micro News and Research

RSS

BVM Capital makes seed round investment in Fitness Interactive Experience

BVM Capital today announced that it has made a seed round investment in health and fitness gaming innovator Fitness Interactive Experience (FIX). FIX is dedicated to helping people achieve enhanced levels of fitness and health by making fitness fun, accessible and socially connected through harnessing the power of massively multiplayer on-line games. FIX is developing an interactive social media platform designed to make the pursuit of fitness an engaging and enjoyable game.

3 Dec 2012

DFG to establish 11 Collaborative Research Centres in Jan 2013

The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) will establish eleven Collaborative Research Centres (CRCs) as of 1 January 2013. This was decided by the responsible Grants Committee during its fall session in Bonn.

30 Nov 2012

DLKI-DIO3 miRNA cluster suppresses spread of cancer from its primary site

Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have uncovered a group of what have been considered relatively minor regulators in the body that band together to suppress the spread of cancer from its primary site.

29 Nov 2012

Tufts University researchers demonstrate silk-based implantable optics

Tufts University School of Engineering researchers have demonstrated silk-based implantable optics that offer significant improvement in tissue imaging while simultaneously enabling photo thermal therapy, administering drugs and monitoring drug delivery. The devices also lend themselves to a variety of other biomedical functions.

29 Nov 2012

Tirofiban effectively prevents strokes in high risk patients

Scientists may have discovered a new way to prevent strokes in high risk patients, according to research from the University of Warwick and University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW).

22 Nov 2012

USPTO issues Notice of Allowance to Sanovas’ nested balloon catheter

Sanovas, Inc., a life science technology company focused on developing and commercializing the next-generation of micro-invasive diagnostics, devices and drug delivery technologies, announced today that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued a Notice of Allowance for the company's nested balloon catheter for localized drug delivery, a component of Sanovas' Vas Zeppelin Smart Catheter technology portfolio.

20 Nov 2012

GSK receives FDA approval for PROMACTA to treat thrombocytopenia

GlaxoSmithKline plc announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved PROMACTA for the treatment of thrombocytopenia (low blood platelet counts) in patients with chronic hepatitis C to allow them to initiate and maintain interferon-based therapy.

19 Nov 2012

Metalloacid surfaces may be answer to hospital-acquired infections

Coating surfaces in metalloacids may help control the spread of hospital-acquired infections, suggest study findings.

14 Nov 2012

Adding bortezomib ‘boosts acute myeloid leukemia chemotherapy response’

Older patients with untreated acute myeloid leukemia may benefit from having bortezomib added to daunorubicin and cytarabine during induction therapy and to consolidation intermediate-dose cytarabine, the results of a US study indicate.

14 Nov 2012

Hydrus stent may significantly reduce eye pressure in glaucoma patients

A tiny medical device no larger than an eyelash may significantly reduce eye pressure in glaucoma patients and allow some to stop using eye-drop medications, according to year-one clinical trial results for the device.

14 Nov 2012

Weight-based ribavirin undertreats African–American HCV patients

African–Americans with hepatitis C virus genotype 1 infections have lower ribavirin plasma exposures than Caucasian Americans when treated with weight-based ribavirin plus peginterferon.

12 Nov 2012

Oral verrucous lesions need special diagnostic attention

Care should be taken to diagnose oral verrucous lesions accurately according to their nature, behavior, and malignant potential, and should be differentiated from grade I squamous cell carcinoma, suggest Indian researchers.

8 Nov 2012

Wall Street Journal examines program in Pakistan looking to provide health insurance for poor urban residents

The Wall Street Journal examines how "some local social entrepreneurs are coming up with new ideas to provide the poor with access to better medical services" in Pakistan, where the health care system is "split between low-cost government-funded hospitals offering basic services and expensive private-sector medical institutions ... but the majority of the country's 190 million people have little access to health care."

7 Nov 2012

Phantom caries revealed?

Microcomputed tomography of teeth can detect demarcated radiolucencies below the enamel–dentin junction that are of noncarious origin, and can therefore be classified as possible developmental irregularities, show study results.

6 Nov 2012

Binghamton researcher invents tiny directional microphone suitable for hearing aids

Binghamton University researcher Ron Miles invented a tiny directional microphone - suitable for use in hearing aids - that filters out unwanted sounds. Now, with help from the SUNY Technology Accelerator Fund, he hopes to bring the idea to the marketplace.

6 Nov 2012

First study to measure minute changes in breast tumor connective tissue fibers

Using advanced microscopes equipped with tissue-penetrating laser light, cancer imaging experts at Johns Hopkins have developed a promising, new way to accurately analyze the distinctive patterns of ultra-thin collagen fibers in breast tumor tissue samples and to help tell if the cancer has spread.

3 Nov 2012

Insomnia and sleep apnoea turn us into major health service consumers

Insomnia and sleep apnoea are turning us into major health service consumers, causing us to be less productive at work, and may even lead to serious accidents.

2 Nov 2012

Formaldehyde levels ‘concerning’ in US child care facilities

A study of 40 child care facilities in California, USA, has revealed that while levels of most pollutants are not a health concern, those of some are worryingly high.

31 Oct 2012

Nano-reinforced plastics improve friction resistance of orthodontics

Brackets made from clear plastic polymer used in dental correction orthodontics have produced very good results in recent years, especially in relation to the improved esthetics when compared to metal brackets, but they do present certain problems of wear and tear within the mouth.

29 Oct 2012

Alternate method to precisely tag breast cancer tumors

When surgeons operate to remove a tumor, determining exactly where to cut can be tricky. Ideally, the entire tumor should be removed while leaving a continuous layer of healthy tissue, but current techniques for locating the tumors during surgery are imprecise. Now a multidisciplinary team from the University of California, San Diego, is developing an alternate means of precisely tagging breast cancer tumors for removal or targeted destruction.

29 Oct 2012