalable-to-lossless coding), the world’s first adaptive audio streaming technology using the MPEG-4 SLS audio standard. The technology was unveiled at the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) by Exploit Technologies, the commercialization arm of A*STAR. MPEG-4 SLS is being test-bedded online at www.songsofcampus.com. “Our research team developed this technology to answer the needs of a new generation consumers who want hi-fidelity music entertainment at the appropriate quality and on demand — anywhere, anytime,” says Lye Kin Mun, PhD, I2R’s deputy executive director for research. “This is also in line with upcoming trends of moving away from traditional to new media in the infotainment world.”

SLS is a patented music coding format using an MPEG-4 audio standard that is capable of compressing music files, such as CD tracks, for playback without any loss in fidelity. It also allows for fine-grain pre-encoding of music files at different bit-rates so they can subsequently be streamed or played back at different quality, depending on the device type or available channel bandwidth. The technology allows for uninterrupted music streaming, regardless of bandwidth or internet traffic volume. MPEG-4 SLS’s scalability also means that a single encoded file can be played back in different environments with bit-rate cap determined by the service provider. SLS is particularly suited for use in broadcast and music production environments where its lossless performance allows multiple phases of the recording and editing process to be managed without signal loss. SLS also can ensure that the final production delivers a faithful and complete rendering of the uncompressed source material. The scalability of SLS gives users the ability to maximize sound quality during distribution, by matching the bit-rate to the available bandwidth.

Source: EurekAlert!

Fishing can become a frustrating series of near misses and lost chances for the recreational sportsman. But John Caprio, PhD, George C. Kent professor in the department of biological sciences at Louisiana State University, has developed and licensed technology that takes the mystery out of reeling in the big one. Caprio, a specialist in aquatic vertebrate taste and smell systems, studies the chemosensory systems of common fresh and saltwater fish species. He has spent much of the last three decades researching and perfecting technology based on the natural impulses of a fish’s sensory systems, using the fish’s biology to increase the odds of making a catch. Caprio discovered the specific natural stimuli that activate taste sensors, resulting in nerve reflexes that cause the fish to ingest food or an appropriate fishing lure.

“If you look at how chemosensory input occurs in both our brain and that of a fish, you’ll see that smell input is to the forebrain whereas taste input is to the back — the highly reflexive part of the brain,” Caprio explains. “The take-home message from this is simple: fish learn and associate particular scents as food, but taste is an actual reflex for them. The taste of particular natural chemicals triggers a feeding response.” In other words, if a fish is exposed to certain taste stimuli, it cannot control its urge to bite. Obviously, this has huge implications for the fishing industry, but the technology doesn’t stop there. LSU’s Office of Intellectual Property worked closely with Caprio to forge a licensing agreement with Mystic (CT) Tackleworks, a company that develops scientific fishing lure systems. After licensing Caprio’s technology, Mystic brought in other fish sensory specialists to complete its Biopulse Lure System, which relies on decades of scientific studies on fish sensory systems. While other companies have developed lures that appeal primarily to a single sensory system of a fish, BioPulse is the only one based on providing the appropriate stimuli for each of the critical sensory systems used by the fish naturally in the capture of prey. “We are literally light years ahead of what’s out there right now,” says Greg Mitchell, the company’s founder, chair, and chief science officer.

Source: PhysOrg.com

Engineers at the University of Michigan have developed a biosensor consisting of a strip of paper infused with carbon nanotubes that can quickly and inexpensively detect a toxin produced by algae in drinking water. The paper strips perform 28 times faster than the method most commonly used to detect microcystin-LR (MC-LR), a chemical compound produced by cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae. Cyanobacteria is commonly found on nutrient-rich waters. Even in very small quantities, MC-LR is suspected to cause liver damage and possibly liver cancer. The substance and others like it are among the leading causes of biological water pollution and believed to be a culprit of mass poisonings going back to early human history, says Nicholas Kotov, PhD, project leader and professor in the U-M departments of chemical engineering, biomedical engineering, and materials science and engineering.

The sensor works by measuring the electrical conductivity of the nanotubes in the paper. Before the nanotubes are impregnated in the paper, they are mixed with antibodies for MC-LR. When the paper strips come in contact with water contaminated with MC-LR, those antibodies squeeze in between the nanotubes to bond with the toxin. This spreading apart of the nanotubes changes their electrical conductivity, which is measured by an external monitor. The whole device is about the size of a home pregnancy test, and results appear in fewer than 12 minutes, Kotov says.

The biosensor provides a quick, cheap, portable, and sensitive test that could allow water treatment plants and individuals to verify the safety of water on a regular basis. “The safety of drinking water is a vital issue in many developing countries and in many parts of the United States,” Kotov points out. “We’ve developed a simple and inexpensive technology to detect multiple toxins.” A paper about the technique appeared online in Nano Letters. The university is pursuing patent protection for the IP and is seeking commercialization partners to help bring the technology to market.

Source: Science Daily

New York University has entered into an exclusive license with Proteostasis Therapeutics of Cambridge, MA, for IP related to discoveries from the laboratory of David Ron, MD, professor of medicine and Julius Raynes professor of cell biology at NYU Langone Medical Center’s Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine. Ron’s research focuses on the unfolded protein response (UPR), and his laboratory identifies new components of the cellular response to stress — the mechanism behind many common diseases of aging. The UPR is an important part of the proteostasis network (PN), the cellular machinery that maintains protein health. The license accelerates the company’s drug discovery efforts to identify proteostasis regulators (PRs) — small molecule drugs designed to restore protein balance.

“Our lab is focused on uncovering new components of the cellular stress response and understanding their role in the pathology of human diseases,” says Ron, who has joined the company’s Scientific Advisory Board. “The UPR pathway is implicated in a broad range of diseases, including diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, inflammatory bowel disease, and retinal degeneration. Proteostasis Therapeutics’ novel drug discovery platform, which integrates multiple PN pathways, provides an advantage in rapidly developing UPR modulators identified by our lab into potential therapeutics for these diseases.”

Source: The Medical News

A thick, gooey tide of glycerin is overwhelming the fledgling biofuels industry, but an innovation from Rice University may offer a solution. Though high-grade glycerin is used to make products like soaps, cosmetics, foods, and pharmaceuticals, vast quantities of crude glycerin are simply disposed as waste in the biofuel recovery process. Rice researchers have developed glycerin-gobbling microorganisms that are being commercialized by Houston, TX-based Glycos Biotechnologies, Inc. The hungry bugs are at the heart of an energy-efficient bioconversion process that turns waste glycerin into fuels and other products.

The big problem with crude glycerin waste is that the cost of disposal eats away at the profitability of biofuel operations. GlycosBio’s approach is to integrate bioconversion into individual refinery operations. Instead of a liability, the waste glycerin can be made into a profit center, yielding high-value chemicals that can be used to make fabrics, insulation, and food products as well as additional fuels. GlycosBio designed its operations to integrate with existing refinery processes, which makes implementation relatively easy. In addition to crude glycerin, the conversion process can work on a variety of biofuel feedstocks — perhaps including algae.

Source: CleanTechnica

Agriculture, biotech, and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) research in Alberta, Canada, have been integrated through one of four new provincial corporations as part of the Alberta Innovates support structure for scientific research. Alberta Innovates officially launched January 1 as the province’s Research and Innovation Act came into force, realigning what previously were 10 provincially funded research organizations. Staff from the former Alberta Agricultural Research Institute, Alberta Forestry Research Institute, Alberta Life Sciences Institute, and Alberta Prion Research Institute now operate under the direction of single agency: Alberta Innovates-Bio Solutions.

Agriculture, forestry, and food/health come under one umbrella because they draw upon biological resources that offer untapped potential for an array of high-value products, according to a statement by Art Froehlich, partner and strategic advisor in Calgary-based ag communications and marketing agency AdFarm and chair of the biosolutions agency’s board. “Common building blocks such as cellulose and starch provide opportunities to mix and match the incredible wealth of natural resources in Alberta without taking away from traditional commodity uses for food, feed, and fuel,” Froehlich says. The province expects research bodies to work more closely together under the new structure, and collaborative relationships and programs are expected to speed the process of translating research to results and attracting innovators, scientists, and researchers from around the world. Encouraging commercialization of new technologies in this way also is expected to attract angel investors, professional VCs, foundations, corporations, and others who use private capital to promote the transition to a sustainable future.

Source: Country Guide