12 Scientists Will Share $120-Million From Saudis
Chronicle of Higher Eduction - 20-June-2008
Bruce E. Logan has a problem, one few researchers face in their scientific careers. He has to figure out how to spend $2-million every year for the next five years. This spring he and 11 other scientists found themselves in that unusual position. The money adds up to $10-million per researcher. "It's hard to spend that much money," says Mr. Logan, a professor of environmental engineering at Pennsylvania State University's main campus. But "it's a challenge that we're glad to take upon ourselves." See complete article.
Life Sciences Venture Firm Emergent Technologies, Inc. Selects UT Dallas and UT Southwestern Researchers Gnade and Cadeddu to Receive Opportunity Texas Proof-of-Concept Award
$25,000 Award Goes to UT Dallas for Development of Kidney Stone Magnetic Retrieval System
Business Wire - 18-June-2008
Emergent Technologies, Inc. (ETI), life sciences venture firm, announced today that the firm’s first Opportunity Texas Proof of Concept Award will be bestowed on The University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas), with co-principal investigators Bruce Gnade, Ph.D. (UT Dallas) and Jeffrey Cadeddu, M.D. of The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas (UT Southwestern), for their StoneMag System Kidney Stone Magnetic Retrieval System. The award consists of a $25,000 check and another $25,000 worth of technology commercialization management services that ETI will provide to the UT researchers. The business services will include strategic planning for both technology and business implementation pathways for the StoneMag System invention. See complete article.
'Barbecue' technique fights cancer
The Press Association 16-June-2008
Barbecuing is the latest strategy being explored to kill off cancer cells.The technique involves attacking cancer with microscopic carbon molecules that heat up under near infra-red light.Effectively, the carbon "nanotubes" act like charcoal in a barbie. They literally "cook" and destroy the cancer cells.Researchers are developing the treatment at the University of Texas in the US.Carbon nanotubes are tiny hollow molecules of carbon just one 50,000th the width of a human hair. They have novel properties, and are very efficient heat conductors. Scientists at the University of Texas South-western Medical Centre in Dallas first attached tumour-seeking antibodies to carbon nanotubes, allowing them to "home in" on cancer cells. See complete article.
World's woes create big opportunities for biotech
Austin American Statesman 16 - June - 2008
Food supplies are shrinking. Diseases are mutating. Global warming and high gas and oil prices are making alternative energy a must.
Critics still have plenty of problems with genetically engineered foods and bio-based medicines and fuels, but worldwide woes are giving the biotech business an unexpected boost.
"It's a great time to be in this space," said Patrick Kelly, a vice president of the Biotechnology Industry Organization trade group.
...
In Texas, for example, voters approved a $3 billion bond in November to fund cancer research that could be a major boost for biotech companies here. Gov. Rick Perry has named biotech one of the six technology sectors that the state wants to develop. New biotech research centers have recently opened or are being built at the University of Texas, Texas A&M University and the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. See complete article.
Researchers at UTA work on turning lignite into oil
The Dallas Morning News - 15-June-2008
Researchers at the University of Texas at Arlington think they can turn the state's 200-year reserves of lignite into a supply of heavy crude that will return Texas to its glory days as one of the oil capitals of the world.
As a result of their research, they say, the cost of heavy crude could eventually drop to around $30 a barrel. Heavy crude sells for slightly less than the light, sweet crude that is trading in the $130-a-barrel range.
Their research could also drastically reduce the cost of synthetic biodiesel fuels for diesel automobiles and trucks by reducing processing times and increasing yields with a product that's superior to diesel fuel made from petroleum.
The time frame? They say they could have biodiesel fuel available in quantity in about two years and liquid lignite converted into heavy crude in four or five years. See complete article.
U.S. retains global science, tech preeminence: study
Washington Post - 12-June-2008
The United States retains its global preeminence in science and technology, with a big boost from foreign students, scientists and engineers, a RAND Corporation report issued on Thursday said. RAND researchers said their conclusions contradict perceptions among some Americans that the nation was losing its competitiveness in these crucial fields.
In fact, the United States remains ahead of its main competitors in Europe and Japan, according to the report from the nonprofit research organization requested by the Pentagon.
"Although developing nations such as China, India and South Korea showed rapid growth in S&T (science and technology), these nations still account for a small share of world innovation and scientific output," the report added. See complete article.
UTHSC to get federal funds for research
My San Antonio - 6-June-2008
The Federal Government is spending millions of dollars to speed up medical research. Now, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio is getting some of those millions and the university says all of us will benefit. Great discoveries in a lab are nothing but interesting science until they are used to improve human health. Now, the breakthroughs forged at the UTHSC have a chance of helping people sooner — thanks to a multi-million dollar grant from the federal government. Dr. Kenneth Hargreaves is one of the co-principal investigators for what's called the Clinical and Translational Science Awards. "We really think that we can really accelerate the pace of discovery to take science from the laboratory bench side and to improve patient care for our fellow community in South Texas," said Hargreaves. See complete article.
Defense Department chooses UTSA institute for cyber security research
San Antonio Business Journal 5-June-2008
The University of Texas at San Antonio's (UTSA) Institute for Cyber Security has been selected by the Department of Defense to participate in a five-year, research consortium supported by a $7.5 million grant. The UTSA institute's portion of the multi-university grant is $1 million. UTSA is working with researchers at the University of Maryland at Baltimore County, Purdue University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the University of Michigan and the University of Texas at Dallas to develop and test security models in order to safeguard the transfer of data among government agencies. See complete article.
Inner Universe
A global physics research project is revving up in Europe — with UTA faculty in key roles.
Metropolis 4-June-2008
God particles and dark matter may sound more like topics for theological debate than terms of science, but they’re both part of a global collaboration in physics research in which the University of Texas at Arlington is playing a key role. The 15-year effort will culminate over the next few months in France and Switzerland, when the world’s largest particle collider goes into operation.
Like the superconducting supercollider planned — and then abandoned for lack of federal funding — near Waxahachie 15 years ago, the project in Europe is a huge circular tunnel, more than five miles in diameter. When it’s turned on, probably in late summer, atomic particles will be sent racing through the underground chamber at nearly the speed of light, so that scientists can study what happens when the particles collide. Thousands of scientists from 37 countries are involved in the project, including a United States team with members from universities and labs across the country. See complete article.
