Archive for July, 2009
31 2009
GlycoMar Ltd to collaborate with French microalgae specialist Phycosource SARL
OBAN biotech company GlycoMar Ltd is to collaborate with French microalgae specialist Phycosource SARL, based at Cergy-Pontoise just outside Paris. Phycosource will supply novel products to GlycoMar for evaluation of their potential as pharmaceutical drugs.
The agreement is the first stage in a collaboration that will add new products to GlycoMar’s drug discovery pipeline and add value to Phycosource’s products by identifying pharmaceutical applications. These products are isolated from microalgae, which are microscopic algae found in fresh water and marine systems, grown in highly controlled bioreactor systems.
24 2009
NJ Firm In-Licenses Israeli Seaweed Technology to Treat Heart Attack
A new heart-healing gel based on brown seaweed has just been rewarded with a record investment deal. The Israeli company BioLineRx, founded in 2003, just released the news that one if its two compounds – the BL-1040 – to repair damaged heart muscles after cardiac arrest, has been licensed by the New Jersey-based company Ikaria Holdings in a $282.5 million deal, confirms a BioLineRx representative, Dganit Bar.
23 2009
Scientists Make LED Bulbs From Salmon DNA
University of Connecticut researchers have added fluorescent dye to salmon DNA and spun the DNA strands into nanofibers to create a brand new material that gives off a bright white light. The material absorbs energy from ultraviolet light and gives off different colors of light,-depending on the proportions of dye it contains.
20 2009
NIST awards millions in grants for new university marine biotech research facilities
Marine Biotechnology in North Carolina (MARBIONC)
University of North Carolina Wilmington (Wilmington, N.C.)
NIST Construction Grants Program: $14,980,000 (50 percent)
Total: $29,960,000
The planned new Marine Biotechnology in North Carolina (MARBIONC) facility at the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Center for Marine Sciences will be a state-of-the-art, research-to-product building for MARBIONC, a marine biotechnology research program in support of economic development for North Carolina.
Marine Technology and Life Sciences Seawater Research Building
University of Miami (Miami, Fla.)
NIST Construction Grants Program: $15 million (32.3 percent)
Total: $43,764,000
The planned Marine Technology and Life Sciences Seawater (MTLSS) Research Building to be built at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science will house state-of-the-art seawater laboratories and multidisciplinary research facilities dedicated to two major areas of coastal studies—the destructive power of hurricanes and the biology of coastal waters. The MTLSS also will include the 47,942 square-foot (4,454 square-meter) Marine Life Science Center (MLSC), a separately funded facility to support fundamental coastal biology research in areas such as coral reef biology, aquaculture, fisheries, biological oceanography and marine biomedical science.
16 2009
Exxon getting into Algae
Exxon Mobil Corp. has partnered with a biotech firm to develop biofuels from algae and invested $600 million in the endeavor.
In a statement issued Tuesday, Exxon said the project with Synthetic Genomics Inc. of famed human genome scientist Craig Venter may lead to a technology that will mass produce algae fuel through the oil company’s existing facilities and allow it to be distributed through existing pumping stations.
Read more
14 2009
New drugs faster from natural compounds: A UC San Diego breakthrough
Researchers have invented computational tools to decode and rapidly determine whether natural compounds collected in oceans and forests are new—or if these pharmaceutically promising compounds have already been described and are therefore not patentable.
08 2009
Japanese research team develops nanometers-thick surgical band-aid from chitosan
A team of university researchers has developed the world’s thinnest band-aid — an adhesive bandage one thousand times thinner than plastic wrap, designed for surgical use.
The joint research team involving Waseda University, the National Defense Medical College and other institutions, have dubbed it the “Nano Bansoko” (nano band-aid). One side is strongly adhesive, designed to stick to tissues around wounds; the other side shows very little tissue adhesion. The sheet breaks down naturally after healing.
The new bandage, measuring between 30 to 1,500 nanometers, is made from chitosan — a substance often used for artificial skin derived from chitin, found in crab shells — and alginate sodium, produced in kelp slime.
01 2009
Recent marine survey in Fiordland, NZ found deep water community, new species completely unknown to science
Recently, a team from DOC, NIWA and the Fiordland Marine Guardians in New Zealand carried out a ten-day survey of the creatures living up to 200 metres deep in the fiords of Doubtful and Dusky Sounds. Little is known about what lives within this unique fiord ecosystem below diveable depths, and it had previously been supposed that there was not much life on the steep rock walls of the fiords below 40 metres.
Fish surveys were done using a baited underwater video system. NIWA taxonomic experts are working on identifying some of the unknown animals that were captured on video.
01 2009
Taiwanese research team working to unlock clownfish breeding secrets
A Taiwanese saltwater ornamental fish research team is working to unlock some of the mysteries surrounding the fish’s breeding process and hopes that by sharing the technology, the clownfish trade will emerge as another success story in Taiwan’s aquaculture industry, following in the footsteps of advances made in raising shrimp and grouper.
01 2009
Little-known marine species attract the attention of genome sequencers
The Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute (JGI) announced that they will sequence the genomes of four species of labyrinthulomycetes. These little-known marine species were selected for sequencing as the result of a proposal submitted to the competitive JGI Community Sequencing Program by a team of microbiologists led by Dr. Jackie Collier, assistant professor at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) at Stony Brook University.
Genomic information might suggest ways to exploit labyrinthulomycetes in novel biotechnological applications. Labyrinthulomycetes produce a wide array of enzymes and some species can degrade crude oil. Also, some labyrinthulomycetes are currently cultured for nutritional supplements.
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